Adults need to reach out to American children and become a positive force in their lives before they get off track, first lady Laura Bush told an audience at the University of Denver on Friday afternoon.
Bush was the keynote speaker at the second regional conference of Helping America’s Youth, an initiative she is leading to draw attention to the problems children face. The first conference was held in Indianapolis in June.
American kids grow up around gangs, drugs and Internet predators, Bush said. They need caring adults to set the right examples and instill the self-respect they need to become successful adults.
“These challenges are far greater today than they were for children just a decade ago,” Bush said. “And as children face these dangers, they often face them with fewer people to turn to for help.”
The two-day conference focuses on the needs of military children in particular, who have to deal with a different brand of stress from frequent moves, and seeing parents sent to war zones.
“Military kids are resourceful and resilient, but the demands of military life … present unique difficulties for our troops and their children,” Bush said. “Efforts to help military kids are vital to the success of helping America’s youth.”
Colorado has 17,000 military parents, according to Helping America’s Youth, and nearly 6,000 children in the state have at least one deployed parent. Sometimes that makes it difficult to find ways for that parent to be present in their child’s life, Bush said.
And the presence of caring adults can turn lives around, she said. Since becoming head of the initiative last year, she has toured the country visiting youth programs, including a debate club, a Boys and Girls Club, and a silkscreening business for former gang members in Los Angeles called Homeboy Industries.
At Homeboy Industries, ex-gang members could get free tattoo removal, and were taught job skills by the priest who runs the program so they could find respect in employment, Bush said.
The Rev. Gregory Boyle gave these youths hope, which is what they needed, Bush said.
“When adults believe in children, children learn to believe in themselves,” she said.
Staff writer Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer can be reached at 303-820-1316 or awittmeyer@denverpost.com.
