Reprinted with permission from Barry Fretwell and Leslie Hamada of Project U(th)
On Thursday October 21, at open invitation of the Social Outreach Committee of Kent United Methodist Church, community leaders, city officials, pastors, non-profits, fund providers, service club representatives, and citizens gathered together to have the first Youth Summit Conference of 2010. The evening discussion started with time for the youth of the community to tell us what they wanted. Project U(th) showed up in force and one by one told the audience what they wanted and saw as visions. They are the future generation. If you listen to all the outreach and plans they have, you will be exhausted by just hearing their energy and “can do” spirit. They fielded many questions and thoughts with the poise and understanding of seasoned veterans.
What guests took away from that portion of the discussion was what Thomas Paine, General Patton, and Lee Iacocca stated: “Lead, follow, or get out of our way.”
How can we as a society stop putting so many barriers in the path of our youth in reaching their desires and goals? How can we as institutions and people of leadership and authority channel the funding which is in existence today into what kids really want and need today? Does it not start with first inviting them to the table to be part of the process? Does it not start with more kids feeling safe and knowing they will be heard coming to such a conference and discussing these issues? Does it not have to be sure to include the following, as Pastor David Madden, who has exhausted his own personal resources and time to help kids who are at serious risk stated: “Whatever you do…do not let these kids down because all around them adults have been doing this for years.”
There was great communication and ideas from the entire group. There has been a data base of information collected for future meeting development and plans to be announced soon for the 2nd meeting. Are” we as a city doing many things right”, as Dennis Higgins, City Council Member stated when he spoke to these issues? “Yes,” as he stated we all agreed on this point. “Is there much more we could be doing or areas we could look for to make improvements” as Dennis went on to state? Yes. This was obvious in everyone’s comments.
What you took away from this conference was we cannot stop this momentum which is starting in our community. This is the time when communities reach down and see what they are really can accomplish when resources become more limited and economic times hand us great challenges. America was built on this spirit of optimism and can do. The young people that showed up for this meeting had that pouring out of them.
If you would like further information how your club, Faith Based organization, non-profit, service club or fund provider or just plain involved citizen can get involved in this movement contact : leslie.hamada@yahoo.com and for more information on Project U(th)barry@projectuth.org
