Faith Groups Featured at Conference on At-Risk Youth
WASHINGTON – Family, school and community are the three pillars that can help save millions of America’s youth from the daily threats of gangs, apathy or jail, First Lady Laura Bush said Tuesday, as she opened the first-ever National Conference on at-risk youth.
“Young people need positive influences in their lives,” she said, as she introduced the President’s Helping America’s Youth Initiative. “We want every child to be surrounded by caring adults who provide love, advice, and encouragement, and who can serve as good role models.”
The weeklong national conference, entitled “Building on Success: Providing Today’s Youth with Opportunities for A Better Tomorrow” and sponsored by the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, brought together thousands of teachers, community leaders, ministers, parents, and all those concerned about the youth.
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Many of the attendants and featured presenters work from a faith-based aspect, using Christian teachings as a foundation for their ministry for at-risk youth.
One such minister highlighted at the opening session was the Rev. Fr. Gregory Boyle of Los Angeles, who started Home Boy Industries to give hope and economic stability to former gang members.
In a video-clip shown to the 1,000-plus attendants, Boyle explained that 80 percent of at-risk youth can be turn toward the right direction if they are simply given the opportunity. Accordingly, the clip featured a Home Boy Industries worker and former gang member who testified that with “money in my pocket, I don’t have to steal” to live.
The First Lady also referred to Boyle’s inspiration in her speech, saying that during a similar conference on youth last year, the reverend “spoke about the power of hope in a young person’s life.
“He said, ‘I’ve never met a hopeful kid who joined a gang,’” Bush explained.
The weeklong conference features hundreds of similar success stories throughout its 70-plus seminars and workshops. The main goals of the national conference are developing federal interagency coordination to better address the needs of youth, and offering participants opportunities to learn best practices in helping at-risk youth in local communities.
A seminar on Wednesday on mentoring resources will present views and tips from Lynn Ziegenfuss, Mentoring Director of the National Network of Youth Ministries. The network, which brings together hundreds of thousands of Christians from campus and church-based ministries, has one of the most extensive youth-mentorship programs in the nation. It was also one of the first groups to receive large-scale funding from President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative programs, and continues to work closely with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
