We should focus on demanding that pubic policy & TAX DOLLARS be spent on creating youth-focused economic opportunity in our neighborhoods. Not just summer jobs, access to credit, small business/entrepreneurship training and opportunities and more vocational training for non-college bound youth & community & faith-based interventions that are alternatives to the criminal/juvenile justice system. We need to step up our focused letter writing, calling, emailing public officials, letters to to editors of newspapers/magazines & voting for candidates who really have our interests at heart.
A formal statewide community and faith-based advocacy group, made up of Latino and African American constituencies, should work with the Illinois state legislature's Latino and African American caucuses to draft various bills that steer policy toward restorative justice with economic incentives for localities and youth.
1) Daily attendance in school needs to be mandatory and inforced by truant officers 2) youth that don't attend school need to be removed from their homes and placed in a supportive environment. As we speak there are 6 youth on my block that dropped out in their first year of high school and they watch productive citizens come and go to work all day, break in our homes when we leave and serve drugs. But they have families and they are youth we have known all their lives 3) when you have a record there needs to be a process that allows those offenses to be taken off their records so they can get jobs 4) Schools and churches need to have programs that engage youth until at least 7pm and the curfew during the week needs to be made to 8:00 on a school night.
1).Finishing High School should me mandatory - if the "normal" high school path did not work finshing via a faith or community based school needs to be taken advantage of.
2). Persons who are convicted crimes not using weaposn should be made to work off their crimes via a combinatio community service, completing their education and learning a trade. The program should complete with the person developing skills that can create a living wage.
The kids first need to be taught how to release and deal with pain and disappointment. So many of these children are just plain hurt. They need to have an outlet for this pain and frustration. We can force them to do a whole lot of things but if we don’t deal with the emotional issues a lot of these children burden themselves with, we will never be able to reach them. They need a safe place to go and talk to a non-judgemental adult without fear.
Then we need to instill pride and hope in them. A cotillion was held this past Friday for seniors at South Shore H.S.. These children beamed as they performed the waltz, the cake dance and the young men performed an African dance. These children were being exposed to new and different things and it is just great. We have to show them there is more to life than just the streets which will give them aspirations to strive for more.
Unfortunately we will never be able to reach all of them. But we can attempt to reach as many as possible.
Providing the younger generation with jobs is definitely a major factor. If the teenages are able to get jobs and earn money, the ripple effect because apparent. They interface with role models, get paid legitimately and consistenly leading to less negative hustles, and possibly encourage others to do the same.
Education is important, however summer/part time jobs expose what can be gained by higher education.
faith, community, individual MUST invest in the same agenda, creating healthy, tangible and results-focused outcomes for our youth. Our children are highly intelligent and evolved - eating technology as a mainstay for their survival. On the one hand it is great our children learn young the competitive landscape of the 'new' markets, yet at the same time we must invest to instill values of respect, life and self-love, and it must come from the collaborative efforts of church-community-state-nation...
How we about we start with decolonizing the minds of our people, especially the younger generation. We are still suffering from the Willie Lynch Syndrome and I say that because of the disconnection between the elders and the young. Instead of running from the problem, let's face these young people and have a open dialogue with them. We we really love "our people" as we claim to do, then why are so many of us quick claim, "THAT'S NOT MY PROBLEM" when something happens to "our people"?
Our youth, and consequently, our community are in crisis and unfortunately, there is no "short term fix". We as a people must renew our commitment to this generation. They are not as many have suggested a "throw away" generation. They are our children, our sisters, our brothers -- and ultimately, we are our brother's keeper. The stimulus funding will afford many opportunities for summer employment for these youth. This is a good beginning. Much more is required. We must develop long term strategies to address the institutional neglect and abuse of past generation. We must also recognize and come to terms with our shortcomings. What could we have done differently as a people to avert this crisis? Moving forward, education must be the keystone; we must develop new comprehensive and holistic educational strategies to reach these youth and their families. We/institutions must be willing to change our thinking -- our way of doing things. Young families must be brought into the fold; we must drop this "us" versus "them" attitude. We must re-examine our efforts at parental engagement. Our families have traditionally been our strength, our safe haven. Today, many of our young families are fragile; they are ill-equipped to handle the realities of life today, let alone raise self-sufficient and healthy children Our juvenile justice system must also change; it must move toward restorative justice. We cannot afford to continue our previous patterns of detention and incarceration without treatment. So, where do we begin. We begin with recommitment to this generation; we begin with re-engagement of these young people; and yes we begin with a serious examination of what we've done and where do we go from here. We have demonstrated with the election of President Barack Obama that we can do anything. Key stakeholders in the private and public sector, as well as the religious community must come together to map out a "Marshall Plan" for our youth. Our future generations are depending on us.
the government says summer jobs are the answer. is that where we should focus our energy?
ReplyDeleteWe should focus on demanding that pubic policy & TAX DOLLARS be spent on creating youth-focused economic opportunity in our neighborhoods. Not just summer jobs, access to credit, small business/entrepreneurship training and opportunities and more vocational training for non-college bound youth & community & faith-based interventions that are alternatives to the criminal/juvenile justice system. We need to step up our focused letter writing, calling, emailing public officials, letters to to editors of newspapers/magazines & voting for candidates who really have our interests at heart.
ReplyDeleteA formal statewide community and faith-based advocacy group, made up of Latino and African American constituencies, should work with the Illinois state legislature's Latino and African American caucuses to draft various bills that steer policy toward restorative justice with economic incentives for localities and youth.
ReplyDelete1) Daily attendance in school needs to be mandatory and inforced by truant officers
ReplyDelete2) youth that don't attend school need to be removed from their homes and placed in a supportive environment. As we speak there are 6 youth on my block that dropped out in their first year of high school and they watch productive citizens come and go to work all day, break in our homes when we leave and serve drugs. But they have families and they are youth we have known all their lives
3) when you have a record there needs to be a process that allows those offenses to be taken off their records so they can get jobs
4) Schools and churches need to have programs that engage youth until at least 7pm and the curfew during the week needs to be made to 8:00 on a school night.
1).Finishing High School should me mandatory - if the "normal" high school path did not work finshing via a faith or community based school needs to be taken advantage of.
ReplyDelete2). Persons who are convicted crimes not using weaposn should be made to work off their crimes via a combinatio community service, completing their education and learning a trade. The program should complete with the person developing skills that can create a living wage.
The kids first need to be taught how to release and deal with pain and disappointment. So many of these children are just plain hurt. They need to have an outlet for this pain and frustration. We can force them to do a whole lot of things but if we don’t deal with the emotional issues a lot of these children burden themselves with, we will never be able to reach them. They need a safe place to go and talk to a non-judgemental adult without fear.
ReplyDeleteThen we need to instill pride and hope in them. A cotillion was held this past Friday for seniors at South Shore H.S.. These children beamed as they performed the waltz, the cake dance and the young men performed an African dance. These children were being exposed to new and different things and it is just great. We have to show them there is more to life than just the streets which will give them aspirations to strive for more.
Unfortunately we will never be able to reach all of them. But we can attempt to reach as many as possible.
Providing the younger generation with jobs is definitely a major factor. If the teenages are able to get jobs and earn money, the ripple effect because apparent. They interface with role models, get paid legitimately and consistenly leading to less negative hustles, and possibly encourage others to do the same.
ReplyDeleteEducation is important, however summer/part time jobs expose what can be gained by higher education.
faith, community, individual MUST invest in the same agenda, creating healthy, tangible and results-focused outcomes for our youth. Our children are highly intelligent and evolved - eating technology as a mainstay for their survival. On the one hand it is great our children learn young the competitive landscape of the 'new' markets, yet at the same time we must invest to instill values of respect, life and self-love, and it must come from the collaborative efforts of church-community-state-nation...
ReplyDeleteHow we about we start with decolonizing the minds of our people, especially the younger generation. We are still suffering from the Willie Lynch Syndrome and I say that because of the disconnection between the elders and the young. Instead of running from the problem, let's face these young people and have a open dialogue with them. We we really love "our people" as we claim to do, then why are so many of us quick claim, "THAT'S NOT MY PROBLEM" when something happens to "our people"?
ReplyDeleteOur youth, and consequently, our community are in crisis and unfortunately, there is no "short term fix". We as a people must renew our commitment to this generation. They are not as many have suggested a "throw away" generation. They are our children, our sisters, our brothers -- and ultimately, we are our brother's keeper.
ReplyDeleteThe stimulus funding will afford many opportunities for summer employment for these youth. This is a good beginning. Much more is required. We must develop long term strategies to address the institutional neglect and abuse of past generation.
We must also recognize and come to terms with our shortcomings. What could we have done differently as a people to avert this crisis?
Moving forward, education must be the keystone; we must develop new comprehensive and holistic educational strategies to reach these youth and their families. We/institutions must be willing to change our thinking -- our way of doing things. Young families must be brought into the fold; we must drop this "us" versus "them" attitude. We must re-examine our efforts at parental engagement. Our families have traditionally been our strength, our safe haven. Today, many of our young families are fragile; they are ill-equipped to handle the realities of life today, let alone raise self-sufficient and healthy children
Our juvenile justice system must also change; it must move toward restorative justice. We cannot afford to continue our previous patterns of detention and incarceration without treatment.
So, where do we begin. We begin with recommitment to this generation; we begin with re-engagement of these young people; and yes we begin with a serious examination of what we've done and where do we go from here.
We have demonstrated with the election of President Barack Obama that we can do anything. Key stakeholders in the private and public sector, as well as the religious community must come together to map out a "Marshall Plan" for our youth. Our future generations are depending on us.