Youth at Risk: A New Plan for Saving the World's Most Precious Resource

摘要

A quick scan of research on the subject of "youth at risk" yields a plethora of statistics and analysis of varying scope (worldwide or nation by nation). The UN estimates that the world today has 3 billion people under age 25, and the youth population is projected to increase to 3.5 billion by 2020. There is no shortage of concern or information on the subject, nor of groups who have developed various approaches to solving the problems, but clearly no magic formula has been found to greatly diminish the at-risk dilemma. Just over a dozen years ago, the author wrote a special report for THE FUTURIST entitled "Youth at Risk: Saving the World's Most Precious Resource" (March-April 1997). The report outlined the growing problems of children and adolescents and offered an eight-point plan to save these youth. This article assesses their previous work and offers a twenty-first-century approach to the issue.