The Mercer Island Youth & Family Services Community Advisory Board will host a community forum on successful parenting on Mercer Island featuring a panel discussion with local parenting professionals along side Island teens on March 15th.

Each presenter will give a brief introduction about their background and the work they do in the community relevant to the well-being of young people. This will be followed by an interactive panel discussion with questions raised from the audience. The event will also include group breakout sessions.

The event will take place on March 15th from 7 to 8:30 pm at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center; light refreshments provided. All parents and teens are invited to attend.

This forum is based on the statistic from the 40 Developmental Assets Survey that only 35% of Mercer Island Youth report having a positive parent/adult role model in their lives.

The advisory board was surprised by this statistic and decided to begin a conversation by hearing from youth and professionals what might be underlying this information.

Group Breakout Discussions:

Positive role models are all around us; sometimes it takes us a while to recognize who they might be. In this discussion, each group will be working on identifying what you see as positive role modeling for Island youth and who in your (or your child’s) life was or is a good role model. What will you take away from tonight‘s panel discussion?

Parents as Role Models:

Although your children are busy with school, extracurricular activities and friends, they are still watching you and taking mental note. Two of the most important aspects of being a good role model are leading by example and keeping open communication. In leading by example, parents help their children make healthy choices. By keeping communication open, parents can help children deal with issues such as peer pressure and other negative influences.

Alone we can do so little, but together as a community we can do so much to change this. This event is the first of several community conversations to be hosted by the MIYFS Community Advisory Board.