When we’re serious about improving the well-being of young people, we have to begin with a simple question:
Are we listening?
At Buhl Regional Health Foundation, we believe meaningful community change starts by understanding the people we serve. Research, national trends, and local data all play an important role in shaping decisions, but they can only tell part of the story. To truly understand what helps young people thrive, we believed the best place to start was with the young people themselves.
That belief launched a two-year listening initiative involving nearly 1,500 students from 14 school districts in Mercer County. Rather than asking students to validate our ideas, we asked them to share their own. We wanted to understand how they experience their communities, what challenges they face, what gives them hope, and what they believe would make Mercer County a better place to grow up.
We weren’t looking for a particular answer. We were looking for theirs.
We Started By Listening
Over two consecutive years, we intentionally gathered student feedback in two different ways.
Our first survey invited students to answer broad, open-ended questions. They described, in their own words, what a healthy person looks like, what makes a community healthy, what they believe Mercer County needs most, and what they would change if resources were unlimited. We wanted stories, ideas, and perspectives without limiting their responses to predefined choices.
The following year, we took a different approach. Building on the themes we heard, we developed a more structured survey that explored nutrition, physical activity, mental and emotional well-being, motivation, support systems, and barriers that influence everyday choices. This second survey allowed us to better understand how common certain experiences were across our region.
Neither survey was designed to stand alone. Together, they provided something much richer than either could have offered independently. One gave us the voices behind the experiences. The other helped us understand the patterns emerging across Mercer County.
What Youth Told Us
While every student’s experience is unique, the same ideas surfaced again and again.
Students rarely described well-being as simply being physically healthy. Instead, they painted a much broader picture of what it means to thrive.
“What makes a person healthy is being mentally happy, living to the fullest, and doing the best that they can.” -Anonymous
They talked about feeling accepted and included. They talked about having supportive friends, caring adults, safe neighborhoods, parks and outdoor spaces, opportunities to learn, places to gather, healthy food, and communities where people look out for one another.
“A person is healthy based on their physical and mental well-being, but also their respect and understanding of others. Social skills can also be a part of being healthy, the way you involve yourself in different situations/environments.” -Anonymous
Just as importantly, students reminded us that making healthy choices isn’t always as simple as deciding to do so. Many described barriers that had little to do with motivation and much more to do with access: whether healthier food is available, whether transportation exists, whether there are places to be active, or whether opportunities are accessible where they live.
“(A healthy community looks like) a good life and food sources and if they are mentally and physically ok and if they need any medical stuff they would get help with it and if they need therapy the school can provide it if the family is not financially stable. i am saying this because i have severe depression and adhd and anxiety and i’m still in the waiting room for help” -Anonymous
Perhaps one of the most encouraging themes was how often students focused on others. When asked what they would change if resources were unlimited, many didn’t begin with themselves. They envisioned cleaner neighborhoods, stronger communities, more opportunities, and greater support for people experiencing hardship.
“A person is healthy based on their physical and mental well-being, but also their respect and understanding of others. Social skills can also be a part of being healthy, the way you involve yourself in different situations/environments.” -Anonymous
Their responses reflected empathy, optimism, and a genuine desire to make Mercer County a better place for everyone.
“Having other happy, calm spirited people around you normally helps someone get over bad situations they’ve been through.” -Anonymous
Then We Noticed Something Unexpected
As our team continued analyzing the results, we began organizing the findings around recurring themes.
That’s when we realized something remarkable.
By the time we completed this work, Buhl Regional Health Foundation had adopted the 7 Vital Conditions for Health & Well-Being* as the framework guiding our strategy. Those conditions recognize that well-being is shaped not only by healthcare, but by the environments, opportunities, relationships, and systems that surround us every day.
But here’s the interesting part:
The surveys weren’t informed by or built around the 7 Vital Conditions. Students had never been introduced to that framework. They weren’t asked about belonging, lifelong learning, transportation, housing, or civic muscle. Yet those ideas appeared throughout their responses anyway.
Students described communities where people feel connected. They emphasized opportunities to learn and grow. They talked about parks, recreation, safe places, healthy food, transportation, housing, kindness, and hope for the future.
Without ever knowing the language of the framework, they described many of the same conditions that research has identified as essential for helping people and communities thrive.
The framework didn’t shape the responses. The responses helped affirm the framework.
For us, that was one of the most meaningful discoveries of the entire initiative.
It confirmed that the direction we’re taking as a foundation isn’t simply informed by national research or emerging best practices. It’s consistent with what young people in Mercer County have been telling us all along.
Where We Go From Here
Listening is only valuable when it leads to action.
The insights gathered through these surveys are already helping inform conversations, partnerships, grantmaking priorities, and future community engagement efforts. They also reinforce the importance of continuing to engage young people — not as passive recipients of programs, but as partners whose experiences and perspectives can help shape better decisions.
This analysis of our community will represent more than a summary of survey results. It’s an invitation to continue listening.
Once published, we hope community leaders, educators, nonprofit organizations, parents, and residents will explore our report’s findings, reflect on what Mercer County youth have shared, and consider how each of us can help create the conditions that allow every young person to thrive.
Because before we invest in solutions …
We have to listen.
A full, comprehensive report on our 2024-2025 Youth Survey Responses will be published soon. Stay tuned!
*Footnote Source: Created by the Rippel Foundation, the Seven Vital Conditions for Well-Being is a useful framework for conceptualizing holistic well-being and the Conditions that give rise to it, as well as identifying levers for community change and improvement. For more information, visit https://rippel.org/vital-conditions/.