Communities need to provide all young people with sustained adult relationships through which they experience support, care and guidance. Caring and connectedness within and beyond the family are powerful factors in protecting young people from negative behaviors and creating strong positive qualities.
Ongoing relationships with caring adults — parents, mentors, tutors or coaches.
Ideally, youth develop sustained connections with:
Parents or other caregivers.
Extended family members.
Neighbors and other adult's youth see in their daily lives.
Adults who spend time with youth through schools and programs, including coaches, teachers, mentors, child care workers, youth workers, and employers.
While all these relationships are important, most youth do not experience this web of adult support and care beyond their families.
”We need to make sure that no boy or girl in America is growing up without having in his or her life the presence of a responsible, caring adult. Where else does a child learn how to behave? Where else does a child learn the experience of the past, the totems and traditions of the past? Where else does a child look for the proper examples except from responsible, caring, loving adults in his or her life.”
Founding Chairman General Colin L. Powell
