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notMYkid Announces New Executive Director
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notMYkid Executive Director Dr. Jarret Sharp
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notMYkid is honored to announce our new Executive Director, Dr. Jarret Sharp. Dr. Sharp joined our team in early March. For over 17 years, he's taught, coached, and led inner-city schools to successful achievements, positively impacting the lives of Arizona's children.
Dr. Sharp is a husband, father of five, grandfather, Eagle Scout, Arizona Army National Guard Veteran, and community volunteer. He holds a Doctorate in Advanced Educational Leadership from Argosy University, two Masters from Chapman University, and a Bachelors in Psychology from Brigham Young University.
notMYkid is eager and excited to see what the future holds for our organization with Dr. Sharp at the helm.
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notMYkid in the Community
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notMYkid Invites You to Sample "A Taste of Discovery"
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Gozzer Ranch - One of five amazing properties featured in the "Taste of Discovery" vacation raffle
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It's almost time for our 10th annual gala event. notMYkid invites you to sample "A Taste of Discovery" on April 25th. This year we're doing something brand new, and will be hosting the event at SpoFit, the Virginia G. Piper Sports and Fitness Center. This exciting event will feature an auction as well as a raffle for the chance to win an incredible vacation to one of five wonderful locations. Join us for an evening of fun that will benefit notMYkid's prevention education programs. Purchase event tickets here and raffle tickets here.
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notMYkid Needs Your Help for Arizona Gives Day 2014
 On April 9th, non-profit organizations from all over Arizona are coming together for Arizona Gives Day 2014. This annual event offers you the opportunity to make a tremendous impact in the community within a single day.
Arizona Gives Day is a big occasion for notMYkid, and we count on the donations of our generous supporters to help fund our prevention education programs. Due to your generosity on Arizona Gives Day last year, notMYkid took a message of prevention and hope to more Arizona schools than ever before.
Please be part of the collective impact movement that makes a huge difference in our state. Will you be part of the movement and donate $10 to notMYkid? We would greatly appreciate your support on Arizona Gives Day. Please visit this link to schedule a donation to notMYkid for Arizona Gives Day. Donations can be scheduled in advance and will process on April 9th.
Thank you for being such an important part of what we do.
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notMYkid to Give Away Free Drug Test Kits on April 18th
 Parents, are you familiar with the meaning of "420?" If you heard your child or one of their friends use the term or saw it written on one of their notebooks, would it stand out to you?
420, or April 20th, may be the single most popular day of the year for people to use drugs. For many young people, it will be the first time they make the choice to ever use a drug. It's important for parents and family members to be aware of the significance of this date in order to help prevent children and teens from beginning down the path to substance abuse.
In light of this, notMYkid will be giving away hundreds of free First Check home drug test kits and family drug prevention plans on April 18th, the Friday before 4/20. These kits are a $40 value which provide parents a deterrent and offer kids a solid reason to say "no" when offered drugs. The kits test for 12 different drugs, including seven illicit drugs and five prescription drugs.
Be sure to stop by on April 18th to get your free drug test kit and prevention plan, meet some of our notMYkid staff and speakers, and to ask questions related to substance abuse prevention.
When: Friday, April 18th - 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: notMYkid Office
5230 E. Shea Blvd.
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
and
Rural/Metro Fire Station 841
911 E. Hunt Highway
San Tan Valley, AZ 85143
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Students and Parents Enjoy First Annual "amplif(i) It Bash"
 On Saturday, March 1st, notMYkid's peer educator speaker program amplif(i) teamed up with our friends at Scottsdale Leadership Inc., Scottsdale Gymnastics & Trampoline, and Alice Cooper's Solid Rock Teen Center for the inaugural "amplif(i) It Bash."
The event, designed to be a celebration of positive life choices, featured a number of exciting activities for students, including hip hop dance lessons, parkour instruction, raffles, games, and more. Meanwhile, parents were able to attend a pair of free notMYkid presentations on internet safety and substance abuse prevention.
Turnout for the event was excellent, and a wonderful time was had by all. notMYkid would like to extend a big "thank you" to Scottsdale Leadership Inc., Scottsdale Gymnastics & Trampoline, and Alice Cooper's Solid Rock Teen Center for making this event so amazing. We look forward to doing it again next year!
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Parent Strategies
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Four Popular Smartphone Apps Parents Need to Know
Are you familiar with Snapchat, Kik, Whisper, and Ask.fm? If you're a parent whose child has a smartphone, you should be. These apps are becoming increasingly popular with children and teens, but each have risks involved which parents need to monitor closely.
- Snapchat: Snapchat is popular with teens because it allows users to rapidly send their friends images and video which disappear after a certain amount of time set by the user (1-10 seconds). What parents need to know about this app is that it is currently the most popular "sexting" app available. Some teens use the app to send explicit photos, believing that they can't be retrieved after the app makes them disappear. Forensic experts have shown that the images can actually be retrieved from the phone after disappearing from the app.
- Kik Messenger: This app features instant messaging, calls, and video chat.Teens enjoy it for the ease of exchanging multimedia messages with a user base of over 100 million. However, like Snapchat, Kik has grown in popularity as a "sexting" app. Additionally, Kik user names are often used to place classified ads to meet for sex. Another concern about the app is the lack of parental controls, and inability to authenticate users, making it popular with pedophiles. Finally, because Kik can be used over Wi-Fi, records of calls will not show up on a phone bill to be monitored by parents. This app allows teens to keep a separate contact list from their phone contacts, making it easy to hide contact from parents who check the phone contacts list.
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Whisper: Whisper is also a messaging app, but with a twist. Users post messages anonymously in the form of text superimposed over a picture. Whisper has become popular with users as a way to make anonymous confessions. Among the concerns that have arisen regarding Whisper is the app's use in cyberbullying, wherein teens are posting pictures of other teens with derogatory text over the image. The app also allows users to communicate with others who are nearby using a GPS function. Last year, a Seattle man was arrested for raping a 12-year-old girl whom he met through the app.
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Ask.fm: One of the hottest social networking apps among young people, Ask.fm is a Q&A platform that allows users to ask each other questions anonymously. Twitter and Facebook integration has made it even more popular, with an estimated 25% of teenagers having accessed it within the last 30 days. However, this app has become popular for cyberbullying, with four documented bullying-related suicides being linked to it.
While awareness of these apps is a good start, it is just the beginning. It's crucial for parents to monitor their child's smartphone, tablet, and computer use. Require your kids to give you their user names and passwords to allow you to monitor their online activity.
Use Google to research any apps you run across on their devices which you may not be familiar with. Visit the phone-specific app store and search the names of these apps, in order to familiarize yourself with the names of similar copycat apps that your kids may install on their device. Install monitoring apps and software to keep an eye on your children's online activity.
Most of all, communicate with your children. Talk with them about the importance of online safety, and the importance of making good decisions while online.
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You make it possible for notMYkid to take a message of hope and positive life choices to students, parents, and educators in Arizona. It's because of your generosity that notMYkid is able to reach so many young people across the state and prevent the pain, sorrow, and even death that can result from destructive youth behaviors.
Your donation is tax-deductible. Please click the button above to support notMYkid's prevention education programs.
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At notMYkid, we inspire positive life choices by educating our community about the consequences of destructive youth behaviors. Young adults who have overcome life-controlling addictions and behaviors share their personal stories with middle and high school students. In an effort to promote our prevention message we educate adults on the same addictions and destructive behaviors. Our goal is to increase awareness of the challenges kids face, provide information, and offer resources to support the success of students, families, and educators.
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Copyright © 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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