Building Confidence Invaluable For Child

Five years have passed since my husband left and my small child and I had to leave our home. Despite continuous efforts to find a way out, we have lived in a subsidized housing project on Spokane’s lower South Hill ever since.

My daughter Mandy and the other kids see a world in which crime, drugs and violence is common, but opportunities for enriching life experiences are not. Mandy enjoys school and her teachers are good, but it doesn’t satisfy her appetite for learning.

I used to think that low-income people could not afford lessons for their children. Classes like music and gymnastics that Mandy seemed so interested in would be out of reach. Then I reasoned that maybe if Mandy was involved in some kind of lessons or activities, consequences of living under high-risk conditions - teen pregnancy or acting out through crime - might be avoided. I couldn’t afford NOT to get Mandy into lessons.

Through the generosity of the YMCA and Holy Names Music Center, Mandy’s piano lessons and gymnastics have continued, uninterrupted, for the last six months, even when our own resources were stretched too thin to cover the normal payments. The self-esteem and confidence Mandy is developing are important for any child, but I believe even more so when a child is living in a crime-ridden, low-socioeconomic neighborhood. Mandy has benefitted far more from these programs than from any of the virtual constellation of “social intervention” contacts we have made.

Music and gymnastics lessons have worked for Mandy in a way that no service agency ever did. They have shown her how rewarding it is to succeed through confidence, hard work and discipline. How different that feels from having agency after redundant agency magnify our problems and offer us crisis-oriented “fixes.”

Mandy doesn’t want to become a Olympic gymnast or a concert pianist when she grows up. She wants to be a teacher like the dedicated people who have taught her. Their role modeling has been an invaluable force guiding her toward her dreams. I don’t worry about Mandy’s future too much anymore, thanks to the YMCA and Holy Names Music Center. They have opened a world of wondrous possibilities for her.

MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion page. To submit a column for consideration, call Rebecca Nappi/459-5496, or Doug Floyd/459-5466.