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

[crightmer116995MI at comcast.net]

Cheri:

I understand your 14 year olds frustration. While I am 47 years old I can still remember the disappointment when as a youth I worked on a similar program with the City Council. At our first meeting the council was excited and very enthusiastic about the project. Meeting after meeting happened and at the end nothing happened. What did happen was a group of 8th graders grew very disillusioned about affecting change through city government. 

While I do not have children I see the frustration on the faces of my nieces and nephews that are told they are too young. We need to find a way to involve the youth of our society in to as you say "contribute and participate". I think it all begins with one person giving someone like your daughter a chance, be it volunteering at a animal shelter or become involved in city government in some way. 

I would also tell your daughter something my father used to tell me, do not give up, if you meet an obstacle find a way around it.

Jeff Rightmer

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Cheri <cheri at mobileteamchallenge.com> 

> 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 
> 
> 
> --------------------------------- 
> Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links. 
> _______________________________________________ 
> The Appreciative Inquiry Discussion List is hosted by the David Eccles School of 
> Business at the University of Utah. Jack Brittain is the list administrator. For 
> subscription information, go to: 
> http://mailman.business.utah.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/ailist 
> 
> *** 
> Cheri B. Torres 
> www.mobileteamchallenge.com 
> 865-681-0146 
> _______________________________________________ 
> The Appreciative Inquiry Discussion List is hosted by the David Eccles School of 
> Business at the University of Utah. Jack Brittain is the list administrator. For 
> subscription information, go to: 
> http://mailman.business.utah.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/ailist