Children are growing up in the most heartbreaking circumstances, in your community, with no way out.
It may not be on your regular driving route, but what is happening in the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in your area affects the entire community.
These are neighborhoods where repeated efforts to bring change all seem to become another band-aid, and the people charged with enforcement, education, and care seem powerless.
Low educational outcomes, violence in the home, crime, drugs, and poor work prospects, all pile up, perpetuating a never-ending cycle.
The lasting effects of growing up in these environments guarantee that the cycle will continue, with at-risk children on a predictable path to generational hardship.
Despite many initiatives and efforts to break the cycle, broken systems are only able to make small gains.
Many leaders work hard to inspire and encourage the community with a hopeful perspective, but they know that it takes more than a good story to deliver the actual skills and experiences that enable people to choose a different future.
True transformation must be comprehensive, reducing crime, improving educational outcomes, and genuinely making the neighborhood a better place to live. The change has to start where the cycle begins: with children.
