HPA hosting free parent workshop

Hawaii Preparatory Academy welcomes Justine Finn, director of Relation-Shift, for a free parent workshop at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 8 titled “Social Media, Media and Sex: Opportunities, Solutions and Challenges Facing Kids and Teens and What Parents Can Do.”

The interactive 90-minute workshop will take place at the school’s Gates Performing Arts Center (Upper Campus). All community members are invited to attend.

“Teens in the United States spend an average of nine hours a day on a screen, not including for school or homework,” Finn says. “Socializing, exploring identity and dating often occur between texts and social media, raising new challenges and positive opportunities.”

As young people begin engaging in romantic and intimate relationships, many experience violence, abuse and harassment. How can parents guide, empower and mentor their children to engage in healthy media and relationship behaviors? Finn’s workshop will reveal what children are learning about sex, gender and relationships from social and traditional media, and will provide parents with strategies to address common problems (and opportunities) facing their children and communities.

Finn founded Relation-Shift at the Harvard Innovation Lab after receiving the 2016 Harvard Graduate School of Education Entrepreneurship in Education Award. Relation-Shift works with middle and high schools to discuss relationship and sexual violence among middle and high school age youth.

For the past 10 years, Finn has worked to advance the equality of women and men, focusing on creating inclusive workplaces and school cultures and developing the capacity of young people to engage in healthy relationships.

For more information, visit www.relationshiftproject.com or call 881-4002.