[Ailist] Has AI been used effectively with teen-agers and drugs

[Cheri]

Anna,

I have been thinking about teenagers quite a bit lately as I have a 14 year old and I don't think it is just a matter of shifting their mindset.  Several things have stimulated my thinking--one of the first is that as a middle school kid, my daughter wanted to volunteer in the community to help with animals.  She was willing to do this anywhere--even clean cages in a pet store for free.  No one would have her--too young, she was a liability.  We went to location after location in TN and we were told the same thing.  THen we moved to NC and as a 13 year old, she was told the same thing everywhere. As you can imagine, this was very frustrating--stiffling the desire to serve and find meaning at an early age.

Then her Spanish class did a service project.  She came home so excited because the adults got caught up in a conversation after they told the kids what had to be done, but before they told them how.  She said the kids organized themselves quickly and had the job done fast.  The adults afterwards said their system was much faster and better than the previous and they were going to use it.  And then her 8th grade class did a community project where kids found out all about  the community and wrote letters giving their suggestions to make the community better.  One proposal they had was for youth to have a representative on the City Council--they said it didn't need to be a voting member, but at least a voice and that all kids could channel their input to this one person who could then be the voice for youth in the city.  The whole class was very excited about it.  What they were met with, as you can imagine, was adults council members telling them all the reasons it would not work. 
Very few community folks took an interest in their project or showed up for the final open house.  The disappoint and sense of hopelessness the kids then felt was awful for me to watch.  Here were these 8th graders with good ideas, time on their hands, and interest in making the community better and they weren't seen, their voices "didn't matter".  My daughter said, "It would have been better not to have learned all this stuff about the community and get our hopes up that we could make a difference if no one was going to listen."

When voices are stiffled, groups do not come together and share ideas that matter, and people do not feel their voice can make a difference--the culture decays.  

My current thinking around all of this is that our communities have GOT to find a way to bring our youth back into them in meaningful ways.  When life has no meaning, no one values you as a being, why not do drugs? Why not have sex? Who cares?  There is such a valuable resource available in every single community being not only wasted, but lost--like your cousin.  I don't think this is an "AI talk" thing, I think this is an AI systems design thing.  Out of "care" for our youth, we have taken away their opportunity to contribute and participate in meaningful ways.  

What do you think?
Cheri


-----Original message-----
From: Anna spector anna_spector at yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:04:30 -0500
To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
Subject: [Ailist] Has AI been used effectively with teen-agers and drugs

Dear AI Community,
  Yesterday I attended a memorial service for my seventeen year old cousin who passed away due to an accidental drug overdose.  He was bright, handsome,cared about the planet, but unfortunately,had an addiction that claims so many teen-agers each year.  The grief therapist in charge did a poor job and focused mostly on the tragedy, etc.  Needless to say she took the laughter out of any conversation we were sharing about the times we appreciated him.  It was truly a downer.  So, I have been reflecting on AI a lot and I was curious if anyone had worked with teens involved with drugs and was AI a powerful enough influence to steer them away from drugs and into something more productive?   Thank you again for letting me share this.  
   
   
   
  Warmly,
  Anna Spector- Seattle
  MA, Organizational Psychology

       
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Cheri B. Torres
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