Building Bridges To A Better Tomorrow
Sasha Bush
The Ashland Beacon
Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “We cannot build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” What better way to prepare our youth for the future than to have them play a role in how it is shaped? United Way has brought a new initiative to the table called Bridge Builders, which will not only provide local youth with the tools they need for success but also the knowledge, connections, and desire to create real change within their community. Marshall Tyson, CEO of United Way, shared, “We just wanted to build a program for kids and people in our community to be able to kind of take it back in control from all the negativity, drugs, and other various things that have just plagued this community. We want to try and build this program for our kids in the hopes that we can snatch some of them away from making bad choices that can impact their lives in negative ways for years to come. Our goal is to simply not allow them to even head down such a path.”
Today’s youth seem to be faced with so much more negativity than previous generations, and it is because of that negativity coming at them from all directions that many of our children turn to drugs, vaping, and making other bad decisions just to feel like they fit in. A great deal of our youth share one common belief—their opinions and how they would go about changing things simply don’t matter as much as the opinions of adults. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It is time we stop and listen to the ideas our kids have because we might just learn a thing or two and make things better along the way. The United Way and some local community partners understand this! They are working together with this new program to show our youth that we not only believe in them and the changes that they can make, but we are here to support them along the way.
“Working together with all our different community support systems is vital. That’s why we are so thankful to have had so many show up to support these kids, support this program, and support a future that includes change for the better. We want to grow a program that fills in the gaps that far too many of our children seem to slip through. We realized that we needed to start looking at things from a kid’s perspective and really listen to what they thought needed to change,” explained Tyson.
On Monday, August 14, 2023, sixty-four students in grades 9-12 from Boyd, Ashland, Greenup, and Fairview attended the first meeting of the Bridge Builders program. It wasn’t until students attended Monday’s meeting that they really began to see that this program was truly made for them. Mason Furst, a senior at Greenup County High School, shared his thoughts on the Bridge Builders program, “I think honestly in the beginning a lot of us just weren’t sure what this program would be. But being here and being able to fully understand what it is all about, you really start to see that we are going to be able to make an actual change because people are listening to our ideas, and the community that this program is already building is so important. I think that the use of all these different organizations creates an environment that you can’t help but be successful in because it creates a very powerful system for producing community change. Change which is needed everywhere.” In addition to his excitement for the program, Furst also voiced his opinion on what the biggest hurdle the program would face, “I think one of the biggest issues is that many people just have such a strong sense of unwillingness to change or to adapt to changes that are made. I feel like innovation scares a lot of people away, and this program is going to be a valuable tool in helping to educate those who fear change. They can see that not all changes are bad, and some are very much needed.”
Tyson expressed his gratitude to everyone who was involved in making this program a reality, “I am just so blessed to be in this position, and I just want to thank my board for allowing me to be here. All our community partners that showed up today to make this day a success and to all of the countless volunteers, donations, and our staff that have poured their hearts and souls into this program. I am just amazed that with your help we were able to pull this all together in just the last couple of weeks. Thank you, and thank you to the many youths that will go out and make this world a better place.”
