Youths Need Parents or, at Least, Mentors
Unintended as it appears, “An Outsider Takes On L.A.’s Gang Problem” (Opinion, May 25), the interview with the Rev. Eugene Rivers, and “GOP Focus Should Be Kid Stuff,” the May 25 commentary by Robert Fellmeth, pound home the same message: Youth today need parents, especially fathers, in their lives to commit to their well-being. The fact is that many children don’t have fathers in the home, and we must not punish them but offer solutions.
Mentoring in its many forms is a necessary prevention and, often, intervention strategy to help youth stay on the right path. Fellmeth asks his Republican Party, which he calls an advocate of youth, to invest in continuing valuable programs.
Recent cuts in public funding to help youth on probation will terminate services to thousands of youth at our agency alone.
Youth who are mentored/wanted have lower re-offending rates and do better in school. If the safety net of mentoring disappears, gang killings and teen pregnancy will persist.
Kenneth Martinet
President, Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters Los Angeles
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