By James Menaker | Executive Director
I went home last night with a crushing headeache. My office was hot and stuffy. I was stuck staring at a computer screen for most of the day. And Joel's Place was loud...really loud. There were kids skating and riding bikes and scooters. They were yelling and playing instruments and running and singing and turning up the sound system. They were playing outside and banging on the walls. Some of them were using power tools to repair or assemble their rides. It was just a constant barrage of teenage sound coming through my walls. It was a good day.
Joel's Place is better when it is loud. The volume means that we have kids here. It means that they are having fun and participating in the Youth Center's activities. It means that those kids are not wandering around the streets of Fairbanks, bored, hungry and completely without boundaries. Summer is a strange season up here. The kids are thrilled to be out of school, but many of our youth do not see a parent figure from the time that they wake up until late at night. They are left to fend on their own with no money, no food, no plan and no supervision. That is a recipe for no good.
We had 40 kids in here yesterday. They were riding and playing instruments and playing games and eating free meals and gardening and laughing with our staff. They had somewhere to belong and someone who was invested in spending time with them. There were arguments and there were interventions that the staff had to make...but that is a part of this being a safe place. Kids have a love/hate relationship with boundaries but working through those life lessons is a vital part of the maturation process. The youth who were reprimanded will be back again this week, a little bit older and a little bit wiser and a little bit more capable of thriving in the real world.
Today it is raining and quiet. The kids are less interested in walking or riding over here when it means that they will get soaked. So they will spend the day at home playing video games and watching videos and eating junk food and breaking things because they are bored. Joel's Place will feel too quiet. We will get some cleaning done as well as some other jobs that have been put off for a rainy day. But the Center will feel empty and incomplete without the cacophany. It would be better if the kids were here...for both us and them. Tomorrow we will open our doors again. Weather permitting, I will leave with another headache at the end of the day.
Joel's Place is Better when it is Loud.
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