Nice topic this week man! I also love the work of Zac and combination. I haven’t entered their giveaways but I always give em some votes to help keep what they do going in what little way I can!
This is a really interesting one to have. I have a hundred different things I could think of but which one do I choose?
Let’s go with two options here. I can’t figure out which one I would want to do more so let’s do both :D
Growing up, I lived in a bigger city with lots of crime and all that. It wasn’t anything like Compton or anything but it was definitely a city with some bad stuff in it. I would want to have a youth center in one of the big cities that let me give kids right up to the age of 21, and maybe older, a place to come and spend time to get away from the other crap they deal with. I would certainly partner with local groups but my plan for the place is to teach kids the basic skills they should know like carpentry, plumbing, painting and basic home things. There’s way too much focus on getting into the books and just doing the school curriculum that it leaves so much room for people to fail at basic life. I would love to have the place be outfitted with the basic tools and lots of them. One of the ways I would help as well is be a recycling center for old tools. A lot of that stuff gets thrown away in the trash or just donates and turned to scrap. It would be great to help them learn to fix them, keep them in good shape and maintain a nice environment. We would also recycle lots of wood from the area. So many businesses that use shipping palettes throw them away, donate or burn them. They give them away literally for free so we could have ample supplies of free wood to do all kinds of stuff with. It would be great to host a fair to sell the things they build on their own and the money would go to buying them some basic things for their own home so they can keep the stuff going.
The youth center we had was important to a few of my friends to keep them away from drugs and gangs. I would love to be able to do the same here and help out as many as I could.
The other thing I would like to do along a similar line as that above is open a youth center that focuses on learning outdoor skills and survival. I’m not one to do a lot of it myself but I have the desire to learn how to do it and I would love to have a place in a city that has a large empty lot behind it so I could fence it off and have our own yard where we learn about different trees, plants, preparing a space to camp, how to build a shelter, make fires, boiling water and so many of the other things that are important to know but kids don’t get to learn much of it because it’s not too common nowadays.
The best would be able to do both of these in the same budget and space! They are both pretty lofty ideas though, so maybe someday I could do it even in a smaller scale!
You know we have a trades shortage here in Australia right? No one wants to do the job, get their hands dirty or seemingly work so hard for their money. This is a good one you mention here as starting this at a young age will probably open them to it as an ongoing vocation later in life.
At your hypothetical centre the stuff they make, upcycle and restore could be sold and the funds reinvested...This opens up another avenue of learning, business and marketing.
I like the second idea too...Although Adolf Hitler did this and it seemed to work quite effectively. Maybe not the best example, but makes a point. Don't do a Hitler Youth style training camp mate, it won't be a good look. Seriously though, it's a great idea...Having kids think that milk comes from a carton and meat is made in white plastic trays is simply untenable. Some survival skills and understanding of the world around them would do kids some good.
Thanks for thinking about it, for joining in and supporting the #weekend-engagement topic.
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