Teen Esteem: Empowering students for life

Creekside Elementary School fourth-graders sat on the floor for almost an hour, laughing, clapping and repeating key messages that their choices count at a recent assembly presented by Teen Esteem.

Speaker Sean Donohue utilized video clips and tightly structured messages to help the Danville children understand that they have many choices in their lives. For instance, after a video clip about friends, he followed up with the key message — “show me your friends and I will show you your future.”

The students repeated after Donohue, “Choose good friends.”

As he unfolded the messages, Donohue told real-life stories about students he had known at Charlotte Wood Middle School and in Danville. Those stories brought the message home to the students that these choices matter whether they lived in Danville or Chicago.

The key messages included:

* Be an everyday hero.

* Avoid vaping, alcohol, drugs and misusing prescription drugs.

* Words count.

* There are more than 7 billion people on earth, but only one you. You are truly unique and valuable.

* Choose to love yourself.

“Teen Esteem is on the front lines of the many challenges young people face,” executive director Linda Turnbull said about the Tri-Valley nonprofit’s critical role in the local community.

“It is crucial that students are given tools to deal with the overwhelming stress many of them are experiencing as well as help them better understand the lifelong benefits of making wise decisions, especially as it relates to risky adolescent behavior,” she added.

Response from students and teachers alike was positive to the Creekside assembly, according to Turnbull.

Donohue has spoken for Teen Esteem for many years, but this was the first assembly of its type designed for elementary school students. The addition of the elementary school assembly responded to requests from educators and parents to get the key messages to students at a younger age.

A few years ago, this reporter interviewed a campus police officer in Livermore who urged presenting to younger students because the police were finding too many cases of 11- or 12-year-old girls sexting — sending inappropriate sexual photos via text messaging.

Turnbull, who has developed a wide network of adults working with students, heard the same message and launched the new initiative.

“By engaging students on an ongoing basis and getting their feedback, we have the ability to have a current and accurate pulse on their daily struggles,” Turnbull said. “Our relevant and engaging presentations give students practical examples, powerful perspective and helpful tools that will equip them to combat the challenges they are facing.”

When the organization was formed 23 years ago, Turnbull designed classroom presentations for high school students, primarily ninth-graders. She said she is passionate about providing young people with accurate, age-appropriate information so they understand the potential consequences of their choices and how they will affect their future.

For the first number of years, presentations covered sex and using alcohol or drugs. Over time, as different issues came up in the teenaged culture, Turnbull evolved the curriculum to keep it relevant. She and speaker coach Jill Daniels annually update it and train the volunteer speakers to deliver it. The nonprofit organization has many volunteer speakers.

The program also was expanded to include presentations for middle schools and now elementary schools. The vision of the Board of Directors is to present to Tri-Valley students four times during their educational years (fourth/fifth grade, seventh/eighth grade, ninth grade and 11th/12th grade).

The organization focuses on the Tri-Valley, with presentations commonly in the San Ramon Valley, Livermore and Dublin. Teen Esteem also has Pleasanton presentations set for the coming months, including the Hearst Elementary School PTA board meeting and at Behavioral Health Quest next month and Pleasanton Middle School in May.

There have also been limited presentations elsewhere in the East Bay, including last year at Mission San Jose and Pittsburg high schools.

Ninth-grade presentations typically take place over two days in classrooms, with two volunteer Teen Esteem speakers engaging with students in an interactive presentation.

“We do not tell students what choices to make,” Turnbull said. “We give them accurate information about the potential consequences of a decision so they are equipped to make a healthy choice.”

Turnbull has evolved the curriculum significantly to respond to the shifts in culture. Today, students and their parents alike are struggling to keep up with the changes caused by social media.

Teen Esteem cites Pew Research Center survey in which 88% of teens reported they had seen someone be cruel to another person on social media.

Two other changes are key drivers:

1. The pressure for academic achievement to get into upper-tier universities has resulted in major increases in teenage depression or anxiety and thoughts of suicide. Roughly 17% of teenagers reported having thought about suicide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2. Abusing prescription drugs that can lead to addiction and in some cases death.

“Academic- and performance-based pressures are overwhelming our kids, leading to high levels of anxiety, panic attacks and depression. Teen Esteem’s message to kids is your value is not based on what you do, but on who you are,” Turnbull said.

To educate students and parents about the dangers of prescription drugs, Teen Esteem has partnered with three other nonprofits in the Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership. The collaboration has developed a pilot project to present information about prescription drugs to high school athletes, coaches and parents.

When a student-athlete is injured or has surgery, the treating physician often will prescribe drugs for pain. For some athletes who abuse the prescription, there is a chance that they could become dependent on the drugs over time and develop an addiction.

The program alerts parents and athletes to this possibility. Teen Esteem cites research from the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and the MetLife Foundation concluding 25% of teenagers have misused or abused prescription drugs.

For other students, prescription drugs — often easily available from a parent’s medicine cabinet — offer an escape that can be deadly. Some 73% of teens said prescription drugs were readily available in their homes, according to the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids survey, which helps show that abusing prescription drugs is America’s fastest-growing drug problem.

The substance abuse program is one arm of Teen Esteem’s multifaceted program to reach students and parents. Three of the school-based assembly programs include evening presentations for parents before the assemblies. Typically, the assembly speaker and/or a panel of experts speak to the issues that will be covered the next day and offer parenting suggestions.

The nonprofit also focuses on maintaining a robust website that is consistently updated with new information and videos, according to Turnbull.

“We want parents to be able to access information 24/7,” she said. “If we have a very successful parent night, we would speak to 100 adults. The website broadens our reach and is always accessible.”

One key element of the website, available at www.teenesteem.org, is the growing library of Ed Talks. A Teen Esteem speaker presents for five to 15 minutes similar to a Ted Talk. Current videos range from talking to your student about suicide to dads-and-daughters to teens-and-screens.

Another outreach to parents is in the workplace through “Lunch ‘n Learns.” A company invites a Teen Esteem speaker to a lunch hour, brown-bag presentation for parents. The business selects the subject from the various topics Teen Esteem covers. Businesses have been particularly interested in dealing with social media.

Through the multifaceted outreach, the organization’s impact has grown over the past few years.

In 2012, Teen Esteem’s message was delivered to about 6,000 students and parents in the Tri-Valley. Last school year, more than 10,300 students and 2,100 adults heard Teen Esteem presentations.

Through December, the organization already had presented to more than 9,000 students.

The expanded reach mirrors the development of assembly programs for the three levels. Instead of speaking to 180 students over two days, the organization can present one or two assemblies and reach 2,000 or more students in a high school.

And all with a focus on the nonprofit’s core mission, “to educate and empower students, educators, families and the community on challenges young people face, emphasizing the importance of respect for self and others.”

FUNdraiser

Teen Esteem will hold its annual fundraiser, “Team Up with Teen Esteem,” on Saturday, March 18 at the Blackhawk Country Club. People are invited to wear the uniform of their favorite team and come for an evening of fun and food. There will be both live and silent auctions benefiting the local nonprofit. To register, visit www.teenesteem.org.

Editor’s note: Tim Hunt, a regular contributor to the Pleasanton Weekly, has served as chairman of the Teen Esteem board since 2012. A journalist with more than 40 years of Tri-Valley coverage experience, Hunt also writes his “Tim Talk” blog for the Weekly online.

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