After two decades helping shape prevention, youth development, and community collaboration across the Hopewell Valley, Heidi Kahme is stepping away from her leadership role with the Hopewell Valley Municipal Alliance, leaving behind what colleagues described as a model of community partnership built on relationships, trust, and shared responsibility for the region’s youth.
During a recent Alliance meeting filled with recognition, flowers, and tributes from community partners, local leaders reflected on Kahme’s long-running impact bringing together schools, law enforcement, local government, nonprofits, and families under one coordinated prevention and youth-support effort.
The Alliance, founded in 1996, works to promote positive youth development and prevent substance misuse and mental health challenges through community collaboration and evidence-based programming.
Kahme said the Alliance’s core strength has always been its ability to keep youth at the center of community conversations.
“I think so much of the purpose here is to make sure we’re talking about youth,” Kahme said. “In what other arena are we talking about kids in this way? But we are as a collective community talking about youth and what’s happening with our youth,”
Building Community Collaboration
Colleagues repeatedly credited Kahme with expanding participation and strengthening cross-sector partnerships over her tenure.
“When I started 20 years ago maybe there were 12, 15 people,” Kahme said. “And they wanted to see more kids at our table.”
Under her leadership, the Alliance expanded programming across schools and community organizations while maintaining a locally driven approach to prevention work.
“Instead of the state coming in and saying, ‘You need to do this program,’ we were able to take a pulse of our community and determine what best fit the needs of this community,” she said.
That local-first philosophy helped shape initiatives ranging from youth leadership and mental health training programs to community-wide prevention education efforts and family engagement events.
Kahme described the work as fundamentally about connection.
“It’s a sense of community and a sense of belonging that we’re here collectively… to actually go back to, let’s talk about our youth,” she said. “I think it’s really the community collaboration that is supportive.”
Recognition From Community Leaders
During the meeting, Hopewell Township Mayor David Chait read a proclamation recognizing Kahme’s decades of service and her role advancing the Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth framework locally.
School district leadership also offered thanks, including remarks from Dr. Rosetta Treece, who highlighted the Kahme’s role making connections and supporting student wellbeing beyond the classroom.
The Alliance includes more than 60 representatives from sectors including local government, law enforcement, schools, healthcare, faith organizations, youth-serving nonprofits, and parents.
Transition to New Leadership
The Alliance’s next chapter will be led by Kristin Rokes.
In a transition statement shared with the Alliance, Rokes emphasized her commitment to continuing collaborative, family-centered work while expanding youth support services.
Kahme said she is confident in the organization’s future and its continued role bringing community partners together around prevention and youth wellbeing.
A Legacy of Connection
Reflecting on her time with the Alliance, Kahme framed her work in simple terms.
“If you build bridges, they will come,” she said.
For Kahme, those bridges connected schools, families, municipal leaders, and community organizations — and helped ensure the Hopewell Valley continued to approach youth wellbeing as a shared responsibility.
