Group+3


 * Community Concerns: **

First Choice: Teen Substance Abuse Second Choice: Victims of Trauma Third Choice: Single/Teen Mothers

Chief Concern: Teen Substance Abuse
 * Alcohol and Chemical Abuse Council of Southwestern Ohio - Lindsey Miller


 * Talbert House - Dyan Ramsey




 * Alcoholism Council of the Cincinnati Area, NCADP - Randy Saunders


 * Teen Challenge Cincinnati - Lauren Spangler

__**Rationale**__

Teen substance abuse is a widespread and rapidly growing problem in today's society. Drug addictions and alcoholism are becoming common among teenagers, and we want to find a way to help prevent and stop these issues. Even in small town Harrison, Ohio we notice many of our peers struggle against substance abuse, to many different degrees. We chose teen substance abuse because it is not only a major concern for ourselves and our peers, but we can also relate to it whether it effects a sibling, a close friend, or even a class mate. By helping these teenagers now, we can prevent and eliminate future problems of alcoholism and drug abuse. With out help now these troubled youths will grow up and pass their habits onto their own children, repeating the cycle once again. The teenagers today, are the adults of tomorrow; if we want a better tomorrow, we need to stand up and help today.

We chose to support and advocate Talbert House for our Philanthropy Project. Talbert House is a widespread agency that focuses on prevention, assessment, treatment, and reintegration. They help many different people varying from children to adults and six different counties. They have over twenty different programs in which they help such people deal with their personal troubles. One reason we chose Talbert House as our agency to advocate is because they have many groups that focus on teen substance abuse in which the groups hope to either prevent or help treat some type of substance abuse. With Talbert house covering so many different counties we felt that their various programs and outreach to a variety of people made them a well rounded agency.

Another reason we chose Talbert House is because they seemed to budget their money appropriately for being an agency that deals with a wide array of programs. Talbert House spends about 90% of they money on programs, 9% on administrators, and the remaining 1% on fund-raising. The American Institute of Philanthropy reports that most highly efficient charities spend 75% or more on their programs, therefore we decided that because Talbert House spends 90% on their programs they are clearly a highly efficient charity. We are also very fond of these numbers as they spent about $34,000 out of their total $37,000 on programs in 2009, about $3,000 of which was put towards teen substance abuse.

One final reason as to why we chose Talbert House is because they seemed like a very cooperative agency and one that is open to volunteers of all ages. One thing we noticed on their website was that multiple schools around Cincinnati, such as Walnut Hills and Seven Hills School, have volunteered through Talbert House, therefore we thought they wouldn't hesitate to find a way for us to help them out. Also, we noticed that unlike some of the other agencies we looked at, Talbert House had many ways on their website in which we could go about donating towards their cause of helping people.

Overall Talbert House balances their money well and met our criteria in which we used to choose our agency. It was good to see that it accepts volunteers from schools like us that want to help out and make a difference in the lives of others.