Maricopa County is lining up a second annual East Valley Teen Mental Health Awareness and Violence Prevention Summit, and the pitch is as direct as the subject matter: the community wants fewer tragedies and more answers. That is not exactly a small assignment, but then again, nobody ever said the Valley’s hardest conversations were going to be tidy.

The county’s invitation says the summit is entirely community-driven, which is the kind of phrase that usually means a lot of people have been talking, worrying and asking what comes next. According to the invitation, over the past several years the East Valley and communities across Maricopa County have experienced heartbreaking tragedies involving teens. It also says many residents have asked how to help prevent further harm, support young people and bring healing to families.

This year’s focus is shifting toward the realities of growing up online. The invitation says students, parents, educators and local leaders have raised concerns about phone use in schools and the challenges of growing up in a digital world. Those concerns will be the focus of the summit, which is being framed less like a lecture and more like a community conversation that has been overdue for a while.

The event is being promoted under the theme “Stronger Together: Growing Up in a Digital World.” That title does a lot of work, which is usually what happens when a topic is both urgent and complicated. The county says more announcements are coming soon, and it has also said confirmed speakers and other event details are available through the summit materials.

For families, educators and local leaders, the value of a gathering like this is pretty obvious: it creates a place to talk about teen violence prevention and mental health without pretending the digital world is some side issue. It is part of the problem, part of the conversation and, for a lot of kids, part of daily life.

If the summit does what it says on the tin, it will give the East Valley a chance to talk plainly about what young people are carrying and what adults are supposed to do about it. That alone would be progress, which is a low bar for a community trying to keep its kids safe, but a meaningful one all the same.

Bill Farr wrote this article.