Untitled as of Yet.

So I know I usually rant about things that are close to my current environment, and I do it a lot. So why change now. To start, I've been working at a shelter for pregnant teenagers or teens with infant children and my experiences here plus a topic on a friends blog has inspired todays post. Why are children growing up so fast? Do I think that because now I'm almost adult and it's been so long since I was a kid. I don't think so, when I was 12 we didn't look like britney spears, or have role models like the "Bratz" or things like that. I'm pretty sure that all the dolls and cartoons I watched, if I watched any (we weren't much of a t.v. family). Anyways, I'm starting to sound like my parents but, I do have a point. I work with the end of the line kids. They call it Frontline work, we work with the youth that are past being "at risk", they've done it all. It scares me that my job is necessary, because we should be concentrating on preventative work rather then clean-up, and no one in the government seems to understand this concept.

The other part of my life is working in community development and volunteerism. I work for a provincial organization that links economic, environmental and social development groups together to increase efficiency and communication between sectors. The reason I do this is because I'm putting together some youth initiatives in those above mentioned sectors. Since I've been involved in this, I've seen that the more involved a youth is in their community, the more welcomed they feel and the less at risk they become. The point being, if a community cares enough about their youth to respect them, and give them opportunities to be involved, then youth don't necessairily have to turn to "drugs", "alcohol", "sex" to be listened to, get attention from and/or feel like they have a purpose. I know I'm making some pretty outlandish generalizations, but there's proof out there. To me, there's a link between the overly fast maturation of a child and social problems.

Here's a scenario: you have an 8 year old girl who goes to school and watches t.v. and starts feeling insecure because all the other girls dress like the girls on t.v. and she doesn't. She finds friends who welcome her and they introduce her to some "cool" things like smoking. She grows up with these kids, and they start doing other things, boys start showing her attention, she starts going to parties. One night she's with a boy and she has sex. She's only 13 at this point. Two years later, she's given birth to a child who's dad doesn't have a job and is still only 14 years old, she's tried almost every drug she can get, and probably has an STD from multiple partners. This is a bit extreme, but it's also very real, in fact I've seen it happen. What's missing in this picture? The girl's mom and dad, work too much to notice that their kid is slipping. Or, they want their kids to be happy and give thme every thing they want, but don't every stop to think that maybe what they need is some good mentoring, rather then good clothes.

I worry about the future of our youth. Apathy is growing among teens, and it may not seem important to politicians now, but don't forget. These youth will become the adults of tomorrow, and do you really think that they'll want to put you in a good home, when all you've done is punish them for their situations rather than try and help them? We need to start advocating and teaching kids at a very young age that they have more options in life, that they do have self-worth and that no one, no matter how much they try will ever look like a movie star unless they have thousands and thousands of dollars, and that they are still beautiful. What needs to happen for society to wake up and take some blame?