With a family history of diabetes and high blood pressure, Evans, 36, doesn't want to see the same thing happen to her two sons.

Her youngest, Marquise, 11, thinks cartoons may help keep him interested in healthy living.

"I feel like TV is fun, plus the commercials give you information about what's needed and different places you never heard of," he said.

Marquise, along with about 100 other people, attended a town hall conversation last week at the Hayti Heritage Center to suggest ways to improve adolescent health. The Adolescent Health Initiative, a group formed after a 2007 risk behavior survey, brought the mostly teenage crowd together.

The survey led to a realization that local health services for teens are fragmented, said Dr. Kristin Ito, a Duke Medicine pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine. The services are available, but people don't know how to access them.

"Some teens don't go to their physicians," she said. "Medical providers are an important source of information, but we wanted to make sure teens can get information through other ways. The better educated folks are and the more they know about resources, they'll be able to make better health choices."

When it comes to making safe and healthy choices, Durham teenagers are a mixed bag.

With responses from 484 middle and 392 high school students, the report stated that 29 percent of the middle school students have carried a weapon, over half have been in a physical fight and 29 percent have been bullied or harassed on school property.

Over a quarter of the high school students were depressed enough to stop their normal activities, 18 percent had attempted suicide and over 35 percent had used marijuana.

The numbers regarding mental health and substance abuse were especially concerning, said Donald Hughes, the initiative's youth advisory group leader and recent City Council candidate.

"We know that unhealthy young people often grow up to be unhealthy adults," he said. "And there's a social cost with having an unhealthy population. It affects our education system. It affects our health system. It affects our community at large."

Through street interviews, the group found that most youth want to live healthier lives but:

Fast food is easy and cheap

It takes too long to get to a doctor or a supermarket via bus

More in-school recreation activities are needed

Attendees got $50 in "adolescent health bucks" to place into bags with suggestions taped to them. Ideas, which came from teenage focus groups, include listing health resources on a Web site, training residents to become health educators and mobile health centers.

Alexandria Horne, 22, put $30 into teenagers being able to text questions to a health professional and $20 on having health centers in all middle and high schools.

When she attended Jordan High School, Horne said the school nurse was available only two days a week. The wait was potentially embarrassing, especially when someone needed things like deodorant.

"Kids are going though this awkward stage between middle and high school.," said Horne, now a N.C. Central University senior. "A nurse or a health center would be a really good place for them to feel comfortable and get the things that they need that they may not be able to afford."

Shauntelle Evans, Marquise's mother, has seen teenagers with adult health problems. As a health adviser for the county health department, she has come across middle school students with obesity and high blood pressure.

"It's harder nowadays for our kids to even eat healthier," she said. "If you're on a budget, the organic food cost too much. So it's harder for us to eat healthier than to eat fast food."

Efforts using texting and social media were among the top votes, Ito said. The imitative plans to incorporate the suggestions into a plan to address adolescent health.

"It was really wonderful to see so many adolescent and young adults and to hear their thoughts," Ito said.