A Little About Me

I began taking an interest in youth awareness when watching my younger siblings and cousins experience adolescence.  When I let them know I was there for them to talk to, I found out they had A LOT of questions about things that went on around them (gangs, relationships, homosexuality, sex, etc).  It was then that I realized that my calling was to do my part to help teens become informed and to succeed in life. 

I have received educational experience while working on my Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Science by taking courses such as Child Psychology, Adolescent Psychology, Marriage and Family Sociology and Counseling to name a few.  I gained life experience by mentoring neighborhood children who felt they were heading down the wrong path.  My goal is to help keep as many youth out of jail, from becoming teenage parents, preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS among them and even saving them from violent deaths.

Below is an article I’ve written to show more of my thoughts and why Teens Need to Know was created and is needed:

My Words

Sometimes I sit around thinking about my youth.  I am in my 30s and I love to reminisce about the good old days.  I openly refer to myself as “Old School.”  My Old School ways make me wonder about today’s youth.  Their world includes new dangers, challenges and decisions that did not exist, or were less apparent, when I was growing up.  Not only are they dealing with the pressures of sex, drugs and alcohol, but now there are predators and pornography on the internet, date rape drugs and many teens are confused about their sexuality.  My question is when and how did things change?

There is still the pressure of if and/or when to have sex.  Though abstinence is the number one protection against HIV/AIDS, STDs and pregnancy, curiosity may still win.  Let’s face it, all things teens do cannot be controlled or monitored 24/7.  But there is good news.  According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, the teenage pregnancy rate has decreased by 28% since 1991.  Kind of funny how that is the year I graduated from high school.  Unfortunately, 28% is not 50 or 75 or 100%.  It shows that some teens are listening and avoiding having babies at an early age, but we need to get the rest to listen. 

I wonder if teens now are making such radical decisions because they are not sure of what to do and how to find answers on handling sexuality, drugs, emotions, as well as other issues that surround them on a regular basis.  Is enough being done to save them?  I guess we will see what happens to this generation and hope with the help of the community they will fight to not become statistics.  Sometimes it does take a village.

Rashiah