Program Trains Teens to Counsel Their Peers

“Here’s something I heard from a teen-ager today,” said Sherri Ferris, a Fullerton marriage and family therapist. “He came into my office and announced, ‘No one at home talks to me. They’re either gone or watching TV.’ I hear that kind of statement a lot.”

Ferris and her husband, Ron, were among the 125 guests at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center last Thursday for a fund-raiser for the YWCA of North Orange County--specifically, for the Y’s Teen Advocacy Program by Peers (TAPP).

TAPP, inaugurated last October at Fullerton’s Nicolas Junior High, is designed to help teen-agers who feel they have “no one”--or not the right ones--to talk to.

Nicholas Principal Mary Dalessi, who enjoyed the evening with her parents, Hilton and Margaret Dalessi, noted that youngsters in junior high tend to open up to their peers about things they wouldn’t even mention to parents or other adults. Greeting guests outside the Muckenthaler’s walled-in patio, where white-clothed tables and the dinner buffet were set up on the lawn, were Janet Young, who heads the Youth Programs Advisory Committee and who chaired the alfresco benefit, and Y Executive Director Beverly Glen.

Glen spoke proudly of TAPP, which in February received a $12,500 challenge grant from the California Community Foundation. Proceeds from the evening, an estimated $1,500, put the Y “over the halfway mark” in matching the grant, Glen said.

Since its inception, TAPP has trained 54 teen-aged advisers who have counseled about 275 of their peers at Nicolas and Ladera Vista Junior High, according to Glen. The 20-hour training course teaches the young advisers how to listen attentively, maintain confidentiality, and spot “red flags” of distress. Peer advisers may inform the school counselor if a student discusses plans to run away from home, shows symptoms of obvious substance abuse, describes thoughts or plans to commit suicide, or shows any evidence of abuse at home.