Teen Outreach Ideas
At best, teenage years are troubling. At worst, they lead to suicide, depression and drug addiction. Stuck in that frustrating position between youth and adulthood, teens often try to enter adult ranks by engaging in unwise, risky or even deadly behaviors. As a parent or concerned adult, reaching out to a teen helps him transition fluidly and teaches him that responsibility couples with freedom.
Other People Are Reading
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Issues Affecting Teens
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Many issues affect teens, but these issues don't reflect issues of the mid-twentieth century. Anachronistic issues such as relationships and friendships seems trivial next to the modern issues of STDs, teen pregnancy, Internet-related issues and teen driving. When it comes to modern issues, bullying-related deaths and teen-driving issues became the hottest topics in 2010. With the untimely deaths of several teens in October of that year, many people began to see the impact of online bullying. As for driving, driving deaths, with over 3,000 teenage deaths per year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the leading cause of death for U.S. teenagers.
Community Opportunities
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When choosing which issue and platform to select for teen outreach, look to your community as your primary resource. Issues in many communities mimic each other; however, in your community, certain issues, such as drug addiction, may trump others. By facing community-level issues head on, you influence your immediate world, and solve problems that affect your life directly or indirectly. To find issues that affect your local teens, browse newspapers (especially school newspapers) and the social networking sites of teens that you know and talk to school principals. If you have children, ask them for insight.
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Talking to Teens
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Once you select an outreach program, you must learn how to communicate effectively with the teens you want to help. Speak respectfully, show your acceptance and talk to the teens in a friendly manner. While some parents suggest that you should avoid friendships with teens, within outreach you do not function as a parent. Instead, you function as a guide and someone for the teen to imitate. How you speak to a teen influences the way she speaks to others. Therefore, if you teach a teen about driving risks, speaking to her as a friend empowers her when speaking to others about responsible driving.
Outreach Example
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Dan Savage daily influences adults in his column, "Savage Love." In the wake of the issues of October, 2010, he chose to provide outreach to a global network of teens. Realizing that GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) youth often cannot turn to friends or family, Savage decided to create a project that encourages teenagers to hold onto their lives into adulthood. Although gay youth groups function in most major American cities, Dan Savage explored new ways to affect teens positively. Understanding that modern teens function in an Internet-based world, Dan Savage invented the "It Gets Better Project," where celebrities and normal people alike give video support to suicidal youth.
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References
- Photo Credit teen peek image by robert mobley from Fotolia.com
