LIFESMART YOUTH

Who we are: Being a kid has never been easy. With so many factors—both internal and external—affecting a child’s wellbeing, growing up can be a confusing, tumultuous time. LifeSmart Youth™ gives young people the inner resources they need to make good choices in life. We teach valuable whole-life skills such as building healthy peer and teen dating relationships and understanding their growing bodies and reproductive health. We give them the answers they need to live their best lives now and into adulthood. At LifeSmart Youth we believe the world needs kids who aren’t just book smart or street smart, but life smart. Since 1943, we have empowered Indiana youth to make healthy and safe decisions…for life.

What we do: We offer five school-based health education programs to provide relevant, age-appropriate health information for Indiana students. Each program supports our mission to empower youth to make responsible choices and adopt healthy behaviors, thus enabling them to stay in school, excel in their studies, and strive for their future goals.

• Step Up for Kindness!™ teaches kindness, empathy, compassion, and the skills to be an upstanding citizen who prevents bullying.

• Human Growth and Development teaches students how to care for and respect their growing and changing bodies during puberty.

• Making A Difference!® provides middle school students with the knowledge, confidence, and skills to understand reproductive health.

• CARE™ (Communicating with And Respecting Each other) addresses consent, teen dating communication, and dating violence prevention.

• LifeSkills® Training is designed to teach teens personal selfmanagement, interpersonal communication, and drug resistance skills.

Why we’re important: The prevalence of technology and social media in today’s society exposes Indiana youth, now more than ever, to serious social issues. School safety, bullying, cyber safety, dating violence, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, stress, depression, suicide, and intense peer pressure are all major parts of children’s daily lives, and the effects are showing. The 2019 Kids Count Data Book from the Indiana Youth Institute reports that:

• 16% of Indiana high school students were electronically bullied in the past year.

• 42% of Indiana’s high school youth reported ever having sex.

• 1 in 10 Indiana high school students experienced physical dating violence in the past year.

These can be difficult issues to talk about, and there’s only so much parents, schools, and other trusted adults can do to make sure youth are getting accurate, research-based answers. LifeSmart Youth is Indiana schools’ health educator of choice and is the best trained and most experienced school health education program in the state. We partner with parents, educators, school administrators, and other trusted adults to ensure youth receive the vital health and social education they need to navigate an increasingly complex social landscape.

How we affect the community: Our Health Educators currently deliver more than 67,000 educational hours of programming to over 22,000 youth (grades K–10) in 110 schools and summer camps in ten Indiana counties. These students often represent Indiana’s most vulnerable youth based on their geographic location, socio-economic level, ethnicity, and/or other health risk factors. Our programs provide medically accurate information about health, and we increase our impact by teaching critical whole-life skills and social wellness.

How you can help: Your support is needed now more than ever as today’s youth experience levels of anxiety, depression, social conflict, and abuse higher than previous generations. Being informed and prepared to make healthy and safe choices is in high demand by youth, parents, and schools, and LifeSmart Youth can meet this need in partnership with you. YOU can help Indiana kids live healthy and safe lives!

• Become a LifeSmart Youth sponsor by contacting teagan@lifesmartyouth.org

• Join LifeSmart Youth as a Committee member, or express interest in Board leadership by contacting teagan@lifesmartyouth.org

• Make a tax-deductible donation at lifesmartyouth.org/donate

• Be a LifeSmart Youth advocate by following us and sharing our message on Facebook and LinkedIn @LifeSmartYouth

We also host multiple events throughout the year for groups of 10-50 for a fun time networking and learning more about LifeSmart Youth. If you are interested, please contact teagan@ lifesmartyouth.org for more information. We’d love to meet you!

LifeSmart Youth, Inc. (formerly Social Health Association of Indiana, Inc.) 615 N. Alabama Street, Suite 228, Indianapolis, IN 46204 317.638.3628 teagan@lifesmartyouth.org Lifesmartyouth.org Facebook and LinkedIn: @LifeSmartYouth / Tonja L. Eagan, M.P.A., CFRE, CEO, 317.667.0341, teagan@lifesmartyouth.org