The Five Promises of AA4Y
The Arlington Alliance for Youth takes great pride in mobilizing and then rallying both citizens and key agencies around the five promises embraced by America's Promise:
- Caring Adults
- Safe Places
- A Healthy Start
- Effective Education
- Opportunities to Help Others
These promises encourage communities to support their youth by providing caring adults, safe places with structured activities, healthy start and lifestyles, effective education, and opportunities for community service.
By fulfilling these promises, we help build the character and competence of our youth. Additionally, these youth are five to ten times more likely when they become adults to be good citizens that care about their community and its youth. It's about paying it forward.
The next several issues will focus on one of the five promises, starting with Caring Adults, which is built around the premise that all children and youth need and deserve support and guidance from adults in their families, schools and communities.
"One of the critical elements in positive youth development is a relationship with an adult whom they can develop a caring and trusting relationship," said AA4Y Chairman Jim Walther. "A caring adult can be a lot of things, such an advocate, an advisor, guide or mentor. They are there to set boundaries and expectations for young people."
Adult-youth relationships are vital to the success of AA4Y programs, said Walther, who added that children who receive at least four of the Five Promises are more likely than those who experience only one or none to succeed academically, socially and civically.
Coming in January issue: Safe Places.
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