By Jake Hanson, Young Adult Leader

With the summer drawing to a close, and back-to-school season for students in Manatee and Sarasota County just around the corner, we wanted to take a moment and reflect on our work these past few months. 

Throughout the summer, our Teen Health Educators and Young Adult Leaders went to various locations in the community to present and start conversations about a wide range of topics; from bullying to sexting, personal leadership to trauma management. All of our THEs and YALs love the opportunity to make meaningful and lasting relationships with the youth in our community!

We would like to extend a special thank you to all of our partners that have supported us throughout the summer and whose generosity has allowed us to continue the work our Teen Health Educator program does. ​

Thank you to all of our summer locations as well, for hosting us and providing us a space and audience to talk about important issues: DeSoto Boys and Girls Club, Palmetto Boys and Girls Club, Family Resources Safe Place 2B youth shelter, Educational Consultants Consortium, Safe Children Coalition, and AMI Kids Manatee. We look forward to continuing to serve some of these locations, and more, throughout the school year as well!

Whether they were presenting via Zoom or in-person, each of our THEs and YALs is so thankful for the relationships made this summer! We truly could not have done any of the work that we do or gone into the depth we did with our topics, without the amazing support systems and staff in place at each of the locations we served. Although this summer-session season is behind us, we are so excited to continue training, educating, and recruiting new Teen Health Educators for the year ahead.

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