Friendswood youth from both Friendswood High School and Clear Brook High School were invited to participate in a community summit held at League City Civic Center and hosted by the Bay Area Alliance for Youth and Families.

Students were selected from the roster of CLEAR members (Clean Living Encouragement and Responsibility) to participate in the summit by sharing their opinions and experiences around issues that affect them specifically in regard to underage drinking and substance abuse.

Over 120 representatives including community leaders, law enforcement, education, city government and others attended as well as student leaders from Friendswood, Webster, Kemah, League City and Houston.  City based roundtables as well a mixed groups discussed aspects of community action plans geared to reduce access to alcohol and drugs, to change community norms, and to increase law enforcement activities surrounding underage drinking and substance abuse.

“We were happy to find that we had interest on the part of our students, support from our schools and our parents, and strong participation at the summit,” said Lynn Shigekawa, coordinator of the Friendswood Alliance for Youth and Families. “We are also fortunate because our Friendswood City Council has approved the concept of the formation of a Youth Advisory Council (YAC) and we are hoping that the youth in our community will want to get involved.”