Catalyst

Informed Families Catalyst

Helping Our Kids Take Pride in Their Accomplishments

Posted by Informed Families on January 19, 2023 at 5:45 PM

So often it seems our interactions with our children consist mainly of telling them what not to do, and what they’re doing wrong. But sometimes we need to focus on what they’re doing right. Indeed, we need to encourage them more than just sometimes.

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Topics: parenting, teenagers, teens, accomplishments

Searching for Answers on the Fentanyl Crisis

Posted by Informed Families on January 15, 2023 at 1:53 PM

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported last month that federal authorities seized more than 379 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl last year, enough to kill every American.

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Topics: parenting, drug, teenagers, drug abuse, study, teens, fentanyl

Study Finds Teens Missing the Message on Vaping, Tobacco

Posted by Informed Families on December 29, 2022 at 8:49 PM

In a sign that young people are not heeding the warnings about the dangers of smoking and vaping, a new study commissioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than three million U.S. middle and high school students used some form of tobacco product within the previous 30 days in 2022.

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Topics: parenting, teenagers, study, teens, tobacco, vaping

The Right Way To Involve Your Child in Sports

Posted by Informed Families on December 22, 2022 at 5:32 PM

When famed soccer reporter Grant Wahl died suddenly during the World Cup earlier this month, his wife, physician Céline Gounder, told CBS News, “I want people to remember him as this kind, generous person.”

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Topics: parenting, teenagers, sports, teens, social media, Family Table Time

One Child’s Fentanyl Death

Posted by Informed Families on December 19, 2022 at 2:16 PM

“When you approach a dead body, there is a void there, and I’d never sensed that before, and that’s when my world was destroyed,” Air Force veteran and airline pilot Chris Didier told The Washington Post. His son seemed asleep at his desk.

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Topics: parenting, teenagers, teens, social media, fentanyl

Keep Your Kids From Taking Catfishers’ Bait

Posted by Informed Families on December 11, 2022 at 6:58 PM

The story was tragic. A former Virginia police officer drove nearly 3,000 miles to Riverside, California, to kidnap a teenage girl he had met online through “catfishing,” a type of online deception in which someone pretends to be someone else, especially to pursue fraudulent online romances.

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Topics: parenting, teenagers, teens, social media, valor

Teaching Kids the Meaning of Valor

Posted by Informed Families on November 27, 2022 at 5:15 PM

One of the topics in this month’s Family Table Time kit is valor. But if you try to tell your child what it means to have valor, they may wonder why you’re bothering, them since they’re not serving in the military.

Why would a kid need to worry about courage or bravery, as the dictionary defines the word, in their everyday lives?

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Topics: parenting, teenagers, teens, valor

When Should You Give Your Child a Smartphone?

Posted by Informed Families on November 20, 2022 at 9:45 PM

“But Mom, everybody else has one!”

And of course, the classic parental response to this is, “If everyone else was jumping off the Empire State Building, does that mean you have to?”

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Topics: parenting, teenagers, teens, social media, smartphone

Snapchat’s Small Step Toward Helping Parents Monitor Teens Activity

Posted by Informed Families on November 13, 2022 at 4:47 PM

For years, parents have campaigned to get social media sites to help them keep their kids safe online. In order to stave off government action, some of these platforms have moved to offer safety features they say will help protect kids.

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Topics: parenting, teenagers, teens, social media

NY Governor Signs Red Ribbon Week Measure

Posted by Peggy B. Sapp, President & CEO on November 9, 2022 at 3:20 PM

President's Message - November 2022

I had intended my article to be about an Attitude of Gratitude, Thankfulness, and Celebration but the news media doesn’t cover any of those topics only Death, Destruction, and Debacle. Maybe that is why we have just a large drug problem we focus on the negative and forget how to Live a Healthy Life.
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Topics: President's Message, college students, teenagers, Informed Families, teens, drugs

About Us

We teach people how to say no to drugs and how to make healthy choices. To reduce the demand for drugs, Informed Families has focused its efforts on educating and mobilizing the community, parents and young people in order to change attitudes. In this way we counteract the pressures in society that condone and promote drug and alcohol use and abuse. The organization educates thousands of families annually about how to stay drug and alcohol free through networking and a variety of programs and services .

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