Who We Are • Contact Us • What Is "Teen-Friendly"

Who We Are

Welcome to TeenResourceATL.org, a resource guide created by and for teens in the metro-Atlanta area. We know how hard it is to find information about a variety of everyday issues, so we — a group of Atlanta teenagers from VOX Teen Communications (www.VoxRox.org) — began the development of a Web site geared to helping you solve problems and make important decisions.

All of the area organizations and resources found on TeenResourceATL.org have been checked and approved by our team to make sure they are relevant and teen friendly. Currently, this site focuses on drug- and sex-related issues. As we continue to grow, we hope to cover other issues and concerns we teens struggle with.

We know that sometimes you face challenging choices in life and you just want to know what your options are. Our job here is not to tell you what to do, but to provide you with a variety of options to help you make smart decisions. We hope you take full advantage of this site and find it useful!

Contact Us

As you spend time on our site, we'd love to hear what you think about it.

If you're a teen, let us know what works, what doesn't and any suggestions you might have to make it better. Also, please tell us about the about experiences you have with agencies listed on the site, and whether you would recommend them to other teens. If any information in our listings turns out to be incorrect, let us know so we can fix it!

If you're a representative from an agency already listed, please send us any updates or corrections to your listing on this site.

If you're from an agency that's not on the site yet, please give us your contact information and we'll follow up to potentially add you as a resource for teens in need.

The teen editors of Teen Resource Guide ATL can be reached by sending an e-mail to resourceguide@voxrox.org.

What is Teen Friendly?

On this Web site you will come across the term "teen friendly" many times. Here at VOX, we anticipated that you might wonder exactly what "teen friendliness" is. So, we brainstormed and came up with a list of things that we feel indicates whether a place is teen friendly or not. The list includes the following criteria:

The agency is accessible. This means that the services the agency offers are within reach for teens. Specifically this means:

• Agency is open to teens
• Agency is conveniently located for teens and is MARTA accessible and/or has free parking.
• The agency is open during times other than regular school hours (8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday)
• Teens' privacy is respected. This means parents or guardians won't be called with the exception that the teen is in danger or possibly a danger to others.
• The agency offers free or reduced prices for services. Most teens cannot afford large expenses.
• The staff at the agency is welcoming of teens. Specifically this means:
  • The staff at the agency are helpful and informative. This means that the staff has or can direct the teen to someone who has accurate information for the teen in need; the staff is welcoming, patient and willing to listen to the teen in need; and the staff is trained in the service the teen is seeking.
  • Teens are able to talk to a person when they contact agency rather than leave a message.
  • The staff at the agency use easy to understand and use teen-friendly language (meaning no technical jargon).
  • The staff at the agency respect teens as people.
  • The agency has some form of teen involvement and/or teen feedback. Examples of this are peer counselors, teen councils, and surveys asking for feedback from clients.
  • Someone greets a teen in need when they arrive and takes the time to figure out what the problem is.
  • The staff is nonjudgmental towards the teen.