Archive for February, 2011
Youth – Priority ONE
It is difficult not thinking about young people today, the many challenges they face, their future and some days even our own. After all, we’ve all been there and have valuable insight we can share. Are we missing a valuable opportunity to help the youth of today and lend a helping hand? I for one certainly learned some valuable lessons that I have shared with my own children. Growing up, I remember that it was often like banging my head against a brick wall. Fact is, that brick wall is solid and it hurts. Our youth face a wide-range of issues today – drugs, violence and gangs to name a few. It’s tuff growing up in today’s society, in many ways, it reminds of a mine field. Our youth are at-risk and we can all play an important role in their lives and not just at home but in our communities.
In the mid-90′s we referred to them as young offenders or youth in conflict with the law. Working as a correctional officer at a boot camp in the mountains near Nordegg, Alberta, I experienced first hand many boys heading down a destructive path with no future. Some of my co-workers use to say “once a criminal, always a criminal.” As a part-timer I challenged their belief and spent many hours reading files and then trying to make that connection, hoping to get through to just one of these young boys. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen often, but when it did it was magical. Often it was simply a case of listening and not always talking.
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