Community REACHes Out to Help Kids

No one ever said being a teenager was easy. The pressure to balance academic work with extracurricular activities, a social life, and other stressors is difficult enough for many middle-school and high-school students, and when peer pressure is added into the mix, it can sometimes tip the scales until things spiral out of control.

The good news is that teen drug and alcohol abuse has declined in recent years, according to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, which does an annual Youth Risk Behavior Survey to monitor these types of trends.

The percentage of teens who have tried alcohol declined from 75 percent to 72.5 percent between 2007 and 2009, and similarly, the percentage of teens who have tried marijuana declined from 38.1 percent to 36.8 percent in that same time frame.

Of course, there’s a hole in that silver lining; these numbers still mean that nearly three-quarters of teenagers have tried alcohol or drugs. Add this onto the other issues teens are facing today, and it can equal a potentially disastrous problem for today’s youth—and this can leave parents feeling worried and helpless.

That’s where Jennifer Superdock and Christi Schug, both Radnor moms and founders of the organization REACH, come in. REACH, which stands for Radnor Encouraging Awareness, Communication, and Hope for our community, defines itself as “a coalition of parents, educators and community members committed to promoting the wellbeing of our youth in Radnor Township,” according to a flyer distributed by the group.

According to Superdock, the group exists in part because she says that life today is more difficult for teenagers than ever before.

“While there is 'nothing new under the sun' in some respects, I do believe that our children are facing new and challenging issues, significantly different that we encountered even a decade or two ago, with more deadly drugs readily available to them, sex/promiscuity that is so prevalent in our culture and media, depression and other emotional disorders, and violence,” she says.

Radnor commissioner Elaine Schaefer, who is also associated with REACH, and who has dealt with these issues through her work with the Radnor Educational Foundation and the Radnor Middle School Drug and Alcohol Task Force, echoes Superdock’s viewpoint.

“The issues our kids are dealing with today are the same issues kids have faced for generations: peer pressure, the temptation of risky behavior, sometimes questionable decision-making,” she says. “However, the background is more complicated today. With instantaneous communication and social networking as a constant backdrop, the pressures are more intense than ever and the mob mentality can become exaggerated.”

Christi Schug adds that in addition to these problems, she believes that students face a lot more stress in their academic, extracurricular and social lives than their predecessors did.

“[Our children] are over-scheduled, over-worked, over-stimulated and ultimately physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted,” she explains. “What is required of these kids on a daily basis would make most adults balk. Yet we run them from one extracurricular to the next, watch them struggle with impossible hours of homework, suffer from terribly insufficient rest and expect them to navigate some of the most tumultuous years of their lives, both developmentally and socially. It's a hamster wheel these kids are on, and I think we, as parents, would be remiss in thinking there won't be consequences.”

Of course, parents of teens likely often feel stress, too, as they worry about the pressures on their children. That, REACH’s founders explain, is why the group formed. When Dr. Richard Dunlap, principal at West Chester East High School, came and spoke to the local community last year about losing his teenage son to a drug overdose, the message resonated with Radnor’s parents, Schaefer says.

Also, she says, Dunlap told parents that he felt that his family’s tragedy might have been avoided if he had communicated more openly with other parents. 

“That is really what REACH is all about—providing a forum for parents to interact, learn from each other, swap approaches,” Schaefer explains. She says that a similar tragedy could happen to anyone’s child, and to try to prevent that from happening, parents need to “talk to each other and be open and honest.”

This doesn’t mean that having these discussions will immediately solve any problems parents and teens are facing, but Schaefer says that it’s a step in the right direction.

“I have teenagers myself,” she says, “and believe me, I have already learned that there are no right answers on how to raise them and protect them from harm, and I flub it as much as the next guy, but I do believe that the more awareness you have and the more you get to know the other parents, the more likely you may be to be useful and supportive when trouble arises. In the end, we will never be able to completely prevent teens from making mistakes and occasional bad decisions, but the more we communicate and keep abreast of what is going on, the better prepared we are to help our kids get through this period safely.”

Communicating about their children’s problems isn’t always easy for parents, but Schug says that it’s necessary. She worries, she says, that parents are becoming increasingly “private and self-focused,” afraid to seek help from others, and this can keep teenagers from getting the help they need. “When we face challenges or encounter problems we turn inward, so worried about what others may think,” she adds. “If we know of a child struggling or in trouble, we're afraid of being thought of as nosy or out-of-line for reaching out. What happened to caring about all kids, not just our own?”

Also, she explains, that parents who isolate themselves and don’t seek out other parents might have more difficulty dealing with the issues their children struggle with, because they may feel like they’re the only ones going through these things—when the reality is that they’re far from alone. While she believes that Radnor has “many wonderful avenues of support” for teens, including the administration and staff in the township’s schools, she says that parents need to step in, too, and open the lines of communication about teen issues.

“We all chose to live in and be a part of this wonderful community, but we close our blinds and zip our lips when it comes to talking and sharing about the challenges our kids face,” says Schug. “We need to get back to kids feeling like they have a community of people who care about and support them, that we are all looking out for each other.”

For Radnor Township parents who want to get involved in the work REACH is doing, there are two upcoming events. One is a “Coffee and Conversation” discussion on March 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Fabio and Danny’s Café (at the Wayne Train Station, 135 North Wayne Ave.). This meeting, says Schaefer, is intended to be “informal and conversational,” and the group will be discussing various scenarios parents might encounter and how they can handle them.

“We are setting a very casual atmosphere for parents to share and discuss different ideas and strategies for situations we could all potentially face at some point,” Schug says.

The second event, Schaefer says, will be a “more formal panel presentation on the state of what we’re seeing in Radnor teen behavior these days.” She says that speakers will include Radnor High School’s principal and assistant principal, Radnor Police Sgt. Andy Block, District Justice John Tuten, a teen addiction specialist from the Caron Foundation, and a local emergency room doctor. The presentation will be held on April 5 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Radnor Township Building.

In the meantime, Schug says that one of the best things parents can do is simply “be available for your kids. Anytime and all the time, they need to know they can come to you. And if they're not talkers, you do the talking. They hear you whether you think they are listening or not. At least if you're talking, they know you care—and when a time comes that they are ready to talk, they will feel more comfortable doing it with you.”