The Lack of Teen Resources

When I first began working on the community resource list, I had no idea that finding helpful and interesting resources were so hard to come by in a city like New York. Having narrowed my choice down to neighborhoods I was somewhat familiar with I ended up choosing Park Slope because I thought it would contain a fair mix of activities and locations that would be appealing to teens and openly embrace their involvement. It soon became apparent that advertised resources were extremely hard to locate and it seemed most things were aimed at younger children under the age of thirteen. Locating these services that were aimed at teens took a great deal of patience and luck which is unfortunate as teens who may be interested in these services might have no idea they exist if they don’t already have prior knowledge of certain community organizations. After thinking about this I realized that when I was a teen most of the activities and organizations that I took part in were directly related to my school. I was lucky that my school provided me with such a wide array of resources that other less involved schools might not be able to provide for their students leaving them left out of a number of opportunities which could help encourage personal growth or just provide safe entertainment. Being so involved with these activities can be beneficial for a number of different reasons and it is a shame that programs that offer support for the youth in a community are so difficult to find when they could give so much to those who need it.