Inspire. Prevent. Support.

La Center United is a community coalition made up of individuals, businesses, and agencies who all share a vision for a healthy and resilient community. We believe in the power of positive community change when we all work together.

Screenagers: Growing Up In the Digital Age

March 24, 2025 – LCMS Commons – 6-7:30 PM

Screenagers: Growing Up in the Digital Age is an award-winning film that probes into the vulnerable corners of family life and depicts messy struggles over social media, video games, and academics. The film offers solutions on how we can help our kids navigate the digital world.

Everyone in the community is welcome.  Family Friendly event.  Parents/Caregivers watch together with youth grades 4-12.

Synopsis

Are you watching young people immersed in their screens — scrolling through social media, playing video games, and losing focus with ever-decreasing attention spans?

Physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston faced this challenge with her own kids and screens. She questioned how this was affecting family dynamics, education, and the mental well-being of young people.

Screenagers: Growing Up in the Digital Age takes a deeply personal and relatable approach. Delaney opens the doors to her own family life and meets with others to explore the messy struggles over social media, video games, academics, and internet addiction.

Through poignant and unexpectedly humorous stories, paired with surprising insights from leading experts, Screenagers: Growing Up in the Digital Age reveals how screens are shaping kids’ development. Most importantly, it offers actionable solutions to help adults empower kids to navigate the digital age and find balance.

To learn more click here.

Screenagers Next Chapter: Youth Mental Health in the Digital Age

April 14, 2025 – LCMS Commons – 6-7:30 PM

Screenagers Next Chapter: Youth Mental Health in the Digital Age – Millions of young people experience high stress, anxiety, and depression. We follow physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston as she discovers solutions for improved adolescent well-being in the digital age.

Everyone in the community is welcome.  Family Friendly event.  Parents/Caregivers watch together with youth grades 4-12.

Synopsis

Filmmaker and physician Delaney Ruston uses a personal lens and professional eye to help us all flip the script on stress, anxiety, and depression. We follow Delaney as she finds herself at a loss on how to help her own teens as they struggle with their emotional wellbeing. Ruston sets out to understand these challenges in our current screen-filled society, and how we as parents and schools empower teens to overcome mental health challenges and build emotional agility, communication savvy, and stress resilience.

We witness Delaney as she finds her way from ineffective parenting to much-improved strategies. We follow other personal stories of families from an array of backgrounds with a spectrum of emotional challenges. We also observe approaches in schools that provide strategies relevant beyond the classroom setting. Interwoven into the stories are surprising insights from brain researchers, psychologists, and thought-leaders that reveal evidence-based ways to support mental wellness among our youth. The impact of social media and screen time in general is incorporated in topics brought to our attention in Screenagers NEXT CHAPTER, how it may be impacting our teen’s mental health, and what we can do to help support youth in the face of struggles.

To learn more click here.

Screenagers Under The Influence: Vaping, Drugs & Alcohol In the Digital Age

May 12, 2025 – LCMS Commons – 6-7:30 PM

Screenagers Under The Influence: Vaping drugs & Alcohol in the digital age – Join Screenagers’ filmmaker, Delaney Ruston, as she picks up her camera once more to examine the impact of our digital age on teens’ decision-making in relation to substances such as vaping, drugs, and alcohol.

Everyone in the community is welcome.  Family Friendly event.  Parents/Caregivers watch together with youth grades 4-12.

Synopsis

Screenagers Under The Influence: Addressing Vaping, Drugs, and Alcohol in the Digital Age, the third feature documentary in the Screenagers trilogy, delves into how the tech revolution has reshaped adolescence and its effects on substance use. The film debunks myths and depicts strategies parents and schools can use to encourage healthy decision-making, support teen mental health, set limits, and create healthy home environments. The film also includes many ways young people are using their wisdom and strength to help each other and themselves through this complicated terrain around substance use.

While most documentaries about substance use focus on severe addiction, Screenagers Under The Influence fills a pressing need for a film that explores more common scenarios. The film is grounded in teens’ current reality of being flooded by images on social media, movies, and TV shows about vaping, drugs, and alcohol.

Like the first two Screenagers films, Screenagers Under The Influence interweaves cutting-edge science with personal stories to create an informative and entertaining film experience for young people and adults alike. Screenagers Under The Influence focuses on practical solutions for keeping our teens safe in a changing world.

To learn more click here.

The Loft Teen Center

The Loft is open 3:00-5:30pm every Wednesday that LCSD is in session

New Community Member Welcome Basket

If you are a new community member or know a new member of the community who may be interested in a community welcome basket please contact lacenterunited@gmail.com.

La Center United has partnered with community organizations and local businesses to compile baskets with local information and swag items to welcome new neighbors to the community. Each basket consists of: a La Center United welcome letter, brochures, and/or business cards from local businesses, churches, and volunteer groups, a treat from Sadie & Josie’s bakery, a face mask, a La Center United: bandana, pop-socket, pen, and lanyard, a small notebook, to-go “youth first” bag, key chain, La Center Museum Centennial newspaper, and calendar with historical pictures of La Center.

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