SD Youth Activism to deliver self-care boxes for menstrual, mental and sexual health

South Dakota Youth Activism is holding its first big community project across the state Saturday.

Youth and volunteers are holding packaging events next week to box up different self-care items community members could need for their menstrual, mental or sexual health.

Boxes will include fidgets, journals, stickers, affirmations and resources and more for mental health; a menstrual cup, pads, tampons, resources and more for menstrual health; and condoms, dental dams, internal condoms, lube, pregnancy and ovulation tests, resources and more for sexual health. The sexual health items are separate from the mental health items.

SDYA leader Elliott Morehead said the group hopes to create 75 boxes on each side of the river to send to partner organizations who work with youth, and have those groups hand them out to people who need them. As SDYA creates more of these resource boxes, they hope to place them on university campuses and in public places, Morehead said.

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Partner organizations include the Black Hills Center for Equality, the South Dakota chapter of the National Organization for Women, Women’s Day of Service, the Justice Empowerment Network (JEN), Planned Parenthood, South Dakota Urban Indian Health, Behavior Management System Cares, Lost & Found, and the South Dakota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Packaging events will be held 1:30-4:30 p.m. July 29 at the Sioux Falls Downtown Library, and 1-4 p.m. July 29 at the Rapid City Public Library.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SD Youth Activism holds volunteer events in Rapid City and Sioux Falls