The first Youth Wellness Conference was organized by the Ile-a-la Crosse Friendship Centre in 1994, after being established as a non-profit organization in February 1992. The founding Chairperson of the Friendship Centre, Buckley Belanger, and eight other board members recognized that the population of youth was growing fast. At this time, 68% of the population in Ile-a-la Crosse was under the age of twenty-nine. It was very overwhelmingly apparent that statistics were on a sharp rise in other areas as well.

As drug and alcohol abuse escalated to all time highs, the crime rates also went up, the courthouse was filled with Youth each court day. The school drop-out rate was on a rise, although there were 45 students starting kindergarten each year the number of students completing their grade twelve fell to 6 or 7. There also was a high rate of teen pregnancies, children having children, an alarming increase of suicides, and gang related problems. There was a high unemployment which meant an increasing dependence on the welfare system.

The Youth Conference was one of the instruments identified to address the need for prevention and awareness. If the conference helps to keep even one child from getting incarcerated, committing suicide, abstaining from alcohol and drugs, and/or from getting pregnant, it would be a success. The past nine conferences have shown that Youth can work together to maintain and keep a community of 600 people safe, out of trouble and meet new friends that last a lifetime.

The Youth Outdoor Wellness Conference has proven to be an excellent vehicle to use in fostering a wide range of basic human values in our Youth. The workshops consist of health promotion and education, training and career planning, certification courses, promotion of positive lifestyles, recreation and cultural activities, entertainment, and sport events, development of peer support groups, sharing circles, alcohol and drug abuse prevention and one day is usually set aside for a career symposium, with approximately thirty booths participating each year.