at risk youth - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing
Evolutionary biology built love into us to protect children, family and society - so to put children or youth with those that don't love them is to put them at risk.
Cold eyes, cold lips, cold words and cold care - you know you are at risk right down to your soul when all that surrounds you is cold. It is love that protects, love that battles impossible odds to save you and wins, it is love that will be your hero every time... no matter what... So once that protection isn't there... being at risk begins and the vultures in their human masks circle around. Then you pray, even if you never prayed or believed before, you pray that someone comes to love you and show you what love is.
The only thing youth should be "at risk" of is missing breakfast because they slept in until lunch. Can anyone living a comfortable life imagine being at risk of the kinds of things they are at risk of? Can anyone imagine that being their every day reality? Because those children don't have to imagine it. It's all they know.
Our world is so broken that we have the words "at risk youth" as a common enough phrase for most to have heard of it. It is such a profoundly immoral place for any society to find itself. What are they at risk of and is it preventable? Ask that question, follow the threads and it all comes back to the monetary system, to social darwinism, to a lack of real love and any determination to give people a good life. In a world that has enough food people are hungry. In a nation that has enough buildings people are insecure in their housing and stressed. The stress effects the genes via epigentics, lowering health outcomes. The stress changes brain development, favouring the kinds of behaviours dysfunctional families are built from - poor self control, poor focus, poor emotional endurance, poor stress buffering of children and infants, poor educational outcomes, poor life chances, poor use of potential in all spheres... We need to win this. We need to make "at risk youth" a phrase consigned to the history books along with child chimney sweeps.