Twenty years ago, UC Cooperative Extension 4-H advisor Carla Sousa, working with retired kindergarten teacher Denise Nelson, launched the first teen survival conference in Visalia.
Even as its first participants are pushing middle age, the program continues to gather local teenagers to face the challenges of youth in the rural San Joaquin Valley community, according to a story in today's Visalia Times-Delta. The 2008 event takes place Oct. 14.
"When we started off, we had no idea," Sousa was quoted. "Was this going to last one year? Two years? Five years? Because of the reception, it makes you want to continue."
Teen pregnancy, mental health, higher education and employment opportunities were topics of the conference from the beginning. The program has evolved to address such issues as teenage depression, nutrition and eating disorders, and gender identity.
"Kids continue to grow up faster and faster," Nelson was quoted. "I think the value of the conference has grown because of the faster pace of our society and the greater stresses our youth have today."