The cities of San Carlos and Belmont, California, share more than a border. Their communities overlap, they serve many of the same teens, and their recreation teams were hearing the same thing from their communities: Teens need more support for their mental health and well-being.
Rather than develop separate programs to address the same need, the two cities decided to tackle it together.
That collaboration became the Belmont-San Carlos Teen Wellness Retreat, a free, daylong experience for students in grades six through 12. Now entering its fourth year, the program has earned the 2026 NRPA Innovation in Health and Well-Being Award, recognizing the cities’ creative approach to addressing an important community need.
Starting with a shared need
For Danielle Giuliacci with the City of Belmont and Emma Licko with the City of San Carlos, the idea started with listening.
Both were hearing a growing demand for teen mental health and wellness programming. With a shared high school along the cities’ border and significant overlap among the teens they serve, collaboration made sense.
“Why not work smarter, not harder, and partner so that we can reach both of these communities, the overlapping communities?” Licko said.
By bringing together resources, relationships, staff expertise, and community partnerships, the two departments could create something bigger than either needed to tackle alone.
Creating a different kind of wellness experience
The Teen Wellness Retreat was designed around what teens said they needed: choice, connection, resources, and an opportunity to decompress.
Rather than a traditional conference or day of lectures, teens choose from workshops and hands-on experiences focused on wellness and self-care. The free event also connects participants with community resources in an environment designed specifically for them.
The teams continue to listen and adapt the retreat based on participant feedback. That approach has helped turn a new idea into a program that draws teens from San Carlos, Belmont, and surrounding communities.
And some of its most meaningful outcomes can't be captured in registration numbers.
After the first retreat, one mother told Emma that her son had been nervous to attend because he didn't know anyone. By the end of the day, she said she hadn't seen him that happy in a long time.
It's the kind of connection the teams hoped the retreat would create.
Familiar technology across neighboring communities
San Carlos and Belmont have something else in common: Both cities use ACTIVENet to manage recreation programs and serve their communities.
For people who participate in recreation across the neighboring cities, ACTIVENet provides a familiar registration experience. For staff, it means using technology they already know to support a collaborative program serving their shared teen community.
The city hosting the retreat manages registration through ACTIVENet, while custom questions and other features help staff gather important participant information in advance of the registration.
“We can easily pull information we need and have that ready for the day of,” said Giuliacci.
Both departments also use ACTIVENet Connect, giving staff digital access to participant information and check-in management for the event.
“We can easily pull information we need and have that ready for the day of,” said Giuliacci. “Connect is a digital tool that allows us to easily pull up participant info and all that. It makes the process much easier to manage.
For Licko, ACTIVE is part of the broader mix of tools supporting their work.
“We’ve really leveraged a lot of different things through ACTIVE to help,” she said.
From local innovation to a model for others
The impact of the Teen Wellness Retreat is beginning to extend well beyond San Carlos and Belmont, with other cities reaching out seeking information and program details. San Carlos and Belmont are sharing their resources with a goal to help other communities.
They've since created a Teen Wellness Retreat Toolkit with resources to help other recreation departments learn from and replicate their approach.
That willingness to share what they've learned is another example of what earned San Carlos and Belmont national recognition.
Two cities started with one community need. Together, they built an award-winning program that's showing what's possible when recreation departments listen, collaborate, and make it easier for people to participate.
The cities of San Carlos and Belmont will receive formal recognition at NRPA's Best of the Best Ceremony on Sept. 30 at the 2026 NRPA Annual Conference in Philadelphia. ACTIVE is a proud sponsor of this year's Best of the Best event.
Attending NRPA? Hear directly from the San Carlos and Belmont teams as they share their award-winning approach to teen wellness on Oct. 1 from 1-2 p.m. ET in Room 115AB.
