It Takes a Strong Community
2023
Role Models Can Inspire, Guide, and Empower Individuals To Reach Their Full Potential.
I’m Thankful but I’m also HOPEFUL….
Well, on this fine and beautiful day of giving THANKS… I think I would also like to reflect on how I am HOPEFUL that there is an even brighter future ahead.
Today it was a warm and balmy -4 degrees and yesterday was a blistery -21 degrees. So if the weather can change so dramatically in 24 hours maybe our world can change just a little bit more for the better too.
But the question becomes …. How do we make it better?
STRONG ROLE MODELS!!!!!!!!
And let me tell you, I KNOW that that’s not an easy thing to find. Often it comes at the expense of one’s personal time and energy. For over 28 years, I have watched and (usually) supported one of the greatest role models I have ever met. He has volunteered his time to a number of sports and a countless number of young athletes and students. At the age of 57, I watch him still continue to set the bar high and demand the best of the young minds and bodies he works with. I won’t say he does it ‘tirelessly’ because I watch as he flakes out on the couch at night and slowly struggles to put on his socks some mornings. He is not invincible. No, he is merely a mortal man, who believes that it is important to give back. His passion for making a difference in the lives of others is what gives him the drive to do what he does.
It’s a simple recipe for making a better world for our youth – GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO DO! Give them an alternative to the cheap thrills provided by drugs and alcohol or petty crime.
This is fully supported by the work ofGudberg Jónsson, a Reykjavik psychologist, and Harvey Milkman, an American psychology professor who teaches for part of the year at Reykjavik University. In their work, they discovered that they could alter the brain chemistry of youth who sought out thrills, by providing them with “thrilling activities” that did not involve drugs or criminal activity.
“By 1992, Milkman and his team in Denver had won a $1.2 million government grant to form Project Self-Discovery, which offered teenagers natural-high alternatives to drugs and crime. They got referrals from teachers, school nurses and counsellors, taking in kids from the age of 14 who didn’t see themselves as needing treatment but who had problems with drugs or petty crime.
Milkman started coming regularly to Iceland and giving talks. These talks attracted the attention of a young researcher at the University of Iceland, called Inga Dóra Sigfúsdóttir. She wondered: what if you could use healthy alternatives to drugs and alcohol as part of a programme not to treat kids with problems, but to stop kids drinking or taking drugs in the first place?
Today, Iceland tops the European table for the cleanest-living teens. The percentage of 15- and 16-year-olds who had been drunk in the previous month plummeted from 42 per cent in 1998 to 5 per cent in 2016. The percentage who have ever used cannabis is down from 17 per cent to 7 per cent. Those smoking cigarettes every day fell from 23 per cent to just 3 per cent.
Their analysis revealed clear differences between the lives of kids who took up drinking, smoking and other drugs, and those who didn’t. A few factors emerged as strongly protective: participation in organized activities – especially sport – three or four times a week, total time spent with parents during the week, feeling cared about at school, and not being outdoors in the late evenings.”
To read further about this study go to .....
Iceland and Teen Substance Abuse
So, if you want to make a difference in the lives of our next generation, get off the couch and volunteer your time. Don’t just complain about the young people in your community – do something for them. It doesn’t have to be a sport …. offer a program in something you enjoy, knitting, sewing, dancing, drama, start a book club, start a baking club, offer an art class, volunteer to teach music, offer to take some youth out fishing or hunting on the land, volunteer to help supervise the playground. What ever it is ….. DO SOMETHING!
It’s easy to blame but remember, this is our community, these are our children who will be the future.
If not you ….. then who?!!!!!!!!!!!!