YFS launches Youth Matters advisory group

Published 8:30 am Monday, November 10, 2025

Whenever Mercer Island’s Youth and Family Services (YFS) gathers a group of students to speak their minds, Michelle Ritter is never surprised at how much they appreciate it when adults listen.

At a Nov. 6 meeting of the newly formed Youth Matters advisory group, YFS’s Ritter said they could have extended the two-hour meeting another half hour or hour because the sharing was so immense and interesting.

Ritter, who is the YFS coordinator of health promotion and prevention, joined YFS Administrator Derek Franklin at the gathering along with eight Mercer Island High School (MIHS) students in the school’s library for the group’s initial meeting.

“Students would bring up a point, and then another student would say, ‘Yeah, I feel that, too.’ And so, I think that was also kind of a byproduct of the discussion, was them feeling like, ‘Oh, you know, I’m not alone. I’m experiencing this in my friend group,’” said Ritter, adding that every student actively participated and listened to others’ perspectives on myriad topics.

MIHS senior Kirin Lancaster said that some of the issues they discussed related to the high pressure to achieve, drug and alcohol abuse, social exclusivity and sources of bullying. Ritter noted that they also touched upon the positives of growing up on the Island, which included a safe environment, a close-knit community (and a generational community), walkable areas, waters and beaches and available resources.

Ritter said that while students briefly mentioned the sexual misconduct allegations centered on a pair of former MIHS teachers at the meeting, they didn’t focus the conversation on it.

YFS’s goal with the group is to focus on youth mental and physical well-being, including belonging, purpose, connections and safety, said Ritter. She further explained that YFS school counselors hear firsthand what challenges the students are experiencing, and YFS wanted to offer a more concrete way of sharing in a group setting.

“We spent a lot of our meeting just kind of getting to know one another and talking about what the goals of the group are, and really communicating to the students that YFS was there to listen and to learn from them about their experiences and kind of what they are experiencing as teens growing up in Mercer Island,” said Ritter. It’s about amplifying and elevating youth voice, she added.

The meeting began with a pizza dinner and rolled from there, with the diverse group of students covering the AP Psychology Club, sports, drill team, school newspaper, Crest School, STEM and the arts.

Lancaster said that as many voices as possible being shared and accounted for within a small group can bring about systemic change.

“Youth Matters offers a unique chance for students to voice their experiences, opinions, perspectives and ideas alongside Mercer Island Youth and Family Services. Since MIYFS works with different areas of the entire community, being a part of Youth Matters leads to opportunities to discuss real issues with people who can actually implement change,” Lancaster noted.

YFS began getting the word out about the Youth Matters group in mid-September and encouraged students to fill out an application that asked what they felt the top concerns are for Island youth. Presently, there are 11 students in the group, which will next convene on Jan. 29, and they have two more meetings throughout this school year. In addition to Ritter and Franklin, YFS high school counselor Chris Harnish will join future meetings.

An invitation will also be extended to students who are interested in attending YFS’s Healthy Youth Coalition meetings where YFS staff, school district administrators, parents, members of the faith community and others discuss youth issues and well-being. That group’s next meeting is slated for Nov. 19.

On the Youth Matters front, Ritter said that Franklin has been instrumental in encouraging that YFS bring youth together with this group.

“The Youth Matters group affords YFS real-time feedback from Island youth about their issues, needs and the community variables impacting their experience growing up on Mercer Island rather than needing to wait for biennial survey results,” Franklin said. “YFS is good at looking at public health metrics through an adult lens, but we recognize it is always better to go to the source — the remarkably insightful and aware Island youth community itself.”