Have you heard of the Northeast Community Challenge Coalition (NECC)?

Visit: http://www.necchealthycommunity.org/ and click on the “TEEN HEALTH” icon at the bottom right hand side of the page.

View all of the topics of concern among today’s youth under the “Navigation” section and click on any one of them for facts, information, and additional resources to address the BIG issues students are facing (i.e. alcohol, marijuana, teen depression, suicide, eating disorders etc.)

Let me give you an example: When I perused the NECC site (specifically under their eating disorders section), I found an unbelievable free resource that you might want to share with the parents, guardians, teachers, coaches, and mentors of any student who is struggling w/ an eating disorder.  The National Eating Disorder Association have developed Free Toolkits for Parents, Coach and Athletic trainers, & Educators…visit http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/information-resources/parent-toolkit.php to download pdf’s of each toolkit.

Parenting the Internet Generation

http://www.covenanteyes.com/resources/parentbooklet/?promocode=kevinweb

FIGHTING FOR THE HEART

Create a culture of unconditional love in your home to fuel the emotional and moral health of your children.

Most of us are unaware of the stories we write every day. We go through life and make the decisions we need to make and do the things we need to do to get through the day and care for our families. But whether we realize it or not, we choose who we interact with and what role we play in other people’s lives. In other words, we choose how we play a part in other people’s stories in both our words and our actions.

And sometimes it’s easy to simply bow out, to feel like we no longer have a role in someone’s life—especially in the life of a teen. But here is one man’s story about how his dad found a way to take a new supporting role in his life, even if it meant intentionally choosing to be a part of it in a way he may never have imagined doing.

A Supporting Role

by Jon Williams

When I was growing up, I always remember how sports played a big role in the family. My dad had grown up playing High School baseball and football and my brother, who is eight years older, kind of followed in his footsteps. My brother did it all. Football. Baseball. Track. Soccer. He was a pretty good all-around athlete.

Growing up, I always watched my dad attend my brother’s various sports competitions, and, if he got the chance, he would always end up being an assistant coach or head coach of the team my brother was playing on. Which was cool. Looking back, I see how that gave my brother and my dad some time to bond and something to talk about. Something to be guys about.

Now, having my brother as my hero, I tried following in his footsteps. I mean, I really do love sports. I’m a fanatic about football. My dad was pretty jazzed to have me go out for various sports teams and when I made them, it was an instant bonding moment. I’m not a complete klutz or anything. I was somewhat athletically gifted. Dad was always more than happy to go in the backyard and throw the ball around and work on mechanics and fundamentals. It was great. We connected like he and my brother did. But, then something happened.

As much as I love sports, I found myself drifting toward another extracurricular activity in Middle and High School.

Theatre.

I loved it. I loved acting. I loved telling stories, and anybody who knew me then knew I loved to talk. So, theatre just became a place where I excelled.

But it was a place my dad knew very little about.

I don’t know what my dad ever thought about my being involved in theatre when I first started. He’s not a judgmental man or someone who throws around stereotypes or anything, but it just wasn’t something he grew up with and . . . it wasn’t a competitive sport.

It was . . . the arts.

But my father, a man whom I love deeply and who I know loves me very much, did something that, at the time, I probably didn’t realize the full impact of. Something that, now that I am a father myself, I hope I can be for my children.

See, once I stepped into the theatrical world, my dad didn’t stop being involved with me, my life or what I loved. And he very easily could have. I mean, theatre is a far cry from the sporting world. But, instead, he decided to do whatever it took to be involved in my life. Now, he didn’t go out and start taking theatre classes or start wearing tights around the house (thank goodness—how you’d explain that to friends and neighbors, I’d never know), BUT he chose to connect with me, bond with me . . . through what I liked to do.

My dad and a couple of other dads got together and formed a group that helped build the sets for various productions I was in. They called themselves THE CREW. They had T-shirts and everything made up. They even stamped the bottom of every set piece they made with their logo. It was hysterical. And he never missed a performance. I could always hear him laugh in the audience, too. I would quietly beam in the wings when I heard him out there.

And now that I look back on that time, I think how lucky I am. I had a dad who, despite not having ever been involved with theatre in his life, took what skills he had and used them to stay connected with me, his son. Where some fathers might have been bent out of shape because their sons chose to pursue something a little out of the norm, my dad jumped in with two feet and was always there to let me know he supported me and that he would do anything he could to help me excel at whatever I wanted to do.

I hope to be like that with my kids. I hope my dreams for my children never trump my children’s dreams. I hope that I will have the insight my father had in choosing to help me become who God was shaping me to be instead of trying to make me into who my dad wanted me to be.

My dad is a hero in my eyes. A role model. Just an awesome dad.

It’s his constant pursuit for a relationship with me, in whatever I did, that is a constant reminder of how God, my Heavenly Father, pursues me. It’s my dad’s ability to cheer for me, even when it wasn’t from a stadium bleacher, that is a reminder of how God is with me in any situation. Cheering me. Laughing the loudest from the audience.

I like sports, I do. I like theatre more. But I love my dad, and I know, without a doubt, my dad has always and will always love me.

What role will you play in your child’s life? His story, her story, is one you still have a part to play. But it just may be that have to write yourself into their story in a way that is different than you would expect. It may not be the way you planned, or a way that feels natural to you. But it may just be the way they need, and something they will never forget.

Back to School and Sex Ed!

Yes, summer is really almost over and parents are busy buying the right backpack, notebooks and other school supplies. Even more importantly, don’t forget to investigate what your student will be learning in health class---specifically in sex education!

Did you know that …..

• There are nearly 19 million new STIs in the U.S. yearly and half are in people under 25.
• 1 in 4 sexually active teen girls is infected with at least one STI.
• Bacterial STIs may cause life-threatening cases of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and infertility. Herpes, an incurable viral STI, may be passed on to sexual partners even when asymptomatic.  HPV is found among 90 percent of sexually active young adults and teens. While often self-limited, HPV has high-risk strains that may persist for life and cause cancer of the cervix.
• Nearly two-thirds of teens who have had sex wish they had waited.
• Recently, adolescent sexual activity has been acknowledged as an independent risk factor for developing low self-esteem, major depression, and attempting suicide.

According to a 2007 Zogby Poll, 83% of parents want their children to save sex until marriage and a majority of families believe that programs should reinforce the abstinence message when broaching sex ed in the classroom.

What is being taught in your school? Does it reinforce or contradict the values that you are instilling in your young person?

Maximum Freedom, Inc. (MFI) is excited to announce the launch of our website at www.maximumfreedom.org.  We hope that you will have a minute to investigate it and see what we are offering to the Cincinnati area.  We pray that our programming will benefit not only students and their parents, but our community as a whole by educating and empowering teens to make wise, healthy choices.  Our heartfelt desire is that youth will have, “maximum freedom” in their lives and, as our tagline indicates, “hope for healthy futures”.

Maximum Freedom, Inc. provides abstinence education to middle and high schools in Cincinnati and the surrounding communities.  Please call Cathy at 884-2171 or email them at office@maximumfreedom.org to see if our programming is in your school and if not, how you can insure that it is!