Reaching out to at-risk teens

Today I wrote a very personal blog entry (complete with pic of me at 16) over at the MTV Books Blog that gets to the core of why I wrote a book like Ballads of Suburbia. It's the book I needed and looked for when I was sixteen and not sure how to cope with a truly terrible relationship or help friends with their messed-up home lives or navigate my own home life. I had friends who ran away from homes, literally, and figuaratively by escaping into drugs and alcohol. My personal form of relief was self-injury; a habit that started when I was 13 years old and didn't end until my early twenties.

I grew up with troubled teens and there are still so many, maybe even more troubled teens out there now. I think one of the biggest causes of self-destruction in people/families/groups of friends is the fact that we bury our pain and problems, we don't talk to each other. I wrote Ballads of Suburbia to help break that silence, to give people a starting point of conversation.

I want this book to get to the kids who need it most, so this week I am compiling a list of organizations that help at-risk teens. Organizations that focus on healing from self-injury, addiction to alcohol/drugs. Organizations that counsel kids dealing with those issues and kids who are runaways or homeless. I'm not really going the religious organization route because I'm not a religious person. I'm talking about orgs like SAFE Alternatives and To Write Love On Her Arms. And I'm looking for more, national orgs, local orgs. So if you've heard of a good national organization that helps teens or know of a great one in your community, please post a link. If you have contact information for someone at that organization, even better. If you don't feel comfortable posting that, you can email it to stephanie at stephaniekuehnert dot come.

Thanks!