Schools also should implement fact-based, rather than \u201cfear-based,\u201d drug-education programs; follow examples set by New York and Chicago by setting up peer-mentoring programs; and increase funding for school-based health centers, the youth council recommended at a presentation attended by 16 of the state\u2019s 100 legislators.<\/p>\n
Republican Sen. Ellen Roberts founded the council in 2008 to get young people involved in state government and to bring a youth perspective that rarely is heard inside the Capitol. For example, legislators often push for funding for school counselors, but council members say many students are embarrassed to be seen in the counselor\u2019s office and would rather discuss their problems through a computer keyboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cColorado youth should know our diverse group is working hard, and also having some fun along the way, to represent the best interests of young people in our state,\u201d said Graham, a junior at Durango High School who serves as vicechairman of the council.<\/p>\n
The group meets several times a year to identify the issues most important to young Coloradans. In previous years, legislators have been struck by powerful testimony from its members on the prevalence of youth suicide.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s recommendations fell into four categories: the academic achievement gap, jobs and higher education, behavioral health care and energy development.<\/p>\n
\u201cFear-based\u201d drug-education programs like DARE don\u2019t work, the council\u2019s report said. Instead, the state should fund a fact-based program that gives students unbiased information that will help them make informed decisions about drugs, the council recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Schools also should implement fact-based, rather than \u201cfear-based,\u201d drug-education programs; follow examples set by New York and Chicago by setting up peer-mentoring programs; and increase funding for school-based health centers, the youth council recommended at a presentation attended by 16 of the state\u2019s 100 legislators. Republican Sen. Ellen Roberts founded the council in 2008 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5794,5735],"tags":[14,15,13,265,528],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-120803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-colorado-state-house-of-representatives","tag-colorado-state-senate","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-politics","tag-state-sen-ellen-roberts"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120803"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=120803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}