Maya Gold Foundation gives opportunities to young teens

An advisory board comprised of students from the Hudson Valley is focusing on issues of mental health, drug abuse, healthy relationships and suicide prevention, and building strong support groups among teens.

The Maya Gold Foundation, which was created in response to the death of 15-year-old Maya Gold, a New Paltz High School student who took her own life in October of 2015, aims to give young people the opportunity to reach their full potential and to achieve that by working together with adults. The foundation established a Teen Advisory Board to help provide the youth perspective. Maya’s parents, Elise Gold and Mathew Swerdloff, launched the organization with help from community members and friends, in response to the social pressures and concerns their daughter's death brought to light.

The Teen Advisory Board met on Jan. 7, at the Gardiner home of board members Gold and Swerdloff, to discuss the foundation's goals for the new year, according to a written release from the group. Fellow board members Noelle Adamo and Paul Alexander, and intern Grant Harlow, a freshman at Bennington College and New Paltz High School graduate, were also in attendance.

Events the foundation held over the previous several months were discussed, according to the release. Also part of the event were a one-man performance by Mykee Fowlin, a screening of the documentary “Screenagers” and “Emotions Matters,” a presentation from mental health advocates to determine what worked in these projects that could be applied to future programs presented by the foundation.

Discussion centered on developing a core signature program for the foundation, which "should be free, accessible to all and give back to the community." The possibility of traveling to Nepal with other foundation members was also discussed, according to the release, to help build cross-cultural exchange between the communities. Maya also was a social activist who dreamed of working in Nepal, and in her honor, the foundation said it would collaborate with communities in and around New Paltz and in Nepal.

For more information on the Maya Gold Foundation, visit www.mayagoldfoundation.org