If you've ever been to a pretty good size farm, you were probably surprised to see the acres and acres of food.  You probably even thought about what the farmer was going to do with all of that food.  To answer your question, just go to your local supermarket or look in your freezer.  All of the food that you eat comes from someone's farm.  Millions are fed and have their needs met because of the work of a few thousand individuals.

Now let's look at this same concept and analogy as it applies to our communities.  Our communities are like small farms for our cities.  Our children are the seedlings that are planted and raised for useful purposes.  Our parents are the farmers, who are given the task of planting and nurturing the crops of our communities.  Most large farmers have farm hands to help with the multiple tasks that take place on a farm on a daily basis.  I understand that such an analogy would probably be difficult for city-dwellers, who may not have seen or been on a farm.  But just go with me for a minute as I attempt to make my point.

For conversation purposes, we will use two seedlings, Regina and Reggie.  They both have grown up in our community since birth.  They aren't like a lot of our youth, who move around quite often for a variety of reasons.  Reggie has a mom, but hasn't seen much of his father for most of his young life.  He's a marginal student in school, but it's only because of the numerous distractions that are around him.  He was an A/B student in elementary, but his mom has had some hardships and struggles over the years.  He was very interested in athletics and music, but his new circle of friends isn't interested in any of those activities.  They are into hanging out and committing petty criminal acts, such as gambling, smoking weed and cigarettes, and playing the girls.  Reggie isn't really comfortable with these types of activities, but he doesn't quite have any other guys to hang with in his neighborhood.  He goes along in order to get along.

Regina, like Reggie, was a very good student in her elementary school years.  She likes dressing up and playing with her doll and toys.  Her mom and dad separated and divorced when she was between second and third grade.  She was a daddy's girl most of her known life.  She and dad still had contact and interaction until daddy became hooked on his drug and alcohol addiction.  Regina and mom had a relationship that could be defined as being cordial.  Mom was busy moving on with her life after her divorce.  She had three more children by other men after her divorce.  Regina went from being the only child to being the other child.  Since she wasn't getting the attention that she was use to from her dad, she turned to older guys, who often took advantage of her naive nature.

I'm sure that you probably know a Reggie or Regina, who has the potential, but lacks the support that they need.  Many of our young people just need help getting back on track and refocusing on the things that are important in their lives.  They need mentors and supporters to talk to and work with them.  These young people are either going to add good things to our communities or negative and destructive things to them.  We need to find ways to work with and reach out to these possible future lawyers, doctors, business leaders and so on.  The Reggies and Reginas in your community desire and deserve all that you can do to help them to get back on track.