In a culture of excessive consumption, you may find it difficult to teach your teenager to appreciate and give back to the community they are being raised in.
Encouraging your teens to participate in community service is a very important thing you can do for them as a parent. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, 55% of youth ages 12 to 18 participate in volunteer activities; nearly double the adult volunteering rate of 29%. Of those youth volunteers, 39% volunteer on a regular basis.
The holidays provide an array of opportunities for your teen to volunteer their time. Community service provides your teen with a sense of community and giving, especially during the holiday season. Teens can learn from volunteering in ways that a book or lecture will never succeed, such as appreciation and self esteem. Volunteering provides an array of benefits for teens, including increased self-esteem, a feeling of being valued, the opportunity to meet new people, the acquisition of valuable new skills, and a lifetime of wonderful memories and experiences.
The Center for Adolescent Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital encourages all activities that lead to positive youth development, including volunteering in the community. In addition the Center provides primary care and specialized care for tweens, teens, and young adults ages 10-22 years. We offer specialized referral services and a wellness approach to preventive medicine, including: reproductive healthcare (period problems, gynecologic nonsurgical needs, comprehensive counseling), obesity counseling, eating disorder prevention and medical management.
Our Adolescent Medicine clinicians are dedicated to providing quality, evidence-based care for all our adolescent patients. We use an evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach in treating our teenage patients with complex medical problems. In this way, as a parent, you know we are using all of our resources and knowledge to ensure we are treating and caring for your child at every level.
About the Speaker
Ellen Rome, MD, MPH, currently serves as Head of the Center for Adolescent Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. She is a board-certified pediatrician who was also among the first in the United States to be board-certified in Adolescent Medicine. Dr. Rome received her undergraduate degree in psychology, magna cum laude, from Yale University in 1984. She received her medical degree and was initiated into Alpha Omega Alpha in 1988 from Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine, then completed an internship and residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She next completed a three-year fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital, Boston, during which time she also obtained a Master's Degree in Public Health at the Harvard University School of Public Health.
Dr. Rome currently serves on the Medical Task Force for Eating Disorders for the Academy for Eating Disorders, chairs the Committee on Eating Disorders for the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, serves as Vice President for the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, and as the President of FIGIJ, or the Federation Internationale Gynecologie Infantile et Juvenile. Dr. Rome’s research interests include eating disorders and obesity, preventive medicine and reproductive health. She has been an invited speaker locally, nationally and internationally on various topics in Adolescent Medicine, while maintaining a commitment to ongoing teaching of house staff and students in the local and surrounding areas. She has written and published on various adolescent medicine topics, including eating disorders and obesity, the female athlete triad, nutrition for the teen athlete and adolescent sexuality.
Take this opportunity to learn more about creating a sense of community and giving for your teenager, and have your questions answered by Dr. Ellen Rome from the Cleveland Clinic.