Troubled Teens: 5 Ways Adults
Can Connect and Empower Them
The statistics suggest that a disturbing percentage of America’s teenagers are in crisis.
In a given 24 hours in the U.S.,1,439 teens will attempt suicide, 2,795 teenage girls will become pregnant, 15,006 teens will use drugs for the first time, and 3,506 teens will run away, according to a report by Verywellmind.com.
Health and education professionals cite numerous socio-economic factors for these youth problems, but some say adults could make a difference if they connected better with teenagers.
“America is unintentionally betraying the emotional and social needs of its adolescents – ages 11 to 21,” says Dr. Kim Metcalfe, an educational developmental psychologist and author of Let’s Build ExtraOrdinary Youth Together (www.xtraordinaryyouth.com). “We have parents, guardians, school teachers, administrators, coaches, and volunteers working with youth every day who have no idea how to use meaningful connections or even how significant they are.
“Adults focus mainly on a young person’s physical and educational needs, but when it comes to supporting adolescents in meeting their creative, social and emotional needs, most of us have limited time to do it. With the right approach and intentions, though, adults can make things better for them.”
Metcalfe notes five ways adults can make meaningful connections with teenagers that can help them navigate the journey to adulthood:
Be sensitive. “The roadmap to their life journey starts with teen questions like, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What is my purpose?’ ” Metcalfe says. “Adults need to listen thoroughly and then take the time to guide or advise, and this starts with being sensitive to their intellectual, creative and emotional aspects.”
Offer encouragement. “Youth who are encouraged by adults will act in connected and cooperative ways,” Metcalfe says. “Encouragement helps youth feel capable and appreciated, but when youth are discouraged, they act in unhealthy ways. The idea is to encourage the development of the whole young person.”
Elicit their creativity. An adult can empower a young person and give them self-confidence by making them feel important. “One way to do that is by asking them for ideas and possible solutions to problems outside of their own,” Metcalfe says. “You let them take the lead in something. Getting them to think outside the box expedites growth.”
Let them know you care. “Tell kids that we are on their side, that we love and care about them unconditionally, and that we are there to support them despite their mistakes,” Metcalfe says.
Emphasize resilience. “Help youth appropriately deal with adversity rather than attempting to remove it or allowing them to run away from it,” Metcalfe says. “That’s where much of the trouble starts – with escape. A strong foundation of support can build self-empowerment that makes them stronger.”
“Meaningful connections are the most powerful way to say to a young person, ‘You matter, you are important, and you are worthy of my time and patience,’ ” Metcalfe says. “These are the messages that support a positive self-image.”
About Kim Metcalfe
Dr. Kim Metcalfe, a retired professor of early childhood education and psychology, is the author of Let’s Build ExtraOrdinary Youth Together (www.xtraordinaryyouth.com). She is a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the California Association for the Education of Young Children, and the American Psychological Association. Dr. Metcalfe has a doctorate degree in Educational Developmental Psychology. To honor her late daughter, Abigail Elise Metcalfe, Dr. Metcalfe founded Abbey’s Purple Winged Angels Foundation – a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
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The Best Weapon Against Cyber Threats
Is Not Better Tech – It’s People
When a company’s computers are hacked, management’s first impulses often are to invest in better software, better virus protection packages, better computers or even entire networks.
But they may be putting the emphasis in the wrong place.
“The problem’s root cause is usually not the technology, but people,” says J. Eduardo Campos, co-founder with his wife, Erica, of Embedded-Knowledge Inc. (www.embedded-knowledge.com) and co-author with her of From Problem Solving to Solution Design: Turning Ideas into Actions.
Campos, who worked as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in large international corporations, says “organizations that take a simplistic approach, assuming “computer hacks are an IT department’s problem” are headed for trouble. “Cybersecurity is everyone’s job”, he cautions.
For lasting results, Campos harnesses the power of solution design techniques to develop cybersecurity systems and protocols, based on the I.D.E.A.S. framework, outlined in his book:
Identify: Get to the root cause of the problem. Step back, take a breath, and assess the situation, so that you will ensure you are treating not just the symptoms.
Design To avoid security breaches, take time to determine the options that can be used to address all the problems related to these issues.
Engage. Confirm that everybody who is impacted by a new cybersecurity program or effort is on board with the changes before they are implemented.
Act. Implement mandatory training for all employees to explain the common ways hackers enter the system, including how phishing works.
Sustain. Design metrics to keep cybersecurity policies in place and implement an easily accessible system for employees to identify and report incidents.
“The company that truly engages all of its employees, suppliers, vendors and other stakeholders to be knowledgeable and aware of basic cybersecurity protocols,” Campos says, “will have a much better chance of countering criminals.”
About J. Eduardo and Erica Campos
J. Eduardo Campos and Erica W. Campos are co-authors of From Problem Solving to Solution Design: Turning Ideas into Actions. They have a combined tenure of over fifty years solving complex problems for global organizations. J. Eduardo is an expert in strategic, human-centric solution design with a background in cybersecurity and business development. He has worked on four continents, tackling intercultural and multinational problems, and spent the last 13 years at Microsoft, first as a cybersecurity advisor, then leading innovative projects at the highest levels of government in the U.S. and abroad. His consulting firm, Embedded Knowledge Inc. (www.embedded-knowledge.com), works with organizations and entrepreneurs to develop customized business strategies and to form partnerships focused on designing creative solutions to complex problems.
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DALLAS (21 February 2019) – The fusion of podcasts and smart speakers is fueling a rise in voice-based audience engagement and revenue opportunities at news media companies eager to solidify their value propositions, according to a new report released today by the International News Media Association (INMA).
“Audio Opportunities for News Media” examines the current and short-term future opportunities of audio content. INMA leads the news media industry in the emerging fields of content economics and digital subscriptions, and audio content appears destined to be a pillar of both.
The news industry’s interest in audio content — following the lead of audience content preferences and smart speaker sales — can be seen in a variety of ways in news media companies all over the world. The opportunities in audience and advertising are starting at the top-tier global companies, but smaller publishers are dabbling in them as well.
The report’s author is Robert Loewenthal, founder of the Sydney-based Whooshkaa Technology Platform. INMA Senior Editor Dawn McMullan adds case studies from five news media companies: Financial Times, The New York Times, NWZ Media, De Standaard, and El País, to complement Loewenthal’s narrative.
Key findings of the report include:
The INMA report focuses on audience data showing the quick adaptation of news audiences to audio, as well as the advertisers following their lead. The report also delves into the dangers for news media companies from Google, which is working on its own audio news service. In addition, Loewenthal offers his predictions on what the next year or two bring in the audio space.
“One thing is for sure,” Loewenthal writes. “News media companies need to take live news and sport seriously. They have the delivery platforms … and production capability to cover it better than anyone else. People don’t switch on a podcast to find out about who’s winning the game or breaking news stories. Live content means traditional media still has an edge.”
Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA, says “Audio Opportunities for News Media” is the first major association foray into the fast-emerging world of voice tech – covering podcasts, smart speakers, and the management layers behind these pillars. “INMA aims to deeply explore the audience engagement and revenue opportunities behind audio as we see this as fast-rising space for news media companies in the next year.”
“Audio Opportunities for News Media” is available for free to INMA members and available to non-members for US$795, which includes one year of association membership, all strategic reports, Webinars, and access to all INMA content and peer connection tools.
INMA members may download the report, and non-members may order the report by going to www.inma.org/reports.
The International News Media Association (INMA) is a global community of market-leading news media companies reinventing how they engage audiences and grow revenue in a multi-media environment. The fast-growing INMA community consists of more than 10,000 executives at 700+ media companies in 70 countries. INMA is the news media industry’s foremost ideas-sharing network with members connected via conferences, reports, Webinars, and an unparalleled archive of best practices.
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ARE YOU BLACK, WHITE OR HUMAN?
By Robert C. Koehler
943 words
Some of my best friends are colored. All of them are, actually.
And so I introduce you to Lowell Thompson, artist — indeed, psycho-realist, as he calls himself — recovering ad man and “colored person.” He’s also, you might say, the king of irreverence and political incorrectness, but this is only because he’s also a dragon slayer. The dragon is racism. There’s no way to engage with race politely, but there’s a way to yank the seriousness out of it.
What race are you? What color are you? Race is the American divide, a border wall deeper and more profound than the one Donald Trump wants to build. Cultures merge and evolve, but race — “color” — remains impenetrable, a line more fundamental, it would appear, than humanity itself.
Thompson had a revelation about this some years ago, with the help of the profession to which he had devoted his life: “The key to understanding the race problem is one word: branding,” he said in a 2014 interview. “Not only were cattle and slaves branded, but America became the world leader in branding through advertising. And the greatest ad campaign in American history was for American racism: By branding Africans as subhumans, it justified the slavery that America’s success is based upon. My job now is unselling racism.”
In his determination and commitment to do so, Thompson has given his life over to creating transformative change. Martin Luther King called it “creative altruism”: deconstructing the walls that divide, undoing institutional prejudice and unfairness. He has become, in the process, part of the bubbling cauldron of social evolution.
Thompson, who is African-American, grew up in Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. He was a kid who loved to paint and found his way into one of the city’s major ad agencies when he was a young man. This was in the late ’60s; doors were opening, thanks to the civil rights movement. But the opening was fleeting. By the early ’90s, there were almost no African-Americans left in the business. He told me one of his memories from those days. The receptionist at one of the agencies where he was then freelancing challenged his presence in the office: “Aren’t you the mailroom guy?”
Finally he had to address the situation. He did his research and wrote an article called “The Invisible Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.” That was the beginning of his transition to political activism.
“I’ve been trying to come up with an idea to solve America’s race problem for over 25 years,” he told me. “Could I use what I learned in advertising?”
Turns out the answer was yes. The first thing an ad has to do is capture attention, grab people by surprise, pull them in. An irreverent sense of humor also helps, along with an ability to see through and beyond the basically unquestioned social realities that shape our lives.
Thus, as Thompson began to see it, confronting and eliminating racism in American society wasn’t simply a matter of moral scolding. This is called political correctness: demanding, pleading for, better behavior from white people in positions of power toward non-white people in positions of vulnerability. As he saw it, the problem is race itself — a bogus concept of division.
He decided to take on the concept, to challenge the idea that the “color of one’s skin” was a natural division among people, a reasonable igniter of distrust . . . and that, my God, all the human occupants of Planet Earth were one of five colors — black, white, yellow, brown or red — and those colors negated their complexity as human beings. This offended him not just as a man but as an artist.
And this is where the irreverence started coming in. Race was simply too absurd to take seriously. So, in the mid-’90s, when he wrote a book called White Folks: Seeing America Through Black Eyes, he decided to step over the PC line. He devised an ad campaign for the book announcing, simply, “White Folks for sale.”
Oops! Way too funny, and way too non-PC. A local radio station refused to run the ad. We can use sex and violence to sell products, but we dare not stir up the horrors of American history.
Flash forward a couple of decades and Lowell Thompson is walking through a Barnes and Noble store. He notices a large display of adult coloring books and realizes these are a thing now — and suddenly another politically incorrect idea pops into his head. He decided to create a coloring book. The title would be: “Some of My Best Friends Are Colored.”
Thompson has pursued the project through hell and high water, you might say. Shortly after he came up with the idea, “I almost died,” he told me. His blood had stopped coagulating at one point, he collapsed on a public street and was rushed to a hospital. They saved his life and he was able to push on with the project, which includes holding public events in which participants get a chance both to color and talk about race. A flyer he passes out asks: Are you black, white or human? A box next to each option contains the appropriate color. Only one of them makes sense.
Initially the project was funded by a charitable foundation, but, oops again, the word “colored” proved to be too controversial to higher-ups in the organization and they backed off, and he has pursued it on his own.
The irreverence and the crayons are both central. With both, he’s reaching, I believe, for a child’s openness and sense of possibility. We can’t free our thinking until we let go of what we know.
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Robert Koehler, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. His book, Courage Grows Strong at the Wound is available. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com.
