Ray Lozano of Prevention Plus will talk to PNW Parent Education about the dangers of teen addiction to alcohol and vaping.

• Initiating Conversations Without Conflict: Parents will feel more capable of starting conversations about alcohol and vaping in a calm, non-confrontational manner. They will gain practical tools for opening dialogue in ways that reduce defensiveness, increase receptivity, and encourage youth to participate in the conversation rather than avoid it.

• Communicating Without Lecturing or Judging: Parents will develop greater confidence in using neutral, nonjudgmental language that preserves trust and minimizes resistance. This includes learning how to express expectations and concerns clearly without relying on fear-based messaging, over-explaining, or corrective lecturing that can undermine communication.

• Maintaining Ongoing, Trust-Based Dialogue: Parents will feel equipped to move beyond one-time “talks” and instead sustain ongoing, low-pressure conversations over time. This approach reinforces protective factors, strengthens the parent–child relationship, and supports healthier decision-making as youth encounter new social pressures.

Prevention Plus believes in the power of every young person’s unique potential. Substance use and abuse often block those possibilities from becoming reality. In 1995, Ray Lozano founded Prevention Plus as a way to give young people and those who support them (parents, teachers, school administrators, etc.) the resources they need to make positive lifestyle choices that fulfill students’ amazing destinies.

Make an impact, get some Mother’s Day Gifts for your loved ones (or yourself)!

We love helping to make an impact on our local community, and we know you do too! Our events are free to attend, but since we honor the time and value of our speakers, they can be costly to produce. Our Trunk Show is one of the ways that we raise money for our programming.

This year marks our 9th Trunk Show, 2nd year at the Elks Club, AND the first Spring Trunk Show. We are looking forward to the convenience of this location, and we love that we are able to keep the event local in our neighborhood while supporting local vendors with so many different talents!

Let us know you’re coming! Registered attendees will be entered to win a raffle prize!

Kids On the Brink: Raising Emotionally Healthy Youth

Presentation 12-1 / QA 1-1:30
In this seminar, Donna Jackson Nakazawa will share the latest science on female brain development, insight into the unprecedented current challenges our youth are facing, why so many teens are in crisis today, and how these variables factor into youth mental health. She'll offer an array of actionable strategies, tools, and approaches that parents, families, and organizations can utilize to better support our youth.

Donna will share highlights from her national Post-It Note Project, in which 1000s of high school and middle school students have shared with her what they wish they could tell their parents but can't, and what they wish the adults in their lives would say and do differently. She will also share 12 science-based steps for talking to youth in neuroprotective ways and building healthier parent-child connection.

The call will be a conversation between Donna and Christy Keating of The Heartful Parent Collective

LOCATION: WHEELIE POP BREWING

ADDRESS: 1110 NW 50th Street

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 4th

3-9 PM BENEFIT HOURS, 6-8 PM PNW PARENT EDUCATION TEAM IN ATTENDANCE

Wheelie Pop Brewing is our favorite place to gather to socialize, discuss parenting issues, and build community. They are hosting us for a Pints for Purpose night. They will donate a portion of their proceeds from the day, and they are open 3-9 pm. PNW Parent Ed board members will be on-site from at least 6-8 pm. We hope to see you there!

LOCATION: Zoom

DATE: POSTPONED

Do you have a question regarding youth mental health?

We will have a Facilitated Q&A session with Chris Heide, a substance abuse counselor from Ryther directly after the event with Brock Gjesdal.

Chris Heide is a Substance Abuse Counselor and Program Manager with nearly a decade of experience in mental health and substance abuse treatment. Specializing in young adults with substance use disorders and trauma, Chris employs trauma-informed, person-centered approaches, including CBT, DBT, and Motivational Interviewing.

LOCATION: ZOOM

DATE: POSTPONED

Brock Gjesdal, co-founder of the former Washington-based organization, Know Before We Grow, a 5th-12th grade youth education platform that taught students the physical mechanisms through which neurons develop and transfer electrical signals, and how these mechanisms are disrupted by substances such as alcohol and nicotine. Brock Brock is now a medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (UPSOM) and will continue to teach this curriculum to high school students while in Pittsburgh.

Brock has partnered with behavioral psychologists and physicians in the Pittsburgh area to create a brief, yet comprehensive presentation on scientifically studied risk and preventative factors of youth substance use that he will be presenting to parents across the country. Brock’s presentation specifically discusses multiple actionable steps you can take as a parent to reduce your child’s risk of substance use disorder development in both childhood and adulthood.

LOCATION: Zoom - REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE

DATE: THURSDAy, APRIL 3, 2025, 1-1:30pm

Do you have a question regarding youth mental health?

We will have a Facilitated Q&A session with Cailin Lainer, a licensed mental professional from Ryther directly after the event with Lisa Damour.

Cailin Lanier has extensive experience working with children, youth, and families in various capacities. Currently, she specializes in treating youth with eating disorders in Ryther’s Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP), using diverse therapeutic modalities tailored to individual needs.

LOCATION: Zoom - REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE

DATE: THURSDAy, APRIL 3, 2025, 12-1 pm

3 time New York Times best-selling author and TED Talk expert, Dr. Lisa Damour will return to talk about a practical approach to social technologies (ie; texting, social media).

We’ll discuss a practical way to think about social technologies and how to:

• Set pragmatic boundaries around social technologies

• Address the harms of problematic social media use

  • Body image, eating disorders, hate content

• Stay engaged and model healthy use

In teenagers, powerful emotions come with the territory. And with so many of today’s teens contending with academic pressure, social media stress, worries about the future, and concerns about their own mental health, it’s easy for them—and their parents—to feel anxious and overwhelmed. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With clear, research-informed explanations alongside illuminating, real-life examples, The Emotional Lives of Teenagers gives parents the concrete, practical information they need to steady their teens through the bumpy yet transformational journey into adulthood.

At our talk with Lisa Damour, we'll discuss:

⭐ The fact that adolescent mental health isn't about feeling good, calm, or relaxed, but about having the right feelings at the right times, and knowing how to manage those feelings effectively.

⭐ How to help teens open up, and how to keep teens from being overwhelmed by their emotions or feeling at the mercy of their moods.

⭐ Concrete strategies for supporting teens as they manage their feelings at home, with their peers, online, and at school.

About Dr. Damour

Recognized as a thought leader by the American Psychological Association, Dr. Lisa Damour co-hosts the Ask Lisa podcast, writes about teenagers for the New York Times, appears as a regular contributor to CBS News, and works in collaboration with UNICEF. She is the author of two New York Times best sellers, Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood and Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls, and the soon-to-be-published book, The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents.

Dr. Damour serves as a Senior Advisor to the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University and has written numerous academic papers, chapters, and books related to education and child development. She maintains a private practice and also speaks to schools, professional organizations, and corporate groups around the world on the topics of child and adolescent development, family mental health, and adult well-being.

About PNW Parent Education

PNW Parent Education is a local nonprofit that brings the best experts in the nation to speak to our community on crucial parenting topics such as mental health, digital safety, equality, privilege/overindulgence, and more. Every quarter, we offer FREE, high-quality parent education events geared towards families, caretakers, and educators. We believe that better-informed families make stronger communities.