Twelve Talks to
Have With Teens
About
In early 2017, Jefferson County Communities That Care held focus groups with over 65 diverse youth from Jefferson County, Colorado, to find out what was behind youth substance misuse, violence, and hopelessness and anxiety. What we found out was simple, and yet also profound.
Our youth need more support from trusted adults in their lives, especially parents and guardians.
Since many of us in the coalition are parents ourselves, we know that parents love their children more than anything. We also know that sometimes finding the right words– and the right resources– can be frustrating, confusing, and overwhelming. We hope that Twelve Talks to Have With Teens will be a resource for parents and guardians to “be that adult for a teen in your life.
The Big Idea
Jefferson County Communities That Care offers a brief summary about one of the Twelve Talks to Have With Teens each month, along with promotional materials to share with your networks. We disseminate these to parents and caregivers through partner newsletters, email blasts, blogs, Facebook, and other media.
If your organization would like to provide Twelve Talks content on your website, blog, social media, or newsletter, please download our promotion toolkits, currently available in English, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese.
Obviously, Twelve Talks to Have With Teens does not encompass every topic parents and trusted adults need to discuss with youth. However, an extensive data collection project completed by Jefferson County Communities That Care in 2017 and 2018 indicates that these particular conversation topics are talks that:
- Teens wish more adults would discuss with them.
- Adults in Jefferson County could use tools to start the conversation and information to answer questions accurately.
Twelve Talks to Have With Teens was developed by community members from the following organizations:
- University of Denver
- Denver Family Therapy Center
- University of Colorado Boulder
- STRIDE Community Health Center
- Jefferson Center
- Jefferson County Public Health
- Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
- Jefferson County Human Services
- Jeffco Safe Schools Coalition
- Jefferson Unitarian Church’
- Jefferson County Public Schools
- Family Tree
- CTC Staff
- CTC Youth Staff
- Many Other Community Members
* Healthy Kids Colorado Survey 2019, Jefferson County data; **Jefferson County CTC Youth Town Hall data 2019, 2020 & 2021.
This resource is maintained with funding from a Coalitions Organizing For Prevention grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and a Drug Free Communities Grant from the Centers for Disease Control. The views, policies and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the grant providers.
