Sometimes as adults we have trouble asking others for help, let alone even entertain the thought of asking kids to help us solve a problem. Youth are a large part of the population in our county. In fact, nearly 25% of our county population is youth under the age of 17. Youth are often the focus of community issues like the brain drain and various risky behaviors. Rather than looking at youth as a population that only takes, let us look at our youth as a valuable resource and consider the contribution they can make.
Here are some ideas for using youth as resources:
- Work with schools to utilize tech savy youth to create a website for your business, organization or church.
- Empower older youth in your church to serve as mentors to younger kids or organize a community outreach program.
- Challenge youth to create a design for a community beautification project.
- Provide employment opportunities for youth at your business.
- Invite youth to help with a community clean up project at a park or cemetery.
- Add a youth representative to your board or committee.
Our youth have an endless supply of energy, enthusiasm and creativity. Sara Fisher helped remodel the kennels at the animal shelter, the Lewandowski twins raised money for clean water in Kenya and there are so many out there with more stories of how they serve as resources in our community. Teaching youth responsibility and useful roles in their family, school and community begins at a young age and continues through the life span. Youth are nearly 25% percent of our county population and they are all of our future.