No teen deserves to feel alone.
We connect every teenager with trusted adults and resources because no teen deserves to feel alone.
What makes a caring adult a trusted resource? When you complete our easy, online certification, you will leave with the skills and knowledge to connect with teens and help them walk through life’s challenges. You will be fully equipped to lead a Support Group!
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Students helped since 2008
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Trusted adults trained
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“One thing I learned from this group is that I always have someone to talk to.”
– Teen Life support group student
I can’t say enough about the benefit with partnering with Teen Life.
The past eight years, I have led or co-led at least one group every year, sometimes two. The curriculum is pertinent and helpful to get kids to talk and engage. Kids need a safe place to be encouraged and to gain skills in coping with school pressures and life stresses.
Heritage MS Counselor
Grapevine/Colleyville ISD
It has been a great blessing to walk beside these kids on their turf.
Equipping them with some tools to help break the generational cycles of self-esteem, relationship, and spiritual poverty, and to assist them in casting a vision on where they want to be and how they might get there.
Jacob
Decatur ISD, Support Groups Facilitator
You’ve got to check this out!
Some Encouragement for Educators
We, at Teen Life, love the local school. Over my six years with the organization, I’ve been on what feels like hundreds of school campuses and interacted with the women and men who create these learning environments. They have a hard job and it seems like everything is changing – always! Whether it’s new students, students leaving, policy changes, administration changes, shifts in educational standards – whatever it is – our educators exist in a dynamic work environment. Literally it’s something new every day. And for those tasked with the social/emotional health of students, things can become more complicated. In order for a child to learn, they need to have basic needs met, and one of those is safety.
The Unexpected Loss of a Parent with Malaya Bizaillion
We all dread the unexpected – we worry, plan, and avoid it at all costs. In the first episode of this series, we are talking to Malaya Bizaillion about life after the unexpected happens. At just 9 years old, Malaya lost her mom, Jenny Ross Bizaillion, following an unexpected illness that took her life only 19 days after going to the hospital. Now as a graduating senior in high school, Malaya shares her story with grace and wisdom. Malaya gives hope in the midst of loss and is an incredible voice for teenagers who are living life in the midst of the expected burden of loss.
How Aware Are You?
Recently my husband and I were watching Brain Games on Netflix. The episode we were watching was called “Focus Pocus”, and it was about attention. It gave several tests for viewers such as counting the number of passes in a scene and watching a pickpocket in action before selecting him out of a lineup. Despite considering myself someone who pays attention to details and despite knowing I was playing a brain game, I was amazed at all the things I missed. It led me to contemplate what am I missing in other people, and even what am I missing in myself.
The Mess of Loving Teenagers
Loving teenagers isn’t always easy. Some days it is actually really difficult. I had a tough Support Group this week. I did not walk away with a great feeling of accomplishment or even much hope. The conversations seemed to revolve around gangs, drugs, and baby mamas (yes, multiple). The students were distracted, disengaged, and at times disrespectful. In situations like this, it would be so easy to walk away and not come back. I am not forced to like these teens. I am under no obligation to see them again. But we don’t always have the choice to walk away…
Navigating Relationships
Talking to teens about love and relationships is awkward. They have questions, they say inappropriate things to test boundaries, they may have more experience than they should, they may witness unhealthy relationships at home, they may not even know what they are feeling. Relationships in the teenage years are difficult, and they need trusted adults to help them navigate how to have a healthy relationship. Teens who have relationships in high school are beginning to build the foundation for which they will base future relationships, so we need to do our best to set them up for success by remembering how emotional teens are and how hard learning to be in a relationship was for all of us.
The Girl Who Could Not Lift Her Head
I looked around the circle of students seated around the table and saw little eyes staring back at me in anticipation. All of these students were from different parts of the world and had arrived in America as children of immigrants and refugees. None of them spoke english, and for the most part, none of them spoke the same language. Maybe it wasn’t anticipation in their eyes but more of a fascination of an english-speaking white dude like me who had no idea how to interact. As I looked around the table, I saw one student whose eyes were not on me. In fact, we couldn’t see her eyes at all. She had her head down in her arms and didn’t speak. While all of the other students seemed excited about being in one of our Teen Life groups, she was not.