State of the Youth Address
G
ood morning. My name is Michael Brown, and I am very pleased to be standing here today in front of all of you to deliver very important information on the state of young people in our community. I hope you will listen carefully to what I have to say, and carefully consider this information. Some of the statistics we will discuss this morning are, I hope, eye-opening. Some are issues which many of you may deal with each day.
What I want you all to take from this Address is that youth matter. Young people, including everyone present, matter. You have an inherent value and importance as individuals, because of this, your
choices and decisions matter. Every decision has its consequences—good or bad--and your decisions can have a far-reaching effect on the people around you, and the people in your broader community. We want you to be leaders, and to have positive effects on your community.
Every leader—however young--must understand that true leadership has its foundation in 2 inseparable characteristics: integrity and character.
Integrity means to do what you say you will do. It means that your word is your bond. This is how people know whether or not they can trust you.
Character means many things. Among many things, character is patience, honesty, self-discipline, courage, respect, caring, determination, fairness, trustworthiness, unselfishness, loyalty, citizenship, and responsibility. A leader takes responsibility for himself, his actions and decisions, and by extension, for his community. A leader doesn’t say, “Somebody should clean up this mess!” or “Somebody should do something about this problem!” A leader says, “What can I do?” and actively seeks and finds the answer to that question. A leader helps his community, puts others before self, and to do that, he must first educate himself in the problems, needs, and challenges of his community.
We hope to provide you with a strong basis for that community education today—that is the purpose of this address. We want you to understand the problems, issues, challenges, opportunities, and the people around you. –These things affect us all. It also means finding those areas and issues you’re passionate about and pursuing them. I hope you will take this information further by finding ways today to get involved in your community and to make a difference—to be the difference.
Each person—including all youth—can contribute and even originate and implement constructive solutions to better Spartanburg individuals’ lives, and the life of this community of Spartanburg. Please remember as you go into breakout sessions today, into the various components of the day, and back into your homes and schools that leadership is service. You are all called to lead, and to serve.
I hope they’ll take the time to learn more about your community today. Learn its challenges, its issues, its opportunities, and all the many good things happening for your benefit, and for the benefit of the community as a whole. Today you’ll find out ways you can help, contribute, volunteer and become advocates for positive change.
Thank You
Michael D. Brown, Council Member, Spartanburg District One
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Council Member
Term Expires: 01/01/2013
Chair, Public Safety and Judiciary,
Phone:864-573-1003
District Office
145 N. Church Street
Suite 210B
Spartanburg, SC 29306
Office Hours
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Call To Action
"As I said before, I know some of these issues are eye-opening, and I hope you have learned a great deal more about your community than you knew before. Though these problems in some cases daunting, they have answers. Many of the solutions our communities are working towards are working. They take hard work, but are worth the time and effort, and necessitate every single person’s involvement—no matter their age. Everybody can contribute and help."
Important Facts
I hope you will all understand that we need more young people making decisions to improve Spartanburg, and to be a part of positive solutions for our community. You must become active and involved in your community. We need young people working towards bettering our community because young people compose a significant part of our community.
In fact, nearly 25% of Spartanburg County is a young person aged 0-18.
That 25% makes a huge number—65,000 young people in our county.
Of those, 12.5 %, or 34,000 is a teen or pre-teen. To put that into perspective, that’s almost as many teens and pre-teens living in our county as there are people in the city of Spartanburg.
