Relationship Communication-Skills Workshop for Teens

I’m thinking it might be a good time for us to offer a Relationship Communication-Skills Workshop for our teens—this, because all parents of teens who shot their classmates in schools (such as Columbine) typically say, “I had no idea . . .”  Statewide there are thousands of teens who are withholding one or more significant thoughts from their parents; they are not in-communication with anyone. Myself, K-12, I carried around dozens of thoughts (withholds, and unacknowledged perpetrations) into each interaction with everyone; each thought a barrier to recreating a teacher’s communications. Most present-day parents were not verbally assured by their parents that masturbation was normal; even today few parents know the importance of verbally acknowledging to their child each and every instance of verbal abuse. Father: “Son, I get that I was abusive earlier today.” The majority of parents have yet to learn how to create a safe space for truths to be told therefore they unconsciously train their child to deceive them. For example: Most (yes most) teens con each other into deceiving both sets of parents so as to have sex—none having experienced the correlation between personal integrity and outcomes such as grades; karmically it explains the country’s 50% divorce rate. Note: All divorced couples withheld one or more significant thoughts from each other on their first date (during my 44+ years of facilitating 3-hr coaching sessions I have not found any exceptions to this phenomenon).

I’m proposing a free weekend-long Relationship Communication-Skills Workshop for Pahoa’s young people, grades 6 - 12. (Fri. 6:00pm – 11:00pm, Sat. 9:00am to 11:00pm, Sun. 9:00am to 11:00pm). Friday evening includes dancing to emotionally stimulating music followed with paired verbal sharings, after which, each teen may agree to attend the rest of the workshop. Parents may attend Sunday evening to do a paired verbal-sharing process with their teen(s).

Four ways to support the project:

• Co-Facilitator Assistant: Prerequisite: Former workshop assistant or participant (phone & email address required). Email admin@bigislandforum.org facilitator for details.
• Communicating about the workshop: If/when you personally invite a teen he/she will most likely attend.  I.E. A question such as, “Have you heard about the teen workshop?” starts the conversation.
• Enrollment Team: The free workshop is a register-at-the-door event. Our task will be to ensure each teen in Pahoa has been invited and presented with a choice to attend or not. Free coaching will be provided to Team members who will be available to receive calls from any workshop participant wishing to talk with someone.
• Donations: To cover sound system and facility rentals, name tags, water, juice, cups, and gas mileage reimbursements for Assistants. Note: Since our beginning in 1989 no one at Community Communications (ComCom) has received any remunerations.

For more about the workshop: http://www.bigislandforum.org/teens/about.htm