There’s been a lot of talk on these pages over the last couple of months about teenagers, substance abuse and how to build a community that supports our young people in making good choices.

Several readers and community leaders have offered up suggestions. Be involved in their lives. Talk about the issue. Work with others to ensure a range of positive after-school activities. Show up.

Another way is to support those agencies and organizations that are doing their part to strengthen families, especially those that are doing so holistically, thoughtfully and comprehensively. Vashon Youth & Family Services (VYFS) is one such agency — indeed, by some measures, the only one on Vashon that is looking at the whole family and its myriad needs on the Island. For years, it’s offered a quality set of programs in an effort to fulfill its ambitious mission of helping the community raise thriving, resilient kids.

In recent months, under the leadership of executive director Sam Collins and with the support of a strong staff, the agency has expanded its services. It’s reaching out to the Spanish-speaking community; it’s expanded its popular baby and toddler play groups; it’s begun to address issues of homelessness, and it’s now working with a group of Island volunteers to resurrect the Healthy Community Network, a grassroots effort to address, among other things, youth substance abuse. At a recent gathering organized by VYFS and the Healthy Community Network volunteers, a cross-section of the community came together to begin an important discussion about young people on the Island.

VYFS is about to start its annual phone-a-thon, a significant fundraising effort. This is a time when Islanders can put talk into action: We can support VYFS with our pocketbooks and thereby throw our collective weight behind a strong agency, a healthy community and an Island committed to healthy kids.