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TEEN MAZE

Fun Event Provides Accurate and Valuable Information to Local Youth While Encouraging Discussion Between Parents and Teens

“I liked the event because I learned the truth in a fun way.” “It taught me a lot about life. It was a reality check.” These are some of the thoughts which teens shared after taking part in the TEEN MAZE in 2008.

The TEEN MAZE is a life-size game board where teenagers are the game pieces, and life’s choices are the dice. It is designed to help youth understand potential outcomes to some of life’s decisions concerning substance abuse, sex, and careers. Realistic scenarios help teens navigate their way through the maze and find out about potential consequences of their decisions and behavior. The interactive “game” provides information on topics that include sexual abstinence, contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases, peer and media pressure, tobacco, drugs, alcohol, rehabilitation, legal consequesnces, labor & delivery, teen parenting, HIV/AIDS and post-graduation career and educational choices.

The ultimate goal of the TEEN MAZE is to stimulate teens to think about potential ramifications of their choices without placing judgement on any of the paths chosen. This goal is accomplished by ensuring that professionals in the fields of substance abuse prevention, health, intervention, and education are available. Each room along the maze has a professional available to help youth determine how to make a positive choice, how to accept choices already made, how to make different choices, and how to determine what they want and create a plan to achieve their goals. For example, a teen particpant may enter a room and see an actual vehicle and photographs from an accident involving drinking and driving. Professionals are there to provide additional information and answer questions. The teens will think about this outcome when faced with a real-life decision about driving home after a party or getting into a vehicle with a driver who has been drinking.

The theme of this year’s TEEN MAZE is Make a New Choice Today. Organizers know the experience will be fun and hope it will help encourage discussion between parents and their teens regarding their values and expectations while providing accurate facts and information to teens without attached value judgement.

The TEEN MAZE is the result of the dedicated efforts of more than 200 volunteers and the generous contributions of local businesses equalling about $6,000. Most of the financial gifts are between $100 to $500. The TEEN MAZE project benefits the youth as well as the community as a whole by raising awareness in the community about drug and alcohol problems while helping to decrease the prevalence of the problems. Community memebers come together to serve our local youth in a powerful educational setting.

This will be the eighth year that the TEEN MAZE will provide an educational, interactive, drug-free activity for youth. Last year’s particpants, who were surveyed before and after the experience, were encouraged. There was a ten percent increase in youth who said they would talk to their parents about sexual activity or alcohol use; and students exiting the TEEN MAZE were both more sure they would attend college and were more favorable toward their school’s disciplinary policy.

TEEN MAZE will be open to area youth April 30th and May 1st. All youth are welcome. They must be registered to attend and accompanied by an adult. For more information or to register, contact Missy Miller at 529-7139. An Open House opportunity for the public to tour the TEEN MAZE will be held on April 29th 5-6pm.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month - Go Blue for Colorado Kids- Learn more at www.nestcac.org

Many of our area agencies recognize that healthy childhood experiences are not just good for children, but good for their communities as well. It’s simple really. The actions we take to promote healthy child development are the very actions that help to prevent child abuse and neglect. And healthy child development starts a chain of events that follow a child into adulthood. It leads to a more educated and productive workforce, which is good for community and economic development.

Unfortunately, children are sometimes exposed to intensive stress like child abuse and neglect. Too much stress is bad for anyone and can be devastating to child development. The NEST Child Advocacy Center hopes to change the way our community thinks about prevention, focusing on community activities and public policies that prioritize prevention right from the start to make sure child abuse and neglect never occur.

This shift represents our efforts to ensure the healthy development of children, while seeking to highlight the fact that we all play a role in raising children whether we are neighbors, teachers, police officers, librarians, mentors, coaches or family members.

Abuse and neglect often have lifelong consequences for a child, including a greater chance of delinquency, criminal involvement, drug addiction, chronic health problems, mental health issues and an overall drop-off in productivity of the individual as a functioning member of our communities.

As our nation recognizes April as Child Abuse Prevention Month, please take note of the resources in our Community that foster this shared mission.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month - Go Blue for Colorado Kids- Learn more at www.nestcac.org

More Believe It posters released!

The School Community Youth Coalition is releasing the last three of its nine "Believe It" campaign posters during the next two months. You can see message seven, which we just released, and message six, which we just concluded, posted at the top of this blog entry. Look for the top poster, which helps parents focus on the fact that most of them never provide alcohol to youth, around town in the upcoming weeks.

These two most recent "Believe It" messages highlight how parents are helping their kids stay away from alcohol. The remaining messages in the "Believe It" campaign continue to focus on how parents are already supporting and can continue to help their kids avoid alcohol and substance abuse. Look for the rest of the colorful and positive set of "Believe It" messages posted around Montezuma County and released on local radio outlets KRTZ and KSJD during the upcoming months as we near the close of the school year.