One of the best television commercials of all times, because of the wisdom of its message, was a Mr. Goodwrench commercial. You probably remember it. The mechanic is working on a very expensive engine repair job and holding up a dirty oil filter. He talks about how sad it is the owner did not do inexpensive preventive maintenance on his car. This would have spared a costly engine problem from happening. Then he closes by saying, “Pay me now or pay me later.”
This could be the message we send out about investing in youth. In a recent Columbus community needs survey, several top areas of concern were youth related. This included underage drinking, drug use, premarital sex, and crime. Activity in these areas can have very costly consequences for the young people and for the community at large. The question is do we want to invest the time and resources necessary to prevent these destructive behaviors from happening to our children, or do we prefer paying the costs of jails, rehabilitation programs, welfare bills, repair of damaged property, and premature funerals instead?
Do we want to make an investment now, or pay a much higher price for the consequences afterwards?
It was not that many years ago that you could assume that a young person was going home to a residence where there would be adult supervision. In most instances this adult was the mother. The situation has radically changed over the last two decades. Now many, if not most, young people do not have an adult at home after school. Nebraska has the highest percentage of two parent working households and the highest percentage of single parent working households in the nation.
Many of these households are below the poverty line. They cannot afford after school activities or supervision.
It is safe to say that many of these students on most afternoons leave for unstructured and unsupervised situations as a result. It is likely that a good number of them take part in some of the harmful activities about which the Columbus community expressed its deep concern in the community survey.
So part of the solution to the issues that surfaced in the community survey resides in finding more affordable positive outlets for young people.
Some may say, “Well why don’t the schools organize this?” Schools are more than willing to help partner with other community organizations to help with after school solutions. They do this now. Their facilities are great places for the community to use after school. However, it is a community wide issue to provide more supervision and activities for young people that will help them stay safe and out of trouble until their parents come home from work.
Several organizations deserve recognition for what they are already doing in this area. This includes Columbus Middle School, the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension in Platte County, youth sports organizations, the YMCA, church youth groups, Youth for Christ, our high schools and the Columbus Collaborative Team. So a start in addressing this problem has been made. However, more players are needed to insure that all youth are in safe, supervised and have positive productive surroundings when the school day comes to a close.
You may be saying, “Why would the community take over the parents’ responsibility?” This is a fair question, but it is also a moot one. The fact is that many parents either will not or cannot provide supervised and healthy after school settings for their children. This fact of life has real consequences for the community that cannot be ignored. So the community, if for no other reason than self interest, should join hands to create healthy affordable after school outlets for young people
The other option is to see drug and alcohol use, crime, and teen pregnancy continue to increase. Ignoring this need will cause an escalation of community problems and a continued erosion of community resources, safety, and quality of life. We must invest in our young people now or pay the high costs later.
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