Who qualifies as a Protector?
A Protector is an adult who sees a youth once a month in person and maintains phone contact at least once a week. An older non-adult sibling typically doesn’t qualify. Youths need protection provided by those who are older and wiser. The protector, who lives conveniently close to a youth, simply responds to a youth’s call for help. This doesn’t mean that the protector will be able to solve all of a youth’s problems. Not even parents can do that. A protector simply tries to help, counsel, guide, or seek outside help for a youth-just like a concerned parent. A protector is different from a mentor, such as volunteers in the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program who spend significant time helping direct a youth’s life. While mentoring programs are a desirable influence in a youth’s life, mentors are hard to recruit. Even those who are concerned about helping youths simply don’t have two or three days/nights a week to spend with a youth. However, when youths have adult protectors, most won’t
A Protector is an adult who sees a youth once a month in person and maintains phone contact at least once a week. An older non-adult sibling typically doesn’t qualify. Youths need protection provided by those who are older and wiser. The protector, who lives conveniently close to a youth, simply responds to a youth’s call for help. This doesn’t mean that the protector will be able to solve all of a youth’s problems. Not even parents can do that. A protector simply tries to help, counsel, guide, or seek outside help for a youth-just like a concerned parent. A protector is different from a mentor, such as volunteers in the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program who spend significant time helping direct a youth’s life. While mentoring programs are a desirable influence in a youth’s life, mentors are hard to recruit. Even those who are concerned about helping youths simply don’t have two or three days/nights a week to spend with a youth. However, when youths have adult protectors, most won’t
