By Marcia Kuszmaul

Homer Independent Press

New data from a fall 2025 survey shows that teenagers in Homer generally find their community connected, supportive and safe. The results also flag key risk areas, notably mental health and wellness issues, with marked differences between girls and boys. 

The survey results are the initial baseline data collection of Planet Youth (PY) Homer, a long-term community-wide initiative to build a healthier environment for youth through an evidence-based and data-driven prevention approach. The initiative launched in February 2025 under the leadership and coordination of the SKP (South Kenai Peninsula) Resilience Coalition.

Planet Youth Homer is one of hundreds of programs around the world that have adopted the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM), developed and applied in Iceland since the early 1990s to foster healthier, more resilient youth by getting upstream of problems before they develop. In Alaska, Seward and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough also have adopted the framework in whole or in part.

According to the IPM, the first step to get in front of problems is to ask and listen. “Their voices = our guide; their answers = our roadmap” reads one social media post about the survey.

Nannette Pierson, parent of a current fifth-grader, learned about the survey data at a meeting hosted by the Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic. She appreciates the upstream orientation and long-term problem solving of PY Homer and sees it as an advantage for younger children like hers and those that come after. 

“… [T]hat was really fascinating to me, because they showed, well, here’s where we did all the surveys, and here’re the things we started doing towards fixing the problems that were reported by the students themselves,” she said.  “And here are the outcomes that we can see, you know, 20 years after implementing it.”

An announcement of the fall 2025 survey promotes a core tenant of Planet Youth Homer – ask teens what they need – as posted on the SKP Resilience Coalition Facebook page.

Teens in grades 9-11 at Homer High, Homer Flex School and homeschool students were invited to volunteer to complete an anonymous questionnaire. Guardian consent was required. 

Following a Planet Youth Homer data report at the March 9 City Council meeting, Council Member Brad Parsons said, “So far what I love is they asked teens what they want, instead of trying to figure out what parents or adults think that teens need.”

At the meeting, Hannah Gustafson, SKP Resilience Coalition coordinator, reported the participation rate for the survey was 54% against an 80% goal. 

“This is a great baseline for our initial data collection,” Gustafson said, “but as a multi-year approach, it’s going to be important to have increased participation moving forward, because the more youth that participate, the better the data.”

Following the council meeting, council member Shelly Erickson said she was encouraged with the data but disappointed that nearly half the kids did not respond. “What’s happening with the rest of the kids?” she asked.

Key positives

The data report highlighted five community strengths to protect and build on – the community is connected and strong, families are engaged and supportive, schools are relationship centered, youth are active during their free time and substance use is low.

Key data points include: Most youth said they feel safe in their community (82%) and at school (83%), 93% report their parents/caregivers know where they are in the evenings and 86% have friends at school who care about them. Only 10% do not participate in any structured, supervised out-of-school activities, and they reported substance use is low with limited peer pressure to engage.

Eleven Planet Youth Homer data collection proctors were at Homer High School, three supported students at Homer Flex School and four at Homeschool Day at the public library, September 2025. (Photo provided by Planet Youth Homer)

Identified risks
Anna Meredith, Planet Youth Homer project manager, presented the flip side, delivering the data that points to risk factors and areas of development for the community, most prominently mental health and wellbeing.

“Gender differences are evident across multiple indicators of mental health and coping,” Meredith said.  

Fewer girls than boys described their mental health as good or very good. Many youth (58% girls/25% boys) have thought they needed help, but fewer have sought it (33% girls/58% boys) even though a significant majority (83%) are aware of mental health support available to them.

Dr. Bill Bell, a youth advocate now retired from his family medicine practice, has found the data consistent with what he’s observed. “It’s always been my feeling that females have been more vulnerable in this town,” he said. “They seem to be more fragile than males.”

That’s why, he explained, he’s coached girls’ softball since 1990 – to be a mentor, teach about conflict resolution and the ability to say “no.” He believes in the IPM and its basic tenet that youth are products of their environment. “We have to deal with a healthy environment,” he said.

Other concerning areas are factors influencing substance use, sleep/fatigue and screen time. 

Meredith pointed out that studies show early onset of substance use is associated with structural brain changes involved in learning, memory, attention, executive functioning and emotional regulation. The Planet Youth Homer data showed that 14% of participating teens had their first drink of alcohol when they were 13 years old or younger.

Nearly half (48%) of teens are not getting the recommended eight hours of sleep at night. They consume a variety of caffeinated beverages at least once a day and generally sleep with their phones, routines that can interfere with sleep quality and duration.

One-fifth (19%) of teens said they spend four or more hours a day on screen-based activities.  Boys spend more time on video games (29%) while girls spend more time on social media (23%).

What’s next

Planet Youth Homer is in its data dissemination phase. Gustafson, Meredith and Rudy Multz, child and family program manager for South Peninsula Behavioral Health and Planet Youth advocate, already have completed 17 in-depth presentations – starting with student groups and school nurses – with another 17 scheduled or waiting to be scheduled.

Rudy Multz, left, and Anna Meredith, right, present Plant Youth Homer survey findings at a March 24 Homer Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Fat Olive’s. (Photo by Marcia Kuszmaul)

An upcoming opportunity for the public to listen in to a presentation is the Homer High School Site Council meeting, 4 p.m., Tuesday, April 7, in the high school library.

Groups interested in a deeper dive, can contact anna@elementalconsulting.solutions to schedule a data talk or presentation and submit comments. 

A video and transcript from the presentation made to Homer City Council is available on the city website. Slides are in the supplemental packet.

Presentations will continue through spring. Then, based on the data and community response, community goal setting and strategizing will start with the development of an action plan that can be implemented in winter 2027 and a second questionnaire to measure impact in fall 2027. Then repeat.

City Council members Shelly Erickson and Brad Parsons see opportunities for the city to engage and to encourage community businesses and organizations to be onboard. 

“The city’s role is infrastructure,” Parsons said. “By providing spaces, like a rec center, where activities for youth can take place we also can attract young families to Homer.”

“(The city) can put things out there – like a rec center, Parks and Recreation – that will be important to the community as a whole,” Erickson said. “The community needs to be onboard to help.”