5/29/2025
Mental health issues, along with vaping and tobacco use among teens top the list of issues the youth of Cheboygan County and Mackinaw City feel are affecting themselves and their peers.
The Straits Area Community Foundation’s (SACF) Youth Advisory Council (YAC) recently completed a Youth Needs Assessment Survey, gathering opinions on the known issues currently affecting youth. YAC is a youth philanthropy program through the Community Foundation, which teaches young people the importance of philanthropy and helps them develop leadership skills through grantmaking and community service.
Every three years, YACs throughout Michigan are required to survey their fellow youth to gain insight into the issues the youth feel are the most pressing for their local communities. The results of the survey are used to guide the YAC’s grantmaking for the next three years to address those issues. Grants from SACF’s Youth Advisory Council are awarded through the Straits Area Youth Endowment Fund held at the Community Foundation.
“The results of this survey provide a good snapshot of what youth are facing in our communities, and give our YACs, our board, and even other funders and private donors in our region a guide to help direct funding and donations where it is needed most,” says Community Foundation Program Director Jennifer Dingman.
Dingman says that while depression, mental health and stress have remained high on the survey results for the past six years, vaping and video game/social media addiction have moved into top areas of concern in the Straits Area.
“We now have input directly from the pre-teens and teens of our area telling us they recognize these issues as real problems they want to see addressed for their peers,” says Dingman. “We hope nonprofits in Cheboygan County and Mackinaw City with programs that can address these issues, and others identified in the needs assessment, will apply for grant funding to support their work in these important areas.”
As a leadership activity, YAC members, working with their adult advisors, oversee the distribution of this survey to students in their own schools. The 2025 SACF Youth Needs Assessment survey includes feedback from over 70 students at high schools across the Straits Area Community Foundation’s service area. Once survey results are compiled, the list is narrowed down to the ten issues sited most as needing attention. Those ten issues from the 2025 survey are:
- Depression / mental health
- Stress issues
- Vaping / smoking / tobacco use
- Teen drug use
- Body image / appearance issues
- Self-esteem issues
- Addiction to video games / social media
- Bullying
- Hygiene issues
- Family problems
“These ten issues are where our YAC will direct as much funding as possible,” said Dingman. “While not every grant application needs to address these categories, we hope these results will encourage local agencies to enhance their efforts in tackling these issues with the knowledge that our YAC has a desire and ability to put funds toward those programs.”
The Straits Area Community Foundation serves Cheboygan County and Mackinaw City. SACF is an affiliate of the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan (CFNEM), accredited by National Standards for U.S Community Foundations®. CFNEM serves as the administrative arm for its affiliate foundations. SACF is led by a volunteer board of local citizens committed to providing people who care about the future of the region and its communities with unique and effective ways of supporting their community now, and for generations to come. The foundation oversees a group of permanently endowed funds from a wide range of donors. Gifts of all sizes from individuals, families, businesses, and agencies are invested in a balanced, well-managed portfolio to build endowments, enabling support for local community nonprofits now and forever. To donate or learn more about how community foundations work, visit sacf.net or call 989-354-6881; toll-free: 877-354-6881.
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