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COALITION FOR HEALTHY YOUTH <br /> for the <br /> • Communities of the Mounds View School District <br /> Consensus Statement, January 22, 1997 <br /> The members of the Coalition for Healthy Youth reached apparent consensus that the <br /> central focus of our efforts will be on engaging youth in their local communities. Over the <br /> past several decades,societal andlocal changes have created a degree of age-segregation and <br /> other conditions which weaken parental influence over their children, and weakens <br /> community support of families. The result is a disturbing increase in self-jeopardizing, <br /> problem behaviors, and a lack of concern for the well-being of others among children and <br /> adolescents. <br /> It is the aim of the coalition to increase the number and kind of positive, affirming, <br /> inter-generational connections between parents,nonparent adults,and communities on one <br /> hand,and the children,adolescents,and young adults of our communities on the other. The <br /> purpose is to increase youth's concern for others in the community, their responsibility to <br /> families,neighborhoods, schools, and communities,just as families,neighborhoods, schools, <br /> and communities increase their concern for, and their responsibility to youth of the <br /> community. The purpose is also to reduce the self-jeopardizing problem behaviors of our <br /> youth. <br /> Specifically, to engage youth more fully in their communities, the coalition agreed <br /> to concentrate efforts in the following areas: <br /> • 1. Develop mentoring opportunities. <br /> 2. Foster service learning opportunities. <br /> 3. Use neighborhood groups, possibly using extant Neighborhood Watch <br /> groups to create awareness and understanding. <br /> 4. Improve youth access to facilities. <br /> 5. Develop public awareness/education campaign targeted specifically at <br /> parents. <br /> 6. Develop public awareness/education campaign for the larger community: <br /> nonparent residents and seniors, businesses and teen employers, faith <br /> communities, park and rec department staffs,youth athletic associations, <br /> community center staffs; other teen volunteer opportunities. <br /> 7. The coalition itself continues to seek information and understanding about <br /> teen issues and possible solutions to community problems. <br /> Other Items of Consensus <br />