Troubled Teens Resources

Troubled teenagers, unfortunately, are becoming just one of several categories of youth that are increasingly vulnerable to eventual teenage drug abuse. Where drug education was once directed primarily at junior and seniors in high school, it is now also encompassing kids from elementary school up.

One such program developed and offered by National Families in Action is Club HERO.

Club HERO, developed and tested under a 5-year grant from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, provides a positive, nurturing atmosphere for middle-school children during the critical after-school hours.

Home Club HERO (Helping Everyone Reach Out) rewards students for
“doing their job” well with visible motivation. Students earn points for a variety of achievements and behaviors related to
school performance and participation in tasks at home. They then redeem the points for Club HERO incentives and gifts.

“The point collection system is fun and provides the incentive children need to make an extra effort,” says sixth-grade teacher Caitlin Sims.”

The program includes materials that demonstrate how the brain works with and without chemical influences, providing a sound basis for the warnings to avoid all temptations to get high, much like decades ago when pictures of smoke damaged lungs drove the anti-smoking movement into full gear. Seeing Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears perform as glamorous addicts do little to dissuade teens away from drug abuse but a vivid demonstration of how Oxycontin and alcohol are destroying their brains might.

Sometimes the problems confronting youth and troubled teens seem overwhelming, beyond what any one group or individual can hope to fight. Looked at in that way, the world of drugs, gangs and raves with their constant lure of the street and the music and the drugs all seem much larger than what everyday parents can go up against.

But the power of the individual to sway drug abusing troubled teenagers to go straight or return to school can not be dismissed. Proof that one adult can change the course of a troubled teens’ life is something that the Big Brother’s and Big Sister’s organizations have proven for decades now.
Whether you are a parent or not, you have something to give an at-risk teen that they can’t find too easily;the gift of your friendship and counsel.

“National research has shown that positive relationships between youth and their Big Brothers and Big Sisters mentors have a direct and measurable impact on children’s lives. By participating in our youth mentoring programs, Little Brothers and Sisters are:

• More confident in their schoolwork performance
• Able to get along better with their families
• 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
• 27% less likely to begin using alcohol
• 52% less likely to skip school.

Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteers had the greatest impact in the area of alcohol and substance abuse prevention. For every 100 youth between ages 10 and 16 who start using drugs, the study found, only 54 similar youth who are matched with a Big will start using drugs. Minority boys and girls were the most strongly influenced; they were 70 percent less likely than their peers to initiate drug use.

“We have known all along that Big Brothers Big Sisters’ mentoring has a long-lasting, positive effect on children’s confidence, grades, and social skills,” said Judy Vredenburgh, Big Brothers Big Sisters’ President and CEO, “and the results of this impact study scientifically confirm that belief.”

“These dramatic findings are very good news, particularly at a time when many people contend that ‘nothing works’ in reaching teenagers,” Public/Private Ventures President Gary Walker added. “This program suggests a strategy the country can build on to make a difference, especially for youth in single-parent families.”
(

Source)
If you have been wanting to do something to stem the tide of teenagers being swept into a life of teen age drug abuse and pain, Big Brothers or Big Sisters can be the one place where your efforts can make the difference.