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Article Archive: Click on title to read full article. Attention Authors: If you would like to submit an article for our monthly newsletter and website, please send an email to news@m-powerhouse.org . We can offer no pay for articles submitted but we will include bio and links to your website. Make sure you also subscribe to our FREE e-newsletter so you will get a copy when your article is published. Parents: What You Need To Know About Your Teen And Drugs & |
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Hospital hosts youth symposium |
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BY MATTHEW E. MILLIKEN : The Herald-Sun mmilliken@heraldsun.com Mar 27, 2008 DURHAM -- A group with backing from several local organizations began what it hopes will be a series of life- and community-changing events for Durham teenagers on Wednesday. M-PowerHouse brought about 175 students from Hillside and Southern high schools to Durham Regional Hospital for talks on sexually transmitted diseases, gangs, violence and other topics. The group's ambition is to help students make smarter decisions about staying in school, working toward goals, eating healthily and other issues. "We feel like we have a very powerful message that we need to get out to the disadvantaged youth in the community," obstetrician and gynecologist Ira Smith said Wednesday morning after his presentation on STDs. M-PowerHouse, founded in 1995 in Pittsburgh by trauma surgeon Harry Marshall, now of UNC Hospital, and Terry Smith, now an anesthesia technician supervisor at Durham Regional, believes that Wednesday's event could be the template for future events that have a positive influence on local teens. The group says it is backed by Duke University Health System, UNC Hospital, N.C. Central University's public health education department, the county health department, a local Wal-Mart store, two local radio stations and other area businesses. Ellen Reckhow, the chairwoman of the Durham County commissioners and another project supporter, attended part of Wednesday's event. The organization offered to pay teenagers to join focus groups to help it judge the event's impact and refine future offerings. "This is our pilot project, so as such we want to see how it's received by the youth," said Ira Smith, who is a board member of M-PowerHouse as well as the chairman of the board of trustees for Durham Regional Hospital. Smith hopes that in combination with surveys it conducts, M-PowerHouse can use the crime rate, the number of free condoms given out by the county health department and other data to prove that it's having a positive effect. "Certainly it's a long-term project," Smith said. Group co-founder Terry Smith believes that event participants will benefit from meeting a variety of professionals at the event, including doctors, hospital staff and an accountant who is supporting the program. "If you think about it, most of our kids have never really been introduced to professionals," Smith said. In talks with youngsters, Smith discusses the three D's and three W's. That's "Do it, develop it, demonstrate it" -- a process aided by wisdom, work and wealth. That wealth, he hastens to add, is often not money but knowledge. Dominic Silha, a Southern High School freshman, said Ira Smith's talk made a big impact on him. "If you were to get [a sexually transmitted disease] and you didn't know it, it would be kind of scary," he said. Fellow Southern freshman Charles Jefferson agreed. "I don't want to get an STD and end up dying before I turn 21." Jefferson said he hadn't been taught about sexually transmitted diseases in school. Dorian Lanier, also a Southern freshman, praised a talk about gangs. "That was very helpful because around our school there's a lot of gang violence and stuff," he said. Said Jefferson: "I just think that having regular friends is cool. I don't want to go to a gang and get shot up and everything." Marcus Wilson, a Hillside High School sophomore, said that he planned to warn his friends about the dangers of gangs. Some people he knows are in gangs and have even been to court on shoplifting and theft charges. Wilson and another Hillside student said they had been impressed by Ira Smith's discussion of sex and its potential hazards. Nikia Carter, a senior planning to run on the N.C. Central track team next year, intends to caution her friends when she hears them casually discuss sex. "When people talk about it, they don't have [in mind] all the consequences, and that's the most important," she said. Carter, who also appreciated the program's message on the importance of saving money, called the M-PowerHouse event a good experience. © 2008 by The Durham Herald Company. All rights reserved. This article is reprinted here with permission. |
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Forum empowers Durham youth to succeed
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