3 Things You Can Do to Help the Youth of Today
Do you want to leave this world a little better than you found it? If so, you should actively attempt to assist, inspire, and support the youth of today.
Here are three things that you can do to perform this all-important task:
Actively listen
Sometimes, kids just want to be heard. If you’re serious about being someone that today’s youth can turn to whenever they face issues and problems, you need to become adept at active listening.
To perform this crucial task in a highly efficient and effective fashion, you must:
1. Provide the child with your undivided attention whenever you converse with them
2. Retain eye contact with the child, even if they fail to repay the favor
3. Lower yourself to the child’s level if they are much smaller than you (note — this works when you are talking to smaller children but could come across as patronizing when talking to teenagers)
4. Repeat elements of the conversation back to the child to show them that you are listening to them
5. Adopt body language that showcases positivity
6. Allow the child to guide the conversation (if you notice that they become uncomfortable with the subject matter at any point, don’t push them to carry on talking)
Donate to youth services
If you’re determined to play an active role in the improvement of a young person’s life, you should seriously consider donating to a charitable youth service. Regardless of what you choose to donate — whether it’s money, your time, or even car donations — taking this course of action will aid you in your bid to positively impact the youth of today. In some form or another, your donations will help to fund a whole host of support initiatives for vulnerable children, which in turn will help them to circumvent the challenges that they face on a daily basis.
Be a good role model
No matter which pieces of the above advice you opt to put into practice, it’ll all amount to nothing if you fail to act in a way that is becoming of a good role model. Regardless of what promises you make, your support won’t mean a thing if you don’t back your words up with action. For this reason, you must go above and beyond to be an adult that the youth of today can aspire to.
To become an amazing role model to the children that you support and look after, you must:
1. Showcase vast amounts of compassion and emotion (basically, make it clear to the kids in your life that its okay for them to have down days)
2. Use inspirational language
3. Empower children to come to their decisions in life
4. Make it clear that you live by a strict set of values
5. Commit your time and effort to bettering your local community
6. Be selfless at all times
7. Strive to circumvent the challenges that you face on a day-to-day basis
