Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative - Youth Feedback reqeust

The Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative, supported by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, is aimed at providing education, career opportunities and support systems to opportunity youth by partnering with nonprofit, government and business organizations to create a pipeline to meaningful work experiences and careers. The initiative reconnects 16- to 24-year-olds to work and school, and gives them the support they need to stay on the path to success.

Encourage youth to be a leader. Help change their community. 

Youth aged 16-24 years old and who care about young people can work with Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative and get paid to give us feedback at meetings. 

Apply: tiny.cc/youthapp 

Please encourage as many people as possible to apply!

13 Reasons Why…. We Need to Stop Siloing Youth Experiences.

There has been an understandable buzz about the hit Netflix show, 13 Reasons Why, and a lot of great articles about how to identify and respond to young people dealing with depression or experiencing sexual violence. While these resources are both important and helpful, I am struck by the disconnect between how the show talks about experiencing violence and the way professionals have responded. Specifically, 13 Reasons Why demonstrates how interconnected experiencing violence is, yet articles written in response tend to focus on an isolated issue such as suicide or sexual violence. As public health professionals we often tend to get laser-focused on a specific issue that a young person may face, identifying prevention strategies specifically for suicide, or sexual violence, or bullying. But what if, for the young people who are facing these difficult issues, separating them out does more harm than good? Youth do not exist in a vacuum and neither should our programs or strategies.

Suicide prevention summit draws hundreds

From: Durango Herald

More than 800 people attended a suicide prevention summit Thursday focused on gathering feedback from the community about its needs and training attendees about how talk to someone who may be suicidal.

San Juan Basin Public Health held the event at Miller Middle School to kick off a long-term response to the region’s high rate of suicide. There have been nine suicides in La Plata County since the beginning of the year.

It’s a growing problem across the country and in Colorado, said Liane Jollon, executive director of San Juan Basin Public Health.

“No one is going to solve this alone,” she said.

The suicide rate across the country has increased steadily from 1999 through 2014, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among teens, it is the second-leading cause of death.

The Colorado Child Maltreatment Prevention Framework for Action: A Tool to Jump Start Prevention Planning

13 Reasons Why - Start the Conversation!

Whether we like it or not, students are watching the Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why​, often without adult input. In this 13 part series, Hannah Baker recounts her experiences prior to dying by suicide. Her suicide is witnessed along with numerous sexual assaults and instances of slut shaming, bullying and harassment. While we should by no means avoid the discussion of mental health issues, our concerns stem from the idea that this series may glamorize teen suicide for some of our children. The series presents the aftermath of the suicide in a captivating and dramatic fashion not in a realistic manner. Critics have expressed concerns that the series doesn’t treat the very real problem of teen suicide seriously or realistically, and, have expressed concern that the series in fact romanticizes teen suicide. The popularity of the show does present a prime opportunity to begin the conversation and correct some of the myths around mental health and suicide that are portrayed by the series.

6 Ways Better Sex Education for Men Can Help Fight Sexual Assault

From: everyday feminism
June 3, 2015 by Julie Zeilinger

The movement to combat sexual assault on college campuses is well underway, and there are plenty of courageous women fighting for much-needed justice. But national campaigns and thought leaders alike have noted that in order to truly achieve deep-seated change, men must engage with this movement as well.

Exactly how to do this is up for debate, but several male advocates are actively searching for the answer. Jonathan Kalin, founder of the organization Party With Consent, Eric Barthold, facilitator of the program “Man Up” and Open Up and Colin Adamo, of Hooking Up and Staying Hooked, are all working to challenge society’s harmful messages about masculinity and sexuality, as all three believe these forces to be at the heart of the issue.

“Fixing” the pervasive problem of sexual assault is, of course, a herculean task, but we can start, these advocates argue, by revolutionizing our approach to sex education – especially among men.

Here’s what we need to do to target one major cause of sexual assault, according to the men at the heart of this work.

1. Sex Education Needs to Be Comprehensive – Not Abstinence-Only
“I think sex education today fails to discuss sexual intimacy in a context that is truly relevant to young people’s lived experiences,” Adamo said.

“Curricula and educators often limit their discussion of sex to its wealth of potential negative consequences or to its reproductive capacity. This does little to pull young people into an engaging educational environment where they can attain information to put to use in their day-to-day lives.”

He’s right.

NEW Online Training for Providers Launches Today

Today, CDC launches the first in a series of interactive, online trainings for healthcare providers. These trainings feature the recommendations in the Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, providing sample scenarios, feedback, and resources. This series is intended to help healthcare providers:

• Communicate effectively with patients about opioid use
• Decide when to initiate or continue opioid therapy
• Offer appropriate nonopioid options for pain management
• Assess and address risks and harms of opioid use

The first training, and all future ones to be added, will be available for continuing education credit and can be found on the Training web page.