Troubled Teens Resources

Teen help can be obtained from many, many sources, both privately funded or programs initiated by the government or non-profits. Troubled teen boarding schools, military schools and other private institutions are also available if your troubled teen needs a more comprehensive approach to their problems. Yet with all of those choices, some parents still can’t find the appropriate school or program for their kids.

Have you ever felt like getting like minded parents together and starting your own private boarding school? Parents in a small British Columbia town were unhappy with the choices available for their teens and decided to take matters into their own hands.

“We felt it was necessary to start our own private school for many of the same reasons that other parent groups start a school, we could not find a suitable position in a suitable school for our children. We were a group of families that broke away from an established school that offered a great education for our children, but the board approached the parents for more money, and we felt that the money would not dealt with wisely.

We lost any faith we had in the business side of the school.

We had had a taste of what a private school education meant for our children, and we would not give that up. In the process, most parents explored the alternatives that were in the area, and we determined that we were not comfortable with them. We have as one of our founding tenets to be grass roots, down to earth, etc. even though we have a pretty sophisticated parent group–(company presidents, lawyers, doctor etc). In our process, we found that we moved from being consumers of an educational product to being a community.”

(source)

Teen crisis intervention programs are typically spearheaded by community groups who want more safeguards and effective solutions in place when dealing with out of control teens. Some very innovative programs have sprung up across the country by groups of parents who have become alarmed over the prevalence of teen drinking and drug abuse.

In the past, such programs have primarily targeted teens. Unfortunately the laxity of many parents around teen drinking have caused some communities to create laws that hold parents as accountable as their teens if a drinking party goes South. Such as this ordinance recently introduced in a California town that targeted parents who host underage drinking.

“The city is revising its “unruly party” ordinance to make it easier to crack down on teenage drinking — including a provision that changes the definition of a party from five underage revelers to two. The new ordinance will eliminate the current $1,000 cap on the amount the city can recover from party hosts — or their parents — when police respond to gatherings.”

The changes in the ordinance were due to a letter sent out by a parents that described the vandalism and excessive drinking that occurred at an unauthorized party held in their home.

“Local high school parents responded by forming healthy choices committees that promised to work with the schools and community to cut down on teen drinking and drug use and come up with alternative activities for teenagers.”
(Source)

As a parent, you have more power in your community than you may realize. Be pro-active in teen crisis intervention in your neighborhood, It can be as simple as circulating a letter and approaching your local officials for support.