The Georgia National Guard Youth Program Participates in Let's Connect Summit

The Georgia National Guard Youth Teen Panel and Keystone Club attended the 2025 Let's Connect Summit, hosted by Kennesaw State University and the Georgia Department of Veterans Service, which was held at the Savannah Convention Center in downtown Savannah, Georgia.  The summit serves to unite military service members, veterans, their families (SMVF), and mental health professionals to raise awareness about suicide prevention and bullying.  The summit also doubled as a quarterly State Youth Council in-person session.

Day one included a variety of sessions including: An Introduction to the 'Spoken Word', Dealing with Small Group Dynamics, Navigating High School with Mentors, Signs and Youth Statistics, and finished with an Amazing Race scavenger hunt in downtown Savannah.

'Day two included sessions with the Parker Gordon Fox Foundation, 'Ending the Silence for Youth' Presentation, MRT Trainings on Emotion Management, and a visit to the Telfair Museum where participants were given a private tour before taking a clay pottery class.  

Day three began with a session on Navigating College and Mental Wellness before youth participants prepared to present their Keystone National Project on bullying.  

The National Project combined arts and crafts and the spoken word to help Youth members express how bullying has impacted them based on the feelings movie 'Inside Out'.  Each member presented a mask... the outside, what people see; the inside, their internal reality.  Each youth participant 'spoke' to more than 50 audience members about their feelings on mental health and bullying and how they hope to positively impact other youth in their community.  

To close out the conference, Youth Program Director Mark Richards was able to present the 2025 Month of the Military Child Painting (painted by various military children across the state of GA) to Patricia Ross, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Veterans Service, to be placed in a Veteran Hospital in the state of Georgia.

Event Slide Show