Youth Community Learning and Leadership Circle (CLLC)
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Youth CLLC
Healthy Archuleta works to empower youth to identify issues and opportunities and to support them in ways that they want to contribute to advancing nutrition security and health equity. YOUTH have been vital to the work of the Coalition and played an important part since the Community Food Assessment in 2019. Today, a group of local youth are meeting regularly to advance learning about the community-based food system through youth-led activities and efforts. For more information about the efforts of the Youth CLLC, please send us an email at [email protected]. |
Internships
We are hiring youth interns
Click HERE to complete and submit your application until positions are filled.
Click HERE to complete and submit your application until positions are filled.
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The Healthy Archuleta youth internship is a paid opportunity focused on local food systems and community health. The eight week internship starts in early June.
Interns participate in activities like:
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Interns develop a range of valuable skills applicable to future work or education, including:
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The paid internship opportunity requires that youth are 16 years and older by the time that they apply. The number of available internship positions is limited. Application will be carefully reviewed, and interns will be selected based on the best fit for the project needs and organizational goals of Healthy Archuleta. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the positions are filled. For more info, email [email protected] or call Vanessa at 401-206-4579.
Here’s an example of what last year’s interns created and what they had to say about the program:
Events & Activities
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Current Events
Join the Youth Leadership Gatherings at San Juan Mountain School on Fridays from 2-3 pm. Email us at [email protected] for more information. Events we held last summer with youth in mind! June 17, 2025 10am-11am DHS Conference Room This workshop will acquaint attendees with both traditional and non-traditional healthcare careers and the paths leading to them. June 19, 2025 2:30pm-4pm DHS Conference Room Drexel University College of Medicine students from Colorado, will share their experiences and how they navigated their journey toward their goal of becoming medical doctors. For more events, check out our events calendar! |
Ongoing Volunteer Activities
Healthy Archuleta also welcomes youth participation in our upcoming community events and volunteer opportunities.
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To participate in these events and activities, please send us an email at [email protected].
School Programs
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Healthy Archuleta works with youth through several school-based programs. These include a local food system program with the high school Plant Science class, exploring health and nutrition topics with the English Language Learning class, and offering health and food system-focused workshops and activities at the San Juan Mountain School. These hands-on activities work to engage students and foster a connection with the local community.
Some of these sessions have involved a photovoice project, a creative effort where students can identify issues and opportunities in the local food system through photography and image captioning. |
Want to see the Youth PhotoVoice Project, click HERE.
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Past Youth Activities
Healthy Archuleta hosted a Youth Community Learning and Leadership Circle, where youth engaged with their peers to create and support initiatives for Archuleta County. Read more about them below. If that sounds like something you’re interested in, email us at [email protected].
Rise Above With Riff Raff… The Youth CLLC planned and organized Healthy Archuleta’s involvement in celebrating the 10-year anniversary for Riff Raff. Healthy Archuleta (HA) was among a handful of non-profit organizations that were invited to share what their engagement in the community is and how others can get involved. The Youth CLLC had the idea to bring fun to this engagement and held a “spin-the-wheel” prize winning game. Each contestant was welcome to come up and spin the wheel at HA’s table and win a prize from a list of different donated prizes they coordinated from around the community. Prizes ranged from gift cards, to lawn care services, to t-shirts from different community outlets and were a real treat for the community members who were able to participate with us.
Local Gardens and Farms… The Youth CLLC had the opportunity to visit five local gardens and/or farms in Archuleta County. At all of them that the Youth CLLC members visited, they learned more about the growing and producing portion of the local food system. At three of the five they hosted events open to the community to come learn about growing and producing. All three of the events included food to eat and activities for the kids and adults to participate in, along with tours of the gardens.
Training... The youth were asked to help develop a training session for community members who had created a proposal for the Participatory Budgeting process. The youth drew on past training and ongoing learning from Healthy Archuleta to help develop the training.
Food Drives… Some of our Youth CLLC members were able to help with and organize a Food Drive at the high school. They set up different stations across the school building with points of drop-off for donations. Youth CLLC members have also assisted with Healthy Archuleta’s quarterly food drives. These food drives exist to gather food for the seven food pantries of Archuleta county. Please join us in supporting our neighbors who visit the food pantries at an upcoming food drive.
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Composting… After a Healthy Archuleta hosted composting meeting, one of the most pressing topics was the idea of educating the community on composting. The Youth CLLC took this idea and began creating their own plan for educating youth in our community. These Youth CLLC members collaborated and put together a game and a couple of diverse lesson plans for teaching youth participating in summer camp activities and the youth from HA's Spanish CLLC. The lesson plan included a game called "Capture the Compost," based on the schoolyard game Capture the Flag, where the flags were a bag of non-compostable items and a bag of compostables. They created a coloring activity (with support from a local artist) for the younger elementary school-age youth to get a basic idea of how sorting for composting works. In addition, they made a hands-on activity for middle school age youth to make their own mini composting bins out of repurposed milk jugs. The composting educational activities were used at the Spanish CLAC, the Pagosa KIDS Day Camp, and the Pagosa Community Initiative Camp.
Advancing Recycling… Healthy Archuleta Youth CLLC was invited to help facilitate recycling at the ComFest concert in the park. Healthy Archuleta received bins donated from Ace Hardware, City Market, Walmart, and Tractor Supply. To the bins youth attached signs to signify which was for aluminum and which was for plastics. The youth helped the community understand how to sort through their garbage and pick out the recyclables. The bins were not a perfect system and next time youth shared that they would work to make them more distinguishable from the garbage bins the county had set up. As a group committed to learning, the youth along with others at Healthy Archuleta seek to learn and do better in service of our community.
Apples, Apples... During the pandemic youth packaged close to 300 bags of apples to share with families at the parent teacher conferences at our local elementary school! The youth team bagged local apples that came from an orchard in Yellow Jacket that is maintained by CSU. Parents picked up bags after their conferences ended with teachers! One youth volunteer shared, "We were excited for the opportunity to partner with the elementary school in this service project!"
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Other Events… Healthy Archuleta Youth CLLC members along with volunteers have offered information at the County Fair and the Pagosa Springs Farmers Market to talk to anyone interested in learning more about Healthy Archuleta as an organization and its many activities. Community members were able to sign up to receive our newsletter or offer their time as a volunteer.