Young People | Youth In Need | Alumni | Employee/Apprentices | And So The ALC

Young People

The ALC has some understanding of what younge people, consciously or unconsciously, are looking for in their young experience of life. Here are some of our observations.

• They need excitement – socializing – nothing to do, and to do it with, means crisis – often antsy.
• They want to belong – their peers, friends, and family.
• They need space - to experiment, try to verify, test and learn; they are exploring for personal identity.
• They want to be treated as individuals, although they might not clearly know what that is.
• They need to be affirmed and when they make mistakes they do not want to be stepped on and be “blown up” (do not make a bigger deal than it is).
• They want to be allowed to make their own mistakes to gain experience.
• Their focus, attention span, is short – their reticular activating system works over time.
• Encouragement is better than judgment.
• The trust of an adult quickly brings back a hopeful smiling sunny face.
• Nurturing means “Do not judge me too harshly,” “Let me speak my opinion even if you do not agree with me - for now listen to me”.
• They instinctively know when something is good or a person is authentic - They dislike do-gooders and fake people.
• They want a good honest reason for doing what you ask them to do. They can smell a phony reason from far away.
• When external coercive motivation is applied they will rebel or turn to manipulative survival skills.