Alive With Possibilities

Are you worried about the future of our region? Then you should embrace the young people of the Inland Northwest. In this essay, Joe Poss says anything is possible if we put our faith in youth.

Take a moment and think of a young person you know, any age. Close your eyes. What do you see?

You see and feel joy, happiness. You see life, energy and vitality. There is great hope for the future. That energy you see brings great promise.

Then why must we wait for the vitality to materialize in the future? We can reap so much by engaging this vitality now and not waiting for some magical age when young people can become contributing members of our community. They can and are contributing today.

But we must not settle until every single young person is provided with the resources to succeed.

Every young person? This can’t be possible — but I will give you three reasons why it is:

We live in the wrong country to be asking if it is possible.

In May 1961, President Kennedy proposed that man would land on the moon by the end of the decade. Within eight years, Apollo 11 and a crew of pioneering Americans showed the world what America could do if we set our mind to it.

We live in the wrong region to be asking if it is possible.

In the late ‘60s a group of Spokanites proposed to host the world at a fair, and in May 1974 the world came to Spokane for the start of Expo. The collaboration that took place for this six-month celebration changed this region forever.

We live in the wrong county to be asking if it is possible.

Twenty-six percent of Spokane County’s population is 17 or younger. That leaves 74 percent who are 18 or older. I think the odds for reaching every young person look pretty good.

How do we reach all of our young people? One person at a time.

Twenty-two percent of children under the age 18 in the city of Spokane live in poverty. This number is shocking.

When you closed your eyes and pictured a young person, did you see a child in poverty? Their eyes don’t have the same look of hope. These young people are out there right now in our schools, perhaps hungry, maybe focusing not on schoolwork but on other problems that children should not have to worry about.

How can these children succeed if they have never known the security we take for granted? Where is their vitality?

This concern is felt through the entire nation and slowly something is taking place to make a difference.

In April 1997 Presidents Ford, Carter, Bush and Clinton, along with Mrs. Reagan and Colin Powell, stood on the steps of Independence Hall and called for a rebirth in our nation, a focus on our young people so intense that every single youth could be provided with what it takes to succeed.

Five resources were identified that, if we could extend them to all of our young people, would provide a staircase of support for success. The staircase works only if individuals are in place to give a hand up to those who ascend. Each of the resources is necessary for young people to reach their potential. The five steps are:

* Mentor. That every young person will have an ongoing relationship with a caring adult, mentor, tutor or coach.

* Protect. That every young person will have safe places to experience structured activity during non-school hours to learn and grow.

* Nurture. That every young person will have a healthy start.

* Teach. That every young person will have a marketable skill through effective education.

* Serve. That every young person will have an opportunity to give back.

This final step is the most amazing step of all. At this step the young people turn and extend their hand to help others.

The initiative that is focusing on getting these five resources to our region’s youth is known as Bridging the G.A.P. — Spokane’s Promise to Youth. A collaboration of the Health Improvement Partnership, Chase Youth Commission and 241 other organizations have rallied to the call to help our youth. But much more help is needed. Individuals and corporations are needed. A communitywide investment is a necessity in order to help young people realize their own potential and succeed.

This is a lot of work. But if any region can achieve it, a city — a county — with the name of Spo-kane can.

A city that is vital enough to host Expo, organize and support such grand-scale events as Bloomsday and Hoopfest must be vital enough to reach every young person.

I believe several actions of late have positioned Spokane for a stronger future for our young people.

We have much to be proud of in the efforts of our City Council. Their foresight in pursuing a private-public investment in the redevelopment of downtown Spokane has provided the leadership needed to reassure others to invest in our region’s core. The actions they have taken are the first steps needed to make sure we do not lose our economic hub and with it our young people as they flee to other cities for jobs and salaries.

Our higher education institutions are fervently pursuing service-learning programs that will prepare our young people not only to work in the careers of the new millenium, but to blend these careers with time spent serving the community.

Private-public partnerships are marketing Spokane, as it never has been before, drawing businesses and families to invest in our region.

But for true economic vitality our young people need to be at the table of these collaborations. The benefit to the community will be two-fold: Our young people will be learning how to be tomorrow’s community leaders today — and how to extend the five resources to their peers.

Vitality is distinguishing the living from the non-living.

Is Spokane living? Yes! Spokane is a region alive with possibilities for the future, and our young people are engaged in this future. We are a region of individuals who know how to make a difference by collaborating. We are vital because of the promise of our youth.

What can we do to extend this promise to all of our youth?

If you are a member of a board, council, organization or committee, see if you have a young person working with your group in partnership. Ask your organization if it can extend or reinforce one of the five resources.

As individuals, think about how we can give a gift of one of the five resources to a young person. I challenge us all to join Spokane’s Promise to Youth and make one of the five resources a personal focus for 1999.

Five years from now won’t it be great to celebrate as a community when, just as during Expo, the leaders of our nation come to Spokane to see our vitality. They will not be looking at the structural changes of our city; rather they will see the look of life, energy and hope in all of our young people’s eyes.