Building Connections Between Youth and Caring Adults

We believe that every adult has a responsibility to support the young people in their communities, in order to help them engage with and contribute to the world around them. Not only is this a necessary part of our creating healthy communities, but without support from at least one adult, young people are more likely to engage in risky behaviors like underage drinking. In fact, according to data from the 2014 MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey, youth without adult support were 38% more likely to report drinking in the past 30 days and 56% more likely to binge drink (4-5 drinks in under 2 hours).

The CMSAPC created the Caring Adults Action Team to help build these beneficial relationships between individual adults and youth, as well as to support organizations as they make structural changes toward making their services more supportive for youth. All of our “Caring Adults” activities are designed under the philosophy of Positive Youth Development, particularly, through the lens of the Search Institutes’ Developmental Relationships Framework.

Read more information about the activities of the Caring Adults Action Team here.