Youth Summit Workshops

The Courage To Speak: Empowering Youth to Be Drug Free is a dynamic, riveting and thought-provoking presentation given by Ginger Katz, founder and president of The Courage To Speak Foundation. Ms. Katz, who lost her son to a drug overdose in 1996, has made over 500 drug prevention education presentations throughout the country where she has reached the hearts and minds of thousands of students, parents, educators and law enforcement professionals. Ms. Katz's presentation combines prevention facts with her family's tragic experience to help participants learn about the role of silence and denial surrounding substance abuse, that it is OK to ask adults for help, how to recognize risky behaviors and relationships and how important it is for students and parents to talk together openly and honestly about the dangers of drugs including alcohol.

Morning Plenary

The Power of Acceptance

Presenter: Ty Sells, Youth to Youth International

Ty Sells's presentation, The Power of Acceptance, is a comical discussion that all students should see and hear. It challenges students to examine the way they treat others who are “different” from them. It also explores the consequences of making decision based on what is “cool” for today. The humorous and familiar stories give those in the audience a chance to laugh as they learn stories that give meaning to the statement, “it's funny because it's true!”

Afternoon Plenary

The Power of Positive Peer-Suasion

Presenter: Julie Laipply, Miss Virginia USA, 2002, and Role Models and Mentors

A powerful keynote, this highly interactive presentation is a call to action

for student leaders. Through entertaining visuals, demonstrations and active

audience participation, Julie Laipply equips students with life success strategies for

a fast-paced world. Participants will also learn tools and techniques to

resist negative peer pressure and how to use positive "peer-suasion" with the

power of one and the joint power of many to influence peers to make drug-free

choices.

Morning Plenary

Advocacy/Public Policy Panel

Presenters: TBA

Youth, more than many other sectors of society, have a voice that elected officials want to hear. You have the ability to make an impact and change the world around you. Hear from Capitol Hill and Administration staffers in this interactive plenary and learn how you can effectively advocate for programs and laws that positively impact your generation.

Breakfast Presentation

Mothers Against Drunk Driving's (MADD) Video Presentation, "Backstage Pass"

Pressured to fit in, many teens create an "onstage" personality - a combination of their favorite pop icons and a media reality that glamorizes alcohol use and other illegal, inappropriate and risky behaviors. Backstage Pass helps teens distinguish between life's onstage hype and its backstage realities. This presentation will grab your attention and deliver powerful messages using real teens to tell real stories about real life.

Youth will divide into cohorts and attend each of the following workshops.

Getting to the Roots of the Problem – Environmental Strategies in Action

Presenter: Nigel Wrangham, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

For years, many of us have been educated and conditioned to think only of individual resiliency, attitudes and attributes when we think of preventing underage drinking and other drug use. In fact, conditions in a person's environment play a crucial and often overlooked role in promoting or discouraging behavior on a community-wide scale. Just what is this “environmental” approach? How do we understand it, apply it to our efforts and teach it to others in our communities? That's exactly what this interactive, dynamic workshop is about!

Growing up Drug-Free: Using PRIDE Youth Programs in Your School

Presenter: Rebeccah Alderton, PRIDE Youth Programs

Experience what PRIDE Youth Programs can do for you and your community. Learn new interactive techniques for combating drugs and alcohol. Using our peer-to-peer approach, you will experience first hand the activities that have proven themselves effective for the last 28 years. Come and see how our program will work in any community!

Leadership Skizzles…. For Shizzle

Presenters: Heidi Heilman, SADD National (Students Against Destructive Decisions); Jacqueline Hackett, SADD Student of the Year 2004-2005, George Washington University; and Jawad Ahmad, 2004-2005 SADD Student Leadership Council, Boston College

This student-led, energized workshop will give youth leaders the tools to lead a thoughtful, interactive discussion on any topic or issue. Through fun, interactive activities, participants will learn nine critical facilitation skills that work to maintain an open, successful dialogue with various audiences. Come and discover a few real secrets to being a successful leader, learn the importance of good facilitation and identify and practice skills and strategies of a good facilitator.

True Lies: What the Media is Telling our Young People

Presenter: Jeffrey J. Rodman, Warren Coalition

Today's media is lying about sex, violence, drugs, alcohol and suicide. They say premarital sex has no consequences, drugs and alcohol make life more exciting, violence is a way to solve your problems and suicide is an easy escape. How can you combat this? Get informed at a True Lies Youth Talk. What goes on at a true lies talk? The use of multi-media like videos, music and PowerPoint, showering the audience with information and facts and presenting truth in a manner everyone will understand. The seminar is very up front and edgy; the way our society has become accustomed to. Hear how one night of drinking changed a young man's life forever, how drugs influence young people to do things they would not normally do or a parent explaining how their son's suicide affected their family. This workshop will captivate the audience and deliver the message with humor, cutting-edge technology and an in-your-face speaking style.

The Character To Lead

Presenters: Annie Schaeffing, Amy Shalosky, Brandyn McElroy and Jashae Stewart, Youth from Youth to Youth International

Leadership is a talent that is valued in all aspects of life. Character is a set of values that enhances our ability to lead. Sports teams, companies, governments and religions all are in search of people with an ability to lead. We are all waiting and clamoring for the next “Great Leader.” Stop waiting! This workshop will help to enhance the qualities present in each of us that can help us to be our own “Great Leader.” We will learn what impact our character has on our influence of others. It will also advance the understanding that leadership is more about service, than credit. As Heraclitus once said, “a man's character is his fate.”