Community leaders launched an effort on Friday, to reach out to a  teens and young adults in Blair County who don’t go to school and don’t have a job. That’s  more than 14 percent of  residents in that age group, according to a national survey.

Representatives from schools, healthcare, government, and mentoring organizations are working on a strategy to help these disconnected youth get the education or training they need to  build better futures .

Jerry Spegman who’s with the national County Health Rankings Program is coaching the effort, launched by the Healthy Blair County Coalition.

Of Friday’s summit, he says, “the turnout is really encouraging and the energy in the room is really inspiring, so hopefully from the summit forward there’ll be can existing initiative to address the problems of youth disconnection.”

He and organizers say the entire community needs to pitch in.