An every-other-year assessment of Illinois youth is starting to be analyzed by professionals in a variety of fields all over the state.

Nadia Klekamp is the Assistant Director for Community Health at Chestnut Health Systems and explains the Illinois Youth Survey reaches 8th graders, tenth graders, and twelfth graders in Illinois surveying them on a variety of topics from substance use to mental and emotional wellness.

Klekamp indicates in the next month, she will be doing a deep dive into the data but on the surface, one trend she continues to see is that teens are still turning to alcohol as the top substance of choice. The legalization of marijuana is also becoming an increasingly used substance among youth. 

For Klekamp, comparing data to years past will be interesting to see how things are stacking up but she's particularly curious to see what the pandemic will have done to a lot of the data points as well.

Klekamp says there is still work to be done in educating their communities and raise awareness around these issues. She stresses these things start at home and the impact parents make on kids.