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Whistler Community Services Society
A Helping Hand Toward a Healthy Community
 

Whistler For Youth WFY
(Communities That Care)

About Whistler For Youth
Helping Youth Stay On Track
Information for Parents of Teenaged Children


About Whistler For Youth
Officially launched in February of 2003, Whistler For Youth's vision is to "promote a safe community where residents and guests of all ages are comfortable and secure." Because Whistler for Youth is concerned with prevention, its efforts address the needs of children, families and two unique youth groups. These groups are Whistler's own youth and the young adults aged 18-26 who are part of the permanent and temporary workforce in the Community.

Whistler For Youth is an active coalition of organizations and individuals win the Whistler area, ranging from the Mayor himself to representatives of parents and parent organizations, community services of various kinds, Vancouver Coastal Health, schools, the RMCP, businesses and communities of faith.

In 2004 and 2006, Whistler for Youth undertook an assessment of the Community. The assessment included a review of archival data and a survey of grade 6-12 students in local schools.

In addition to the programs outlined on this page for parents, programs have been identified to target risk factors identified in the community and young adult domains.

Dr. Colin Mangham, a highly respected prevention researcher and Principal of Population Health Promotion Associates in Langley, B.C. is an advisor to Whistler For Youth.

For more information or to get involved with Whistler For Youth, please contact:
Deanne Zeidler, Chair, 604-902-4271

Thanks to our sponsors:
Resort Municipality of Whistler,
Safe Streets Program,
Spring Creek and Myrtle Phillip School Parent Advisory Councils
School District 48

Ministry for Children and Family Development


In September 2007, Whistler for Youth Community Board Members selected strategies to address the top risk factors shown in research to contribute to the development of six youth health and behavior problems (substance abuse, violence, delinquency, school drop out, depression/anxiety and teen pregnancy).

WFY supports efforts to promote healthy norms in our community.  TheBoard actively advocates for healthy images in our community as the researchhas shown that community laws and norms favorable toward alcohol and drugare predictive of youth development of the six health and behavior problems.WFY has developed a video which is available to employers as an orientationtool to help promote healthy behavior by employees in our community.

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Helping Youth Stay On Track
1. Stay On Track is a public awareness program designed to support the healthy development of children and youth.

As part of the Stay On Track Program a number of resources have been designed to help parents build protective factors in their children. Click below to download:

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Information for Parents of Teenaged Children
Whistler For Youth has identified a number of gold standard internationally validated programs as resources for families in our community.

Parenting Wisely-In the fall of 2007 Parenting Wisely will be available for parents of 11-18 year olds.  This self-paced curriculum is available for use by sign up and takes an average of three hours to complete.  The curriculum, which uses video game technology is suitable for parents and any other relatives or caregivers who would like to develop more effective parenting skills.  The research notes that it is ideal if parents can participate when their children are in grades 6-9 before the transition into the later teen years.  The program helps to strengthen family communication, increase parental supervision skills, improve discipline and lower childrens’ risk for developing health and behavior problems.  The program may be used with older children.

Strengthening Families Program for Parents and Youth 10-14-In 2008, this Program for Parents and Youth (10-14)-A video based intervention designed with parent, youth and family sessions using narrated videos that portray typical youth and parent situations. The program takes seven weeks with booster sessions and includes interactive activities including role-playing discussions, learning games and family projects.  The program benefits include improved family functioning, increased youth resistance to drugs and alcohol. Youth sessions focus on strengthening goal setting, dealing with stress and strong emotions, communication skills, increasing responsible behavior, and improving skills to deal with peer pressure.  Parents discuss the importance of both showing love to their youth while, at the same time, setting appropriate limits. Topics include making house rules, encouraging good behavior, using consequences, building bridges, and protecting against substance abuse.

Project Alert-This program is a school based prevention program for middle or junior high schools students that focuses on alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use.  The program provides youth with skills to prevent nonusers form experimenting with drugs and prevents those youth already using drugs from becoming regular users or abusers.  The program provides youth to identify and resist prodrug pressures.  Based on the strong research, this new school based prevention program has been identified as an addition to the existing school based programming in the future details to follow.

Thanks to generous support from sponsoring organizations, there is no charge for the programming.

For more information or to register, please contact Lisa Paterson, Project Manager at 604-815-9578 or by e-mail at lisajpat at shaw.ca.

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What You Can Do

Volunteer. Opportunities to give back to your community at WCSS and in Whistler are listed.

Donate. WCSS is a non-profit, charitable society. Donations are gratefully accepted and tax receipts are issued for amounts over $25.00.

Recycle. Through our "Free to a Good Home" exchange program, post your free item on the bulletin boards outside Re-Use-It Centre.


Most Popular Programs

Food Bank
Greenhouse Project
KidSport
Re-Use-It Centre
WERC
Whistler Survival Guide
Youth Outreach

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Whistler Community Services Society (WCSS)
6195 Lorimer Road . P.O. Box 900
Whistler, BC, Canada V0N 1B0
Tel (604) 932-0113 . Fax (604) 932.0599 . E-mail admin at mywcss.org . Web www.mywcss.org

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