Students Solving Problems - A Combined Effort

Students Solving Problems is a collaborative effort between Building Bridges to Careers, the Washington County Behavioral Health Board, the Marietta Community Foundation, the HPAC area coordinator, and Washington County high schools. The reason for this collaboration was to bring similar student-targeted initiatives together and coordinate our efforts in order to more effectively achieve both goals and create a more sustainable program for the future.  Grant funds from the Washington County Behavioral Health Board, Sister’s Health Foundation, and the Marietta Community Foundation are making Students Solving Problems possible.

The goals of Students Solving Problems are to:

  • Teach youth to directly address community health and behavioral health issues that are having a negative impact on the population; and 

  • Increase the number of youth seeking health, behavioral health, philanthropy, and other community related jobs as a career option.

Current SSP activities in Washington County Schools include:

  • Participation from three local high schools in the Suicide Candlelight Vigil at Muskingum Park in December.  

  • Organizing activities in the high schools for Random Acts of Kindness week (February 17th -21st) and Words Matter Week (March 2nd - 6th). 

  • Making available hygiene bags for students.

  • Developing a peer mentoring program.

  • Redesigning prom dresses and making them available to students.

All Washington County high schools are invited to recommend students to attend the Ohio Teen Institute (OTI) in June at Heidelberg University. OTI is a week long drug-free leadership conference for high school students. Students will develop the skills to become positive SSP leaders within their schools and communities. Students are also equipped with the knowledge and abilities to make positive choices for themselves, and to encourage their peers to make healthy decisions.  To find out more information about this camp and the opportunity, please contact Suzy Zumwalde: bb2cplacement@gmail.com 


SSP is a project that directly addresses the desired employment skills of Washington County, as well. The Washington County Portrait of a Graduate, completed in July 2019, includes 6 competencies chosen by a wide swath of community members, businesses, and educators as the most desired skills that students can possess upon graduation: critical thinking, communicating, adaptability, problem solving, empathy, and responsibility. Students participating in SSP will be working on real problems, with local businesses in collaboration with other community adults. Our fervent hope is that this program brings youth to the problem solving table now, and in the future.

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