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Parents: What You Need To Know About Your Teen And Drugs &
Alcohol
By Susan Epstein

Hospital hosts youth symposium

Durham Regional Hospital is hosting the 2008 M-POWERHOUSE: Bridge to the Future Youth Symposium on March 26 from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the hospital's auditorium. The event will enable 170 adolescents from Durham to increase their knowledge and awareness in areas related to community violence and health.

Click Here to read full article published: Mar 22, 2008 at "Need to Know" from The Durham News.

HeraldSun

Program informs teens of hazards
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.

TriangleTribune-masthead

Forum empowers Durham youth to succeed

By Sommer Brokaw
The Triangle Tribune

DURHAM - Local experts in education, health and law enforcement spoke to local students about setting goals.

The motivational presentation Monday was held at Durham School of the Arts. The theme, "Just Imagine," focused on understanding oneself and setting goals in preparation for going back to school.

M-PowerHouse, a nonprofit agency that has worked with youngsters in Pittsburgh, Pa., Washington, D.C., Greensboro, and now in Durham, provided the speakers. The event kicked off M-PowerHouse's partnership with the Restoration Institute for Leaders, also known as RIL. The summer institute uses life skills and physical exercises to train 50 teenagers in Durham Public Schools to be leaders.

"My commitment was to make sure our young people had an opportunity to be introduced to leaders who were walking the walk," Phyllis Joyner said. "We realized that together we would be a stronger unit because they are a pool of professional resources in all areas of life, and this core group needed that opportunity to interface."

Theresa Wahome, PhD, an educator in Durham Public Schools and board member of M-PowerHouse, encouraged the students to visualize their dreams and set a target.

"If you want to be the president and CEO of your own company, every decision that you make needs to center around doing those things that will benefit you in order to be that CEO and keep that CEO business," Wahome said.

Quintin Rogers, 15, a member of RIL who wants to be a lawyer, said he learned that you don't get anything for free.

"I learned that you have to work for everything you get," he said.

Dr. Harry Marshall, a trauma surgeon at UNC Hospital who co-founded M-PowerHouse in 1995 in Pennsylvania to address the impact youth violence has on young African-American males, discussed self-confidence and the true meaning of success. He emphasized the point "It's never too late."

At age 10, Marshall struggled with reading a simple book.

"I could not read that book, so it took me a lot of work to get to the level of education I needed to get the details of it," he said. "I really needed to believe in myself to do the work to get to where I am today."
Joseph Stroud, 15, another student in RIL who wants to play in the NFL, said: "What I learned is to try to do your best. Even though you fail, you can get back up on your feet and do it again. "

Detective Anthony Smith, a Durham native who has worked in the department's homicide unit for several years, advised the teenagers to make the right choices.

"Don't let some individuals take away doors that could be opened up in your future by making a bad decision. That decision could range from smoking marijuana to committing any type of crime because that transcript follows you the rest of your life," he said.

This article is reprinted here with permission and was first published July 25, 2007 in The Triangle Tribune.