Thoughtful, respectful, motivated, sincere, ambitious, outgoing, adventurous, and caring. These are just a few of the words that describe Vanessa Contreras, young adult outreach specialist with Mountain Youth. Vanessa has had a long-time interest in working with Mountain Youth and when she was encouraged to help launch efforts to support older youth/young adults, she jumped at the opportunity. Vanessa was a natural fit with the project as she is outgoing, determined, and creates authentic relationships with partners and peers. We are excited to have her be a part of understanding the needs of 18-25 year olds in the Eagle River Valley and begin to identify services and opportunities to build connections, increase support, and address needs unique to this age group.
Vanessa is an active and outdoorsy type of person, she enjoys skiing, hiking, camping, playing volleyball, etc. She also loves spending time with friends, going places, having dinner, staying home, or watching a movie. She is also involved with her church and doing events or volunteering with them and helping out. Vanessa also likes to write stories. She’s currently working with her mom to recount stories from when she was a child so that she doesn’t forget them and can someday share with her own kids and family.
Vanessa’s story began in Colombia where she grew up on a farm and spent majority of her days outside and helping others. It’s always been a natural part of her and her Christian upbringing to want to be of service to others. She earned her degree in psychology and will be pursuing a masters degree in the fall related to public health, leadership and community change. Her educational choices have helped develop a pathway for helping other’s and she’s excited to continue to grow and expand her ability to support the community.
In her role at Mountain Youth, Vanessa is definitely developing pathways for her peers to get connected and feel supported. Since December, she has been helping to administer a behavioral health survey for 18-25 year olds and will be working with the project team to share the data results this spring and lead conversations about how to focus on areas where support and connection are needed most. Vanessa was drawn to Mountain Youth because of the organization’s focus on partnering with everybody, “have little roots everywhere,” to do things in the community, to help the community, and to meet the needs of the community. From her perspective, she sees the young adult program coming to Mountain Youth because we saw need in the community to help that population. The best part of her role has been being able to network with other organizations and supporting their events - it’s been nice for her to be able to connect with everybody. The project has also allowed her to gain experience in a field that is new for her, as well as learn new schools. Her short-time with the project hasn’t been completely smooth sailing – there were definitely challenges we had to navigate and brainstorm together with new solutions. These were met always as a team, presented opportunities to learn, and helped her to feel that she had support, “it’s not just me, but me and the team.”
Her hope for the project is that it will bring programs for young adults because there aren’t any. She shares, “we need programs that make young adults feel they belong to the mountains, to the Vail Valley. You can talk with any young adult and they tell you they want to move or go somewhere else because they can’t find peers, people their age that brings them together, we don’t have those programs.” Her goal is that young adults feel they belong to the Vail Valley. “The survey and the data we’ve gotten from the survey is great because we know what areas young adults are struggling, and that way we can meet their needs,” explains Vanessa. Through reviewing the data with young adults and partner organizations, we can create actions and programs that will address these needs. For the summer, Vanessa’s been living in Denver and going to different activities for her age group and gaining experiences and ideas to bring back to the Vail Valley. “They’re doable, we have young adults, and we have a beautiful space and need leaders to step up and help lead things.”
When asked what words she lives by and would impart with others, Vanessa shares, “When you’re having a hard day, or don’t feel like working or feeling down, remember that the bad moments always pass, they’re not there forever.”
Lastly, Vanessa was asked to share a community call to action: “step out [of your comfort zone] for you and for the community. There are so many great ideas and great people, especially young adults, that can do things for each other and for the community. It’s the idea of take the step, create action for yourself and others.”
Vanessa Contreras is a remarkable young adult, who is passionate about this community, her peers, and creating positive community change. We are honored to have her as a part of the team at Mountain Youth and leading this project.
-Mikayla Curtis, Director of Strategic Impact
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