I've run the gamut of being a teacher of at risk kids, to a detention center supervisor, and now a cop. I've seen a lot of at risk kids over the past 17 yrs. They need help....if you can do it, please do it. I swear at least 6-7 of those kids I've worked with have been murdered or overdosed and died over the past two years. They need help. Make it point.
I taught at a Job Corps program for many years and while it may be a gross oversimplification I believe that 95% of the kids that were in that program wouldn't have been there if they had had a parent give them either a hug or a kick in the pants!
Totally agree VS. When we are presented with an opportunity we need to use it. Positive influences and role models are so important to impressionable youths as they are searching for the path to take. We all know that who you are associated with becomes who you are most of the time. If all they are associated with are bad influences such as drugs, alcohol, stealing, etc. then they seem to naturally fall into that lifestyle then they have kids which they influence and the cycle continues. There was a song that I heard years ago that said "Each one, Reach one" that I thought was so powerful.
If the Government would get out of it a stop sending kids from New York city to rural Vermont and expect them to finish the program and find a connection and a commonality to the rural community??????? The paperwork also was over the top but the kids were great!
I did some volunteer work with a program here that was taking kids out of the youth center and teaching them skills they can use in life. Mostly carpentry and such. It was part of a sociology class at school but I stayed on longer because I enjoyed it. I know one kid ended up being convicted of murder, but have not heard of anything on the majority of kids. I was always troubled seeing kids released from the youth center(kids lockup) into the same environment where they got into all of the trouble in the first place. It seemed like a cycle that will not end.
Seeing those kids are the worst part of law enforcement. I use to take a few out on the boat for a day of fishing. However i got worried about liability if something happened and stopped doing it. I always took my K-9 into the neighborhoods and let the kids interact with him and they loved it.
I hear you Bronson. I cringe every time I hear about one of those kids dying. The latest one was especially hard to hear about...kid turned his life around, got married and had a child. Then he overdosed just a few days ago. Terrible. A friend of mine mentored him for years and actually conducted his wedding as he is also a pastor.
