"Building strong communication takes time and effort, but fostering open dialogue strengthens relationships and enables families to navigate tough issues together."

Written by a Ventura County college student.

Effective communication between parents and youth is essential for fostering strong relationships and navigating the complexities of growing up. However, discussing...

Written by Janette, a senior at CLU.

As time passes, more young adolescents are gaining access to alcohol, which has become a serious issue. What’s surprising is that the people allowing this are often those you least expect—close family members like parents, cousins, siblings, or family friends. The use of alcohol can have significant negative effects on adolescents, both short and...

Written by Lucy, a Ventura County junior in high school.

By Tara McKee

Content warning: this post contains mentions of self-harm, domestic violence, and suicide. Please take care of yourself and practice caution if these are upsetting topics for you. 

Having a rough life as a child and not really being able to talk freely about my issues was always big for me. I always hid my emotions and my feelings. I shut down rather than talked. Even at a...

Written by Lucy, a Ventura County junior in high school.

Hatred drives Hatred.

Love drives Love.

When a tiger attacks,

The victim strikes

And a fight begins

And never ends

Until one ends. 

The Hatred.

Hatred.

Because Hatred

Makes Hatred

When you are broken

Do you smile at the breaker?

No.

You crush the breaker 

Til the breaker crushes you more.

So quench the urge...

Ventura County Behavioral Health recently updated some of their important online resources. Marijuana FactCheck and Vaping FactCheck VC are now under the umbrella of Cannabis FactCheck, a website that focuses on "what you need to know about teen cannabis use and vaping." (The Spanish version of the website can be found at Datos Marihuana.)

Cannabis FactCheck provides teens,...

By Anonymous.

I wanted to express my personal story of how alcohol almost and partly ruined my life. I am a young mom and was a young wife. My marriage was short-lived due to abuse on my end, and I couldn’t cope with the loss of my marriage. When I was 20 I thought a family should always stick together regardless of anyone feeling mistreated. I couldn’t have been more wrong, but...

Written by a CSUCI Service-Learning student.

Dear Brook, 

As always, I was listening to music while writing to you. Stop and listen with me. 

So it turns out that I’m an adult child of an alcoholic, which basically means that I have issues. I read a really interesting study that says that I’m more prone to self hatred, low self esteem/confidence, and I’m more fearful...

The testimony of a person incarcerated. 

By an anonymous writer from jail, 32 years of age.

How did this all begin? That is probably the hardest question anyone has ever asked me. The easy answer is truly just an excuse. You see, I’m writing this response from jail where I’ve been living for the last four months. 

Being incarcerated might seem normal to some but not for...

Written by Madison Jaffe.

Fashion magazines, beauty products, and diet campaigns bombard us every day with messages telling us that we aren’t good enough. They project messages saying we should be thinner, more stylish, or have softer skin. We are told that we aren’t enough, but can fix that with the swipe of a credit card to purchase their goods. However, these products change...

The following poem was written by our weekly writing group, The Green Walls Writer’s Project, in Zoom in 2020. Each person wrote a sentence about achieving their goals and then we put them all together to form a powerful poem. 

You encourage me to want to do my best daily

Because it’s not about me, 

It’s about what I did that was greater than me.

Scalpel in my...

Written by Sydney Parker, a senior at CSUCI.

I am currently a fourth-year college student, about to graduate with my Bachelor’s degree. I have noticed that throughout my college years, I have become less inclined to drink alcohol. In high school, I drank a lot more than I do now. I was that girl that would peer pressure my friends into drinking with me, which I regret deeply. A...