2025 HIDTA Prevention Summit Mobilizes Relationship Science to Help Youth Thrive
This year’s HIDTA Prevention Summit attracted nearly 2,000 registrants to learn strategies to mobilize their relationships with youth to achieve prevention, protection, and flourishing. With a focus on synthesizing and translating relationship science, the Summit equipped trusted adults with knowledge and tools to help them engage youth with intention by facilitating connection and cultivating protective beliefs and skills that prevent harmful behaviors and promote well-being.
Strategies for how to cultivate protective beliefs in youth was a cross-cutting theme at this year’s Summit.
“The presenters thought enough of the attendees to pour into us as well, it came at a moment when I was about to walk away from prevention work due to lack of support, communication and leadership development from within my organization. I found the support I needed to continue the work at today’s summit. Everything about today-even the soothing voice of the presenters and moderators-was a healing balm.”
“I look forward to this Summit every year! I find the content useful, practical, and ready to use – all of which I really appreciate and am truly grateful for.”
– Participant testimonials
Community, state, and national prevention experts and practitioners delivered presentations to strengthen understanding of several key topics based on relationship science, including:
- The importance of mattering and how to create a sense of mattering in others
- How to foster flourishing in youth, even amid adversity
- A “way of being” in relationships that enables well-being in youth by cultivating protective beliefs
- Ideas for how trusted adults in different roles (parents/caregivers, educators, law enforcement, and coalitions) can build and reinforce protective beliefs in youth
- The impact of connection within therapeutic relationships on substance use and mental health treatment process and outcomes
- Strategies for implementing connection-centered practices in organizational culture and systems
A new Toolkit was released!
As in previous years, ADAPT released a tool to support Summit participants in furthering their understanding of the concepts presented as well as aid them in integrating what they learned into their own work. This year, a Health-Promoting Relationships Paradigm Toolkit was released, in partnership with the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative and Center for Behavioral Health Integration, to support practitioners in understanding and embodying an intentional “way of being” in relationships that leads to the cultivation of protective beliefs in youth to prevent mental and behavioral health risks and promote flourishing.
Access the toolkit in the ‘Tools Released by ADAPT’ heading @ the Prevention Intervention Resource Center.
Responses were overwhelmingly positive!
“I hung onto every word!”
“I am truly energized.”
“You could feel the compassion and commitment to make a difference.”
“There were a lot of wonderful speakers, a lot of great and useful information and tools were given, and I learned a lot of new things that I had never known about before.”
– Participant testimonials
99% of Summit participants who completed the post-Summit evaluation reported that they learned something new. Participants described the concepts and strategies presented as highly relatable to their work (97%), translated into familiar language (98%), and presented in digestible ways (97%). 88% reported that they intend to apply the knowledge and strategies presented in the next 4 weeks and 86% reported that they intend to integrate the newly released Toolkit into their work in the next 4 weeks. 99% of participants reported increased knowledge of how to connect with youth, and increased confidence in their ability to cultivate protective beliefs and skills in youth!
What stands out the most, however, was the positive energy and commitment to prevention and fostering health-promoting relationships. As one attendee put it: “I want to be a part of this!”
Over 190 individuals have signed up to be a Health-Promoting Relationships (HPR) Ambassador to continue learning, sharing, and living a health-promoting way of being in their lives and in their work.
What is an ambassador for HPR? A representative and champion of health-promoting relationships who inspires others to engage in a HPR “way of being” with youth through role modeling, conversations, and information & resource sharing to promote a culture of well-being.
If you would like to be an HPR Ambassador and join a training community of others who want to carry this work forward, sign up HERE!
ADAPT will continue to offer opportunities to support understanding and application of HPR concepts in 2026.
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Access all Summit recordings and resources HERE.