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Search the word "YOUTH" on new Obama transition team ? site.
I just posted this question to the Obama transition team website's new "Open for Questions" feature, figured it was a good way to introduce an idea I wold like to promote, right here in River City.
The limit was 250 characters, hit it right on th number.
"Can you apply manhours generated by your student work-grant plan to develop neighborhood youth programs? Maybe dedicate some of the job-program stimulus package to fund and rebuild local recreation infrastructure, to facilitate the youth activities?"
Here's the gist of it.
Use the job stimulus AND the student service program together to build youth recreation programs, with the students managing the activities and the work crews repairing and renewing existing facilities and in some cases building new ones.
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I'm all for it. I learned to swim at my local YMCA long after my family gave up on me. I then stayed on, hanging out there playing ping-pong after school, or studying and doing homework, and when I turned 13 I was a volunteer who was trained to teach other kids how to swim.
December 11, 2008 12:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Appears that we both ended up in the pool.
I was salvaged from potential disaster by a high school swim coach who gave me all the breaks I needed to excel, and eventually spent my college years diving for a top ranked small college team.
I was a coach in later years, for my children and now for my grandchildren. Seems as if once it starts, it passes from generation to generation. Surely some portion of these new jobs/grants projects could be dedicated to encouraging those same traditions for future progress, especially in ares where the economy is hut the hardest.
Teams and clubs and troupes are always better alternatives to gangs, espcially when it starts early. And some of the directions suggested by our new leadership can only help provide that alternative, and I say the younger the better.
I am all for some of the students using their trade-time to help the elderly, especially the homebound who really want to stay home.
But the future is built on the tiny backs of our youngest members, because by the time it (the future) rolls arond, they will be living in the age when they must bear it. We'll just be the old codgers who tried to prepare them for the mess we were ahanding off.
Early childhood development is the key to future progress, and the jobs/stimulus package combined with the student grant grant program, can focus invaluable resources on that early development.
December 11, 2008 12:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. I still remember my chorus teacher in elementary school taking us members of the choir to an elderly home in town, and having us sing for the patients. Us kids were amazed at how many people were in the audience, and how their faces lit up when we started singing. We outdid ourselves that day.
December 11, 2008 1:10 AM | Reply | Permalink