A thick crowd of parents and children look on, almost in awe, as Milton Peoples, a member of the teen board for the anti violence workshop, held at the IMPACT Teen Center, speaks of the hardships he has overcome in his short time in this world.
“You can’t always look for help in other people,” Milton said. “You just got to get up and fend for yourself.”
With those words, applause rang out through the audience and Milton stepped back and took his seat among the other members of the teen board.
Administrators from the IMPACT Teen Center put together a workshop Nov. 12 to help prevent violence and drug abuse among children and teens. They brought together eight teens, aged 18 to 19, who had overcome challenges in their lives and turned out okay.
One of the administrators that helped put together this workshop is Zuelma Gomez. She said the point of this workshop was to bring teens and adults together to prevent the problems they had from happening to today’s youth.
“I think adults tend to talk at teens about these things,” Gomez said. “This is really to get them to shut up and listen.”
The workshop was not to get through to teens but to get through to the parents and to inform them of the ways they can prevent their child from making the same mistakes the teen panel members did.
As each panel member took the microphone and told their story, the audience seemed to feel what they were feeling. Tears welled up in each teen’s eyes as they spoke of everything from childhood abandonment, to abuse, to addiction.
Soon after, the teens stepped down and began a group discussion with each table of adults. They talked about what could have helped prevent some of the issues they went through in school, and what they had later that helped them cope and change.
The answers the groups came up with were common among every group. Counseling and external programs, such as sports, helped them. The panel members also addressed how they wished they had included peer mentors, tutoring, and programs like the Big Brother/Sister program.
The issue of teens and young adult turning to drugs and gangs is a growing problem. Many of the people that attended and spoke at this workshop have opinions as to why and what we can do about it.
Judge Richard Vlavianos is one of those people.
He talked about how the causes of violent behavior are often mistaken as lack of housing or food. The real cause is the way they think. Vlavianos said that many of the teens and adults they were talking about were antisocial. That they needed some sort of help to become a more pro-social thinker.
Vlavianos wants to work towards making a safe place for teens to go. A place where they can be free of the peer pressure and temptation of the outside world. Where there is no stress from their home life haunting them.
There are a few students that attend the after school program at Stagg, who say having somewhere to be helps them significantly.
Sophomore Austin Slaughter is one of these students.
“I come here all the time,” Slaughter said. “Of course it helps. Instead of having fun here, I could be busting someone up on the streets.”
Junior Gerardo Varela also benefits from coming to the after school program.
“It keeps me connected with my friends and away from things like drugs,” Varela said.
Vlavianos also discussed the issue of drugs in teens’ and adolescents’ lives.
“The problem with marijuana and other drugs is not that they don’t work,” Vlavianos said. “It’s that they work too good.” The way many parents deal with their child when they try or bring up drugs and alcohol is to overreact.
“The thing to do when it does come up is not to freak the hell out,” he said.
As the many parents file out of the IMPACT Teen Center, they carry with them not only the belongings they brought with them. But a new perspective.
