Comments on: the next level

By: cathy sutton

cathy sutton — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:04:09 +0000

I thought I would do a google search. My results below:

There does seem to be a lot about adopt-a-teen for Christmas.
But what about the rest of the year?

I did come across Freedom Village

http://www.adoptateen.com/

Their Needs list bowled me over as it is telling me that
they are providing activities and potential occupations
for the teens (Wow!):
Maintenance/Autoshop
Horse Program
Livestock
Sporting goods: football,etc
Freedom Adventures: archery, hiking, etc.
Kitchen
Etc.

http://www.freedomvillageusa.com/pages/images/needs%20list.pdf

So to answer your question, Yes and No. Yes, a lot is provided for the
teens, but it appears that the price tag to Adopt a teen is $25 per month.

Sounds good except for some that is a lot as they are barely providing
for their family’s needs and secondly I would hate to start and then say
some months down the road, have to stop due to finances and perhaps
make a teen bitter because of a perceived broken commitment.

So, No, I do not see a program for someone to be mentor of a teen
and as the relationship grows perhaps money would be found
to help the teen, but not on a set-up monthly basis.

Cathy Sutton

By: admin

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:19:45 +0000

that’s a really great idea, Cathy. i wonder if there’s anything like this already in existence?

By: cathy sutton

cathy sutton — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:35:41 +0000

When I saw the teens together at the Covenant House, I thought about the next level too—relationship-wise. My thoughts were: how can the teens really function as a family at the Covenant house without individual mentors. So…I’m proposing an Adopt-a-Teen program. It can be as simple or as complicated as the adopters want it to be.

I see it working by the teens listing their interests, and goals and dreams and aspirations. Then a counselor would attempt to match a teen with a family from anywhere in the US. Simple–if the family was just making ends meet, they could email and /or chat with the teen and develop a relationship that way. Complicated, if the family had some money they could sponsor the teen in education or interests or hobbies as they saw fit. The main point would be to establish relationships with the teens so that they would see the bigger picture of life and that should help them develop into fine young people.

Well this is a thought-HTH

Cathy Sutton