The Areivim Difference: Part 5
Click for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4
We're Powered by a Mature Staff
The word mature has several connotations. To some it represents the positive trait of stability, to others it hints to a boring person who lives in a tiny box, who forgot what it is to have fun. It is unusual to find someone who is structured yet continues to be spontaneous, fun, and "chilled".
There is a somewhat common scenario which plays out in Areivim's office. It sounds like this: I receive a call from a community Askon about a teenager in trouble. I offer some advice and ask if I should take the boy for lunch. My offer is returned with a look of disbelief. They were thinking so loud you can almost hear it, "Really, why would he be interested to talk to you?" Well, we went for lunch, had fun, and met for lunch weekly until their lives settled down.
It is the balance of our mature, yet spontaneous, personality that makes Areivim special. Teenagers like us and parents are comfortable that we will offer their teenager sound advice. Sound advice is common but not as common as it should be. Parents have a legitimate concern that a mentor will be critical of parents, downplay drug use, and regress many of their wins in order to get on the teenager's good side.
It has become a mistake to believe that parents cannot succeed because they are adults and demand structure which their teenagers will reject. Parents fail for various reasons. But healthy living isn't one of them. It's more the result of parents' inability to "market" themselves to their children in an appealing manner. It's not the message but the messenger. Areivim is the perfect messenger.
It's also a mistake to believe that a mentor has to be irresponsible and unreliable in order to connect with irresponsible and unreliable teenagers. We create confidence in the parents that our message is their message. We create confidence in the teenager that we won't talk down to them, force anything on them, and that we will do our best to understand them.
Partnering with Areivim will save our children and, more importantly, our future generations. I'm asking my friends to please click on the banner below, or call the office at 845-371-2760, and partner with us. Our dinner will be held Motzei Shabbos, December 1st, at Ateres Charna.
