Top Ten Tips from Teens for Adults

Here's a brilliantly simple, inspiring video designed to get adults involved in the lives of teens. What a great tool for recruiting mentors for youth in the juvenile justice system! (Hat tip to Lane County Prevention.)
As the video mentions, adults avoid teens because they think they want to be left alone.
But nothing could be further from the truth.

 
New Research on What Teens Need

The video was developed for the Search Institute, which did the research behind the 40 assets that teens need to be successful in life. It's tied to their recent research report, Teen Voice 2010: Relationships that Matter to America's Teens. The report is a national study of 1,860 15-year-olds in three cities across the United States exploring the importance of teen motivation and engagement in civic life.
 
Top Ten Tips from Teens

As part of that research, the Search Institute did in-depth interviews with 30 15-year-olds, and developed a list of top ten tips from teens for adults: 

1. Look at us.
2. Spend time talking with us.
3. Listen.
4. Be dependable.
5. Show appreciation for what we do.
6. Relax.
7. Show that you’re interested.
8. Laugh with us (and at yourself).
9. Ask us to help you.
10. Challenge us.

I can tell you from personal experience that these tips go double for kids in the juvenile justice system. Doesn't exactly sound like they want to be left alone, does it?  But what do you think?