Who is Championing Our Teenagers?

Our teens need us now more than ever!!! We need talk about what our youth really need and how our communities, organizations and families can come together to provide it.

Do you remember how difficult the middle and high school years were? It was hard to navigate all the emotions, influence of peers and pressures from family. Fast forward to today, our youth must navigate serious social influences that create susceptibility to high-risk behaviors. The accessibility needs to be mitigated by a youth resiliency.

We have identified a signficant void in Sussex for healthy support systems, adult mentors, identified and accessible role models and positive messaging to help teens navigate the myriad of issues hitting them from all sides. Identification of the supports that exist, alignment of current work and gap filling efforts will be driven through SCHC committees to offer this collective landscape and build capacity for our youth to build internal resiliency, strong communication skills and the ability to discern for themselves the right choices for who they are becoming. These skills, along with a stronger community presence or cohesion in their life, will help to mitigate poor decision making that can interrupt and even ruin their chances for a healthy and thriving life.

All Sussex County Health Coalition Committees are working on strategies to support our youth!

With support from funders like Highmark, DSAMH, United Way and others we can truly make a difference in the lives of our youth.

Won’t you join us? We need you!

Together we can make a difference and help our youth gain a strong foundation with balanced footing to take on adolescence and grow through it, giving them a successful launch into adult hood. Please email us at schcadmin@pmgconsulting.net for more information on how you can get involved.

If not NOW, then WHEN? If not YOU, then WHO? The future of our YOUTH depends on YOU!

Peggy Geisler, Executive Director
Sussex County Health Coalition