Youth Honored For Efforts To Impact Washburn County

SHELL LAKE, WI -- Earlier this month, Alyssa Langham received the Shining Star Award for their work to help make Washburn County happier, healthier, and safer.

Alyssa Langham has volunteered with Washburn County Health and Human Services (HHSD) for over a year in prevention programming. Alyssa was hand selected by their school in the spring of 2021 to serve as a youth leader in the newly established Youth Leadership Adventure CREW Training. Since then, Alyssa was instrumental in the creation of Change in the Youth (CITY), a youth coalition aimed at reducing substance use among youth in Washburn County. Alyssa was a leader during CITY initiatives during the 2021-22 school year. This summer, Alyssa continued by serving as a CREW member at the 2022 Youth Leadership Adventure. Through this, Alyssa was able to bring skills they’ve learned over the past year to new CREW members and the middle school explorers served at the training.

The Youth Development & Prevention (YDP) Team at HHSD has been honored to work alongside Alyssa the past year and watch them change Washburn County into a healthy, happy place for youth to thrive. “Alyssa came to us with amazing interpersonal and leadership skills and we’ve seen them compound on those and grow into an extremely successful young adult,” according to Lindsay Hayden, Drug Free Communities Coordinator.

During their senior year, Alyssa approached the YDP team to become more involved. Alyssa completed a 12 week internship while learning some of the foundations of substance use prevention and creating a logic model to address youth vaping in Washburn County.

Alyssa is starting at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater this fall as a social work major. Although they are across the state, with virtual technology, Alyssa is hoping to assist with planning the 2023 WashCo Youth Leadership Adventure and CREW training.

If you are interested in learning more about CITY or other youth programming and opportunities in Washburn County, please connect with our local coalition: Community Alliance for Prevention of Washburn County (www.healthywashco.org or @WashCoPrevention on Facebook.)