MONROE — Young girls nowadays deal with a number of growing pains, but there is help out there for them.

Teen girls from across Middlesex County assembled Dec. 2 at the Monroe Crowne Plaza for the fifth annual Young Women's Conference sponsored by the Coalition for Healthy Communities, an initiative of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) of Middlesex County.

The daylong program was divided into six workshops that centered on various issues young girls encounter today, such as substance abuse, cultural identity, body image, relationship abuse, eating disorders and sexual orientation.

"There are new challenges girls face today young people never had before," said Linda Surks, the coalition coordinator for Healthy Communities. "The coalition first formed when we [NCADD] first realized that we can make an impact on a population not focused on like other groups, maybe. These young girls are facing many challenges. This conference is unique because it focuses on young women from Middlesex County."

There were 150 females between the ages of 14 and 18 who attended the workshop from 19 high schools across the county.

Overall, many of the students enjoyed the conference and the individual workshops.

"I liked it a lot, especially with the eating disorders workshop. I had personal experience with that. The relationships violence workshop also hit me hard and I learned a lot from it. I also gained a lot of knowledge about drugs and alcohol," said 18-year-old Ashley Tackmen, from South Amboy High School.

In one workshop, the girls needed to step over a line if they had previously contended with a specific issue, like family death, which allowed the participants to connect with one another.

"This girl and I both had parents who died. I stepped over the line and I thought I was the only one," said Stephanie Siria, 17, a student from South Amboy High School. "This girl hesitated. Then she crossed the line and we both looked at each other and thought, yeah, we're dealing with the same thing. I feel like I'm alone sometimes because I've witnessed everything. But then you get to see there's someone out there with me, too."

Another workshop, Teens Experience Abusive Relationships, also touched the girls at the event.

"The TEAR workshop most impacted me because I've seen people abused, though I never have [been]," said 17-year-old Stephanie Siria from South Amboy High School.

"Personally, I think all the workshops were interesting and innovative," Surks said. "The girls were standing in the hallway and you could hear that they had positive and excited comments. They wanted to talk about everything."

The girls not only enjoyed the workshop but also received important information regarding the various issues explored.

"I learned to give myself more compliments, to not put myself down and to take a step back and to try to look at things from a different point of view," Tackmen said.

The event, which asks the involved high schools to send about six students to the conference, also explained to the girls that they should transfer their gained knowledge to their peers.

"We invited schools to bring out a number of their students," Surks said. "We expect students with voices, students that will benefit the most from the information, and who can carry off this information to their peers and expand the impact."

The girls further benefit from the program because the organizations sponsoring the workshops, such as Planned Parenthood, Rutgers Health Services and Teens Experience Abusive Relationships, became resources for the participants.

"I hope to take this information and use it in my school's group, Peer Leadership/ Rebel," said Ginny Feis, the vice president of the organization.

Students were not only asked to propagate the information they learned to their peers, but were also asked their opinions on the conference by filling out evaluation forms.

"It was really good and the workshops were put together a lot better. They were a lot more energized and had more meaning," said Siria, who had previously attended the conference.

Through evaluations forms, student also requested other possible themes for the following year. Some of the topics included teen pregnancy, family violence and divorce in the family, Surks said.

Though the conference just ended, the Coalition for Healthy Communities has already reserved rooms in the Crowne Plaza for the upcoming year and is thinking about next year's event.

The high schools that attended this year were: Bishop George Ahr High School, CardinalMcCarrick High School, Carteret High School, Colonia High School, Dunellen High School, East Brunswick High School, East Brunswick Vocation Technical High School, Highland Park High School, Middlesex County Academy for Science, Math, Engineering Technologies High School, North Brunswick High School, Perth Amboy High School, Perth Amboy Vocation Technical High School, Piscataway High School, Piscataway Vocation Technical High School, South Amboy High School, South Brunswick High School, South Plainfield High School, Wardlaw Hartridge School and West Windsor-Plainsboro High School.

"[I think] it was awesome. This was our record count of people at the event so far," Surks said.

For more information about NCADD and its programs, call (732) 254-3344.