Every Child is of Promise
One of the Y’s strongest beliefs is that every child is of promise. Our commitment to youth development and nurturing the potential of every youth and teen is deep and strong. We often receive kids who have had challenging lives and come to us with low self esteem and not believing in themselves. Our words are backed up by our actions and it makes a huge difference. I want to tell you two stories as to how we see the power of believing in a young person makes a difference.
Nick lives with his young single parent mom. One of our former staff members knows how tough it can be on a single mom, who is also struggling financially and how helpful it can be to have another loving adult in the life of a child. Brenda has become an unofficial adopted grandmother to Nick. Brenda has become a mentor to mom and a wonderful role model to Nick. Nick was enrolled in a child care center here in town. He had some behavioral issues that were a challenge to the staff. Brenda started to get very concerned when she saw how this was effecting four year old Nick. When she would pick him up after child care and asked him how his day was Nick would respond that he was “a bad boy. I am an awful kid.” This broke Brenda’s heart. With no notice, mom came to the center one day to be told that they could no longer take Nick due to his behavior. The four year old was being expelled from preschool. Mom called Brenda and they made it right over to the Y’s Children’s Village. Debra Bishop found a spot in Francesca’s class for Nick and financial assistance was provided. Two weeks later Brenda picked Nick up at the center and asked him how his day was. Nick smiled and said, “I am a kid of character”. He is a six year old doing well at our Washington Street Center today.
This fall we took a diverse group of kids up to our camp. While we always call kids “of promise” rather than “at risk”, most would identify these kids as fitting the latter category. One of the kids who went to camp asked a counselor how he got so lucky as to be chosen to go to camp. He was told “you are here because you are a leader.” The boy paused for a moment, held his head up , stood a little taller and said “I never knew I was a leader!”
All of us have mentors and had moments in our lives which shaped our sense of who we are. I am proud to say that the Y is filled with staff and volunteers who truly believe that every kid is of promise and who work hard to help kids reach their potential. Our self image can become a self fulfilling prophecy. We need more leaders and kids of character in the world and your Y is helping to develop them.
