America’s Promise Alliance

America's Promise—The Alliance for Youth, led by General Colin Powell, is dedicated to mobilizing the nation's groups and organizations and building and strengthening the character and competence of our youth.

At the heart of America's Promise is a set of five basic promises made to every child in America. To point them in the right direction and to help them grow up strong and ready to take their place as successful adults, these five promises must be fulfilled:

Promise 1: Caring Adults

All children need support and guidance from caring adults in their families, at schools and in their communities. These include ongoing, secure relationships with parents as well as formal and informal relationships with teachers, mentors, coaches, youth volunteers and neighbors.

Promise 2: Safe Places

All children need to be physically and emotionally safe wherever they are — from the actual places of families, schools, neighborhoods and communities to the virtual places of media. They also need a healthy balance between structured, supervised activities and unstructured time.

Promise 3: A Healthy Start

All children need and deserve healthy bodies, healthy minds and healthful habits. These result from regular health check-ups and needed treatment, good nutrition and exercise, healthy skills and knowledge, and good role models of physical and psychological health.

Promise 4: An Effective Education

All children need the intellectual development, motivation and skills that equip them for successful work and lifelong learning. These result from having quality learning environments, challenging expectations and consistent guidance and mentoring.

Promise 5 - Opportunities to Help Others

All children need the chance to make a difference in their families, at schools and in their communities. Knowing how to make a difference comes from having models of caring behavior, awareness of the needs of others, a sense of personal responsibility to contribute to the larger society, and opportunities for volunteering, leadership and service.

Fall River was named one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People by the America’s Promise Alliance. This was done by fulfilling all of the five promises above. Team F.R.E.S.H. played a great part in making this happen.

Anyone in the community can pitch in to continue making our city one of the best places for young people; whether you’re an adult, coach, community leader, or parent. Just follow these simple steps below to make our city continue to nurture, protect, mentor, serve, and prepare our youth.

Young People:

•Identify problems in the community and design service-learning projects to solve them.

•Advocate by communicating with public officials to ensure that the decisions they make address the needs of youth.

•Volunteer to mentor a younger child or serve as a peer counselor.

•Spread the message about the importance of the Five Promises.

Youth-Serving Organizations:

•Improve collaboration among organizations with distinct areas of expertise.

•Continue to invest in quality program models and ongoing staff development.

•Train the next generation of leaders by creating youth advisory boards.

Community Leaders:

•Develop and implement a comprehensive plan for identifying and meeting the needs of children, youth and families.

•Launch and awareness campaign to raise the visibility of children’s needs in the community and the services available to meet them.

•Develop a structure or support existing structures that involve young people in community decision-making.

School Leaders:

•Offer comprehensive support services to young people and their families.

•Ensure that young people have safe places that promote their academic and social development when they are out of school.

•Expand the integration of academic curriculum with community service.

•Take concrete actions to improve high school graduation.

Business Leaders:

•Offer flexible options for addressing dependent care needs and participation in school- and community-related activities.

•Invest in youth-led service through partnerships and financial support for organizations that engage young people in quality volunteering and service-learning programs.

•Train and support employees to bring their skills and experience into the classroom.

•Offer employment opportunities to youth.

Funders:

•Prioritize and fund multi-sector collaboration to meet the holistic needs of young people.

•Invest additional resources in research and development.

•Consider making grants over longer periods that diminish over time.

Policy-makers:

•Coordinate government programs so children receive comprehensive services.

•Reaffirm a commitment to ensure that every child has a safe place and quality opportunities for development in and out of school.

•Listen to young people.

•Encourage and reward efforts of the business community to support youth by providing tax incentives to support expanded initiatives for children and youth.

Faith Leaders:

•Identify the needs of young people in the congregation and connect them to supports in the community.

•Inspire members to volunteer and connect them with opportunities to help others.

•Use congregational buildings to provide safe places for children and youth during non-school hours.

Parents, Grandparents, Caregivers and Other Individuals:

•Be a mentor.

•Be involved in children’s education.

•Teach children what it means to be a good member of the community.

•Show interest in a child’s life by being an active listener.