What’s Your Drug of Choice – Palo Magazine, September 2020
By Nadine J. Smet-Weiss, Community Liaison, Translated by Johnathan Rodriguez-Baez, Youth and Health Resource Center Coordinator (lee abajo) Palo Magazine - October 2020 According to Anita Miller, Program Manager for Drug Free Communities, the most recent PAYS data...
Important Announcement: Berks Teens Matter to Change Its Name
Listening and Learning We’ve been having some challenging conversations lately. Specifically how the name of our initiative, Berks Teens Matter, is insensitive to the Black Lives Matter movement. Because of the similarity of names, we recognize we may have been...
Spark Your Creativity
By Nadine Smet-Weiss, Community Liaison; Translation by Ana Madenford, Prevention Specialist Read the August El Palo Magazine I write not knowing what freedoms and restrictions we will be living with this August. One thing I think I do know is that August,...
Starting the Conversation
By Nadine Smet-Weiss Starting the Conversations. . . Take a deep breath. Let it out. Take another deep breath. Starting the conversations is a little like that, one breath at a time. You can do this, I know you can. And you can’t really mess it up. What’s that I hear?...
Nutrition and Adolescents/La Nutrición y los Adolescentes
By Nadine Smet-Weiss, translation by Ana Villaman El Palo - May 2020 Nutrition and Adolescents Did you know, during the major developmental stage of adolescence brain development is a very big part of the deal? And did you know that without good nutrition during this...
Parenting Isn’t Just For Parents/La crianza no es solo para padres – Palo Magazine, April 2020
Palo Magazine - April 2020 By Nadine J. Smet-Weiss, translation by Maribel Martinez The well-known Nigerian proverb says it this way: “it takes a village to raise a child.” In my early days at Berks Teens Matter, local leaders told me story after story about the...
Meet Our New Youth Ambassador Coordinator!
Johnathan Rodríguez Báez is the Youth & Health Resource Center Coordinator for Berks Teens Matters. Has a BA in Education from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico and loves to read, explore and being involved in the community. He also holds a position in...
¿Un Plan Alternativo? – Palo Magazine Jan 2020
An Alternative Plan? By Nadine J. Smet-Weiss, translated by Ana Villaman Palo Magazine January 2020 Local author, David Nazario, speaks a lot of truth. One of my favorite truths in his widely popular book, Make Love Your Religion is, “I often wonder why society tries...
Passion and Purpose: Why I work for Berks Teens Matter
“Hey, Bethany? So why DO you do this work?” This is a question I get a lot when I’m in the community representing the Berks Teens Matter team. I do this work for a lot of different reasons, but it begins with a passion I have for engaging with and working with youth....
There’s Always a Lot to Talk About in the Health Resource Center
As the Health Resource Center Coordinator at Reading High School, October’s “Let’s Talk” Month brought so many topics to mind, I couldn’t even pick just one. I thought about the small HRC room and what those four walls are really all about and when it comes down to...