November 2, 2023
Deidre Roundtree, is the founder and Director of the Tri Valley Community & Youth Co-Op which includes Cambridge, Midvale and Indian Valley. She is a community leader, business owner, volunteer, and a resident of Cambridge Idaho. She has experienced the lack of awareness around mental health struggles and wellness and available resources in rural communities, Deidre was inspired to become a professional resource and communications specialist in all surrounding communities.
Her unique perspective and passion toward youth and the people living in our area has her working hard trying to get the word out about the dangers in our world that threaten our children and families. With a background in marketing, photography and graphic design she brings energy and enthusiasm to the projects she pursues. That is why the Tri Valley Community Youth & Co-Op was created, to provide the communities with resources they need when faced with negative social issues which can affect many of us in some way.
She started her organization after working for 6 months with the Youth Advocacy Coalition, otherwise known as YAC in McCall. She was able to see a void in our small towns that don’t necessarily have the mental health resources available that larger cities have.
A county wide survey through BSU and a Planet Youth survey through Cambridge High School was conducted and what she found was the people have a stigma against mental health and wellness and often people shy away from talking about or seeking help with issues like, bullying, suicide and drug and alcohol abuse. That thought helped her to formulate a plan that if people only had the information and resources available, maybe some of these things could be addressed and treated leading to positive outcomes in our families and ultimately in our communities.
Working with the Adams County Health Center over the last four years created many opportunities to work with local health assessment teams, including the Adams County Health Assessment Team and the Washington County Health Assessment team. The development of these relationships has further highlighted the pressing need for effective communication and public relations to help drive awareness of the mental health crisis and lack of resources in our local rural towns.
Much like CPR or the Heimlich maneuver, the fundamentals of Question Persuade Refer are easily learned. As with CPR and the Heimlich maneuver, the use of QPR may save a life. Deidre has spent most of her summer training for suicide prevention and collaborating with other Youth community groups to build a strong platform to bring the Co-Ops visions to life. The next step is bringing HOPE Squads into the schools to reduce mental health crises in our youth through education, training, and peer intervention. Hope Squad members are nominated by classmates as trustworthy peers and trained by advisors. They are not trained to act as counselors, but rather to be peer advocates, recognize signs of mental wellness struggles, depression, suicide and respectfully report any concerns to an adult.
The Tri Valley Community & Youth Co-Op strives to meet these needs by implementing data findings from the surveys, engaging within the communities, sharing resources, and connecting the public with mental and healthcare resources. For more resources visit our website https://trivalleycoop.com/ or our social media pages.
