What’s an organizational member, you ask. That’s easy, it’s a non-profit that joins TimeBank Boulder as a member. That means the organization itself is a member—it’s members can join as individual members too, of course.
Being a member as an organization allows our members to earn $TD by helping out a local non-profit doing good things in our larger community. And Natural Highs is doing good things!!
Natural Highs is a grass-roots substance abuse prevention/intervention program for teens and adults in Boulder. In order to give young people an opportunity to step up as leaders in their own community and to create a positive peer culture for others, the teens in the program actually RUN the program.
Knowing that substance abuse is rampant and deeply engrained in Boulder’s culture, TBB member Avani Dilger started Natural Highs 15 years ago as a way to develop a more engaging, creative, empowering, and non-judgmental approach. The intention is for teens to learn about the effects of substance use, discover healthy alternatives, support each other in making healthy choices, and take on leadership roles to positively impact people of all ages.
With that in mind, Natural Highs provides healthy alternatives to drugs and alcohol through workshops, after-school classes, community presentations, sober events, parent education, and entrepreneurial and leadership opportunities for teens.
Today they serve over 2,000 teens in Boulder County each year and over 80% of participants report that Natural Highs has helped themdecide to reduce or stop using drugs and/or alcohol.
They provide a FREE Natural Highs after-school program for teens in Boulder every Tuesday from 4-6pm at Hope Church, 4705 Baseline Road, Boulder and teenager is welcome to attend to receive positive support around healthy alternatives to substance abuse. And they offer a FREE Parent/Community Nights to offer education around substance abuse prevention for teens and adults.
As a small non-profit they are in need of help from their TBB community in the areas of bookkeeping, data entry, website development and upkeep, non-profit development, event organization, program evaluation and research, editing, curriculum development, design and branding, and marketing in order to help the program continue to serve the people it currently helps and handle the additional requests that come in every day. More and more people are finding out about them and asking for help, sothey are turning to their community (that’s us!) for help. Please think about their needs and your abilities and contact Avani (avani@naropa.edu or 303-859-5778) to offer your support. It’s a great way to accomplish multiple wonderful things at once: use your skills, support a terrific organization, earn time dollars, support TBB, and make the world a better place for some young people who need our help.
You can learn more on their Facebook page “Natural Highs Community” and/or on their website www.naturalhighs.org.