Asset Message of the Week

Hi all, My apologies for the sporadic messages over the last month. Hope this finds you all well. Some of you may recognize the story below as it circulated around Facebook last week. I feel like it draws some nice comparisons in terms of the way we view our kids…

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100. This is a real story.

Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context? One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Think about that piece I underlined and placed in bold. How often does this occur when we look at certain young people? How often might a person be written off because of what they look like or where they are from. How many teens have skills and talents to go either unused or unnoticed because we’re easier too busy to see it or we’re not looking in the right places. This story is just a nice reminder for all of us to be more aware of our surroundings and the possibilities that arise while doing so.

Thanks for all you do to support Middletown youth.

 Best, Justin

The New Great Depression - Young People and Employment

Today in the Capital, the CT Commission on Children held a forum on the current youth employment crisis that we're facing both nationally and state-wide. Unfortunately, I made it up there late and by the time I got there the room was packed beyond capacity (which in some ways is a good problem to have since this needs to be an all hands on deck initiative) so I did not stay for very long. Fortunately, CT-N was taping the event and it's already available on-line (see above). Additionally, the Commission on Children made the following documents available here: http://www.cga.ct.gov/coc/youth_employment.htm.

I'll try to debrief pieces of this on here sometime in the near future but wanted to get this information out to you all as soon as possible.

Asset Message of the Week

Returning back to work this week after a restful holiday vacation I started to think about connecting this week’s message to New Year’s Eve. The easiest way to do that is around asking folks to spend some time making a resolution that included supporting young people, possibly even making a promise (alla www.assetpromise.org – shameless self promotion, I know!). However, I remembered that was exactly what we did last year and I really want to try not to repeat ourselves just yet.

So thinking a little deeper about it, I asked the question, what if we changed it from asking people to create resolutions supporting young people to asking people to support the resolutions of young people. Some might be very specific like “get better grades” (Asset #21 Achievement Motivation), “get involved in xxxx club/sport/group” (#17 Creative Activities, #18 Youth Programs), or “make better friends” (#15 Positive Peer Influence) or they might be more general like “make 2012 a better year than 2011” (#40 Positive View of Personal Future). Either way, many young people will take the new year as an opportunity to set goals for themselves.

Regardless of what that goal might be they’ll need help to achieve it. It might be that they need help brainstorming and problem solving how they go about it or it could be they need some roll-up-your-sleeves-help. Encouragement and cheerleading are other key factors along the way. However, the all important first step is simply asking a young person what their resolution is in the first place.

So as the first week of the new year nears conclusion, let us just remind you that so many young people still have these wonderfully optimistic goals of how their lives could be better in 2012 and that you can play a huge role in helping them realize it.

Happy New Year! and thanks again for all you do to support our youth.

Best wishes,

Justin

White Out Night 2011

White Out Night 2011, a set on Flickr.

If you see a group of people wandering around Main Street tonight, it most likely will be the Middletown Substance Abuse Prevention Council and students from MHS' Dragons In Action and WWMS' Rams In Action. We may even be joined by some friends from Middnight on Main, since we're asking for people to have a safe New Year and they're providing a great way to have one. Wave, smile, or lend us a friendly honk if you see us.

Above are some pictures of Dragons In Action preparing for the event.

DIA YLS Wrap Party

DIA YLS Wrap Party, a set on Flickr.

Members of our Dragons In Action group met with the Middlesex United Way's Young Leaders Society and Macdonough Elementary staff to help wrap presents for the YLS' first ever toy drive. Over 170 toys were donated and wrapped and sent out throughout the City to three local schools and to Parks and Rec.