by Malaka Desroches

Created on: April 11, 2007   Last Updated: July 26, 2009

High-Risk Youth: I Believe That Children Are the Future, but What Will the Future Hold

It is evident when we look at the population of elementary, middle, and high school students throughout our nation, that we as a society are failing our children. Our successes, in relation to our population, are dwindling. And, in some cases, we must question the validity of success when the bar of excellence has been lowered to allow our children to leap over it. With jaw-dropping numbers of teen-pregnancy, teen crime, high school dropouts, and other such statistics, the question certainly isn't whether or not we have a problem, but how do we define and rectify it?

State after state, city after city, within our great nation's lower socio-economic communities, continue to attempt to address the problem by developing "This High Risk Youth Center" and "That High Risk Youth Organization" focusing on promise as opposed to despair. But to no avail. There is a growing number of children within our population that fit into the framework of a "High-Risk Youth" according to The Boston High Risk Youth Network's definition - age 12-21, court-involved, obsessively truant or out of school; involved with gangs; a chronic substance abuser; homeless; or pregnant and/or a parent.

The problem, as I see it, is that many of the parents of High Risk Youths (HRY) were High Risk Youths themselves who were victims of societal apathy and are now High Risk Adults who are contributing to the conditions of apathy, disconnection, fragmentation, fear, lack of trust, inconsistency and a crisis-focused orientation in their own offspring. Some of them may have no idea where to start, how to contribute, may be unable to or may not have a desire to be a part of the process. Then there are some parents of children that are not in the high-risk group, that see it as an opportunity for their child to rise further to the top with less competition. I had to examine my own heart a few years ago after uttering the statement, "I know my children will get full scholarships to top universities, because they are a minority within our minority." Churches and members within communities where HRY are prevalent, who have the desire to exact change in the world, will be inspired by program models depicting despair vs. promise; but to get buy-in from those who have the money necessary to make the change, we have to show the economic impact on society as a whole. Sadly people are often more likely to be driven

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