•  Give teens  strategies to protect themselves from challenges
• Includes: facilitator reproducible self-assessments, exercises, and educational handouts
• Sections include: Positive Feelings Scale, Healthy Choices Scale, Social Media Safety Scale, Relationship Safety Scale, Self-Harm Scale
• Includes tools for facilitators of teens from families struggling with substance abuse

Written by John J. Liptak, EdD Ester Leutenberg. Being a teen has always been challenging, but today teens face issues that have been compounded by a rapidly changing society and a plethora of technology. These changes require new strategies in ways to teach teens to protect themselves from the challenges they will constantly face in school and community, and with their friends and family.

Some of the areas in which teens need to worry about their personal safety include:

• Risks related to violence including bullying, exposure to gangs, and harm from guns and other weapons.
• Online dangers including harassment, cyber-bullying, sexually explicit materials, identity theft and financial theft and scams, and agreeing to meet strangers in person after developing online relationships.
• Victimization of crimes.
• Dangerous driving risks including drinking/drugs and driving, underestimating dangerous road situations, texting or using cell phones inappropriately and not wearing seat belts.
• Peer pressure such as experimenting with drugs and alcohol, having unprotected sex, going to unsafe places by themselves and engaging in risky behaviors.