Children Matter: Longing to be like everybody else

By Ryan Blake, Children’s Program Director

I think there is a direct correlation between poverty, homelessness and self-esteem. Many children are embarrassed to appear poor. That's why you'll see children receiving free school lunches with a nice outfit, expensive shoes, and a new cell phone. They want to look like the  middle class students.

Another example of students being embarrassed by their family’s financial situation is an unwillingness to be associated with Community LINC.

We have a Community LINC Teen Facebook page where teens can keep in touch with us. None of the teens have wanted to join the page, because they don’t want their friends to know they lived here.

I also noticed that sometimes the school bus lets out our children around the corner from our building. When I asked why they get dropped off over there, the kids told me they don’t want people to know where they live.

Self-esteem is a major topic that we talk about with our students. I want them to see a connection with making the right choices and feeling good about themselves.

A month ago I was teaching a class of 5th grade boys about self-esteem. When I asked the class if where you live affects your self-esteem, 10 year Jamal silenced the class with his answer.

Jamal said, "I think it’s harder for people who live in the hood to have high self-esteem”. He explained that “there are people doing drugs, hookers, and killing people, and tons of crime in the hood, it’s harder to be happy with so many negative things happening every day.” 

I asked them if it was true for the neighborhood where Community LINC is, and everyone agreed that this neighborhood isn’t that bad.  I questioned them about it, and they gave me an example of a pair of shoes a student was wearing. “See Robert’s Nikes… he can walk down the street with them on and not worry, if it was a bad neighborhood Robert could get beaten up for his shoes.”