Taking a closer look at the 'village'

Milton Creagh

     I recently attended the annual conference of the Nebraska Juvenile Justice Association.  Over the years, I’ve attended a lot of conferences, and I’ve had mixed feelings about the value and usefulness of the information that I’ve received.  However, this particular conference was not only worthwhile but also extremely interesting and engaging.  I returned home excited at the prospect of using this information to improve and enhance our mentoring program.

     One of the highlights of the conference was the keynote address by Milton Creagh, a motivational speaker and radio show host who speaks to more than 200,000 junior and senior high school students each year.  Creagh made reference to the popular saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.”  If this proverb is true, then Creagh feels we need to take a serious look at the village.  Back in the days when parents lived in the same house for their entire lives, this “village” was primarily made up of the people in their respective neighborhoods.  These families knew the names of everybody who lived on their block, and they all looked out for one another.

     Today, families often change neighborhoods several times as they upgrade from a starter home to a family home to a dream home and eventually to a retirement home.  In addition, modern conveniences like air conditioning and the electric clothes dryer allow us to remain indoors instead of going outside to interact with our neighbors over the backyard fence or from our front porches on a hot summer day.  Creagh noted that the electric garage door opener has also inhibited interaction with our neighbors because it allows us to enter our house without even having to step outside.

     As a result, today’s kids are being raised by a much different village—one that’s largely shaped by technology.  Neighborhood friends have been replaced by Facebook friends, and texting has replaced face-to-face interactions.  The solution for this dilemma, according to Creagh, can be found in relationships.  He said we as adults need to take time to interact with kids and show them how to form relationships.  Otherwise, this vital social skill will primarily be shaped by television, movies, music and YouTube.

     Creagh concluded by noting that this process of modeling healthy relationships for kids does not have to be difficult.  Simply investing a few minutes of time can reap huge benefits.  Of course, this is no surprise to those of us involved in mentoring.  We have seen first hand how an hour a week spent with a young person can make a big difference for that child when the time spent is one-on-one, intentional and focused.  At its most basic level, mentoring helps children simply because it lets them know that there’s someone out there who truly cares about them.

     Next month, we’ll examine these benefits more closely as we report the results of our annual survey.