Text 3352, 208 rader
Skriven 2006-10-05 23:32:12 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0610051) for Thu, 2006 Oct 5
===================================================

===========================================================================
Mrs. Bush's Interview by AM 1700 Teen Radio
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
October 5, 2006

Mrs. Bush's Interview by AM 1700 Teen Radio
Buffalo, New York



October 4, 2006

1:50 P.M. EDT

Q This is AM 1700. I am Miss Diva, Amber Bellamy, here with the First Lady,
the First Lady, Mrs. Laura Bush. Wow, it's a great experience.

MRS. BUSH: Thanks, Amber.

Q And I'm here with Mrs. Bush and Amber Bellamy. This is DJ Whiter. We're
here with Mrs. Bush, like Amber, Miss Diva, said.

Q Mrs. Bush, the First Lady, this is a great experience, wow.

Q Yes, real great.

Q The First Lady, who -- in the Helping America's Youth initiative. We know
you have a busy schedule, but we're going to get straight to questions.

MRS. BUSH: Okay, terrific. Thanks, Amber. Thank you very much for having me
on the show. I'm really happy to be here.

Q It's an honor, it's an honor. Can you tell us what Helping America's
Youth initiative is about?

MRS. BUSH: Helping America's Youth is an initiative that President Bush
announced in his 2005 State of the Union address, and it's an initiative to
try to highlight all the ways that people in the United States can help
young people learn to make wise decisions for their lives so they can live
healthy and successful lives. So I've spent -- since the President
announced the initiative in January 2005, I've traveled all over our
country. I've visited with mentors and Big Brothers and Big Sisters and
schools and after-school programs, and fatherhood initiatives, sports
programs that teach character through sports, gang intervention programs
where I've met young people who are leaving gangs and finding jobs.

And I'm here today, of course, because CRUCIAL and this radio station are
both very important groups in the Buffalo area that help young people learn
to make wise decisions for their lives, which is exactly the point of
Helping America's Youth.

Q Okay, what is Helping America's Youth based on? Is it just about gangs,
school dropout, teen pregnancy?

MRS. BUSH: Well, it's all of those things, and it's really based on a lot
of research that shows that young people who have adults who are highly
supportive in their lives, who are actively involved in their lives, do
better -- young people who have parents or teachers or coaches or mentors
or pastors that support them and help them learn how to make wise
decisions.

And so one of the purposes of Helping America's Youth is to encourage
parents and grandparents and community leaders around the country to become
actively involved in the life of young people, to find out what the
problems are that young people are facing, all the things you just
mentioned. Of course, we know drug and alcohol abuse, dropping out of
school is a very crucial and sad choice that some children make, because it
really does set you back when that happens-- all of the ways that each one
of us can reach out to young people and help them make a successful life
for themselves.

Q In society today, young females are just as at risk as young males. Why
is Helping America's Youth initiative focused on more young males instead
of young males and females?

MRS. BUSH: Well, Helping America's Youth is focused on both girls and boys.
But we do know that boys face higher statistical problems. We know that,
obviously, more boys drop out of school; fewer boys go to college now than
women -- about 56 percent of the people in undergraduate school in college
are women; boys are much more likely to get in trouble and be arrested;
boys are more likely to be victims of violence themselves. These are all
statistics that we know. Boys drop out of school more than girls do.

And so we know that we need to pay attention to both boys and girls, but we
should pay special attention to see what we can do to reverse these trends
for boys, to have boys stay in school longer, go to college, do all the
things that we all know, that every one of us know are what will lead to a
successful life.

Q In Buffalo today, a lot of our committees are being swiped away because
of the funding. So now it's like, if it wasn't for your Buffalo, I couldn't
meet teen radio, I wouldn't be able to meet you, which is a wonderful
experience. But we don't have -- there's really nothing for the teens to do
anymore because no more funding.

MRS. BUSH: Well, that's a problem, and Helping America's Youth is not a
funding program. It does support community groups around the country -- or
I've visited community groups around the country that do receive federal
funding. But not all of them do. Some are faith-based, some are supported
by different churches or mosques or synagogues. Others are just started by
groups that want to do something good and raise their own money privately,
without federal funding.

But you're right, it is important to pay attention to funding. And there
are a lot of grants in a lot of different federal departments -- the
Justice Department, for instance, which I think is a funder of the Weed and
Seed program here in Buffalo. The Education Department has a number of
grants that they can give. A lot of the departments do. And one thing that
Helping America's Youth did when we started the initiative is we brought
people from -- policy makers -- from each one of these departments and put
them together to design this initiative, that we've done conferences now
around the country.

But it's also a way for each of these departments to know where -- what
kind of grants they have, and how they can make sure these grants get
spread around the country in a very constructive and positive way.

Q Yes, I went to the national Weed and Seed, which was in Arizona. And they
asked the question, what did I want my community to look like? And what I
drew was -- I'm not a good drawer -- but I drew buildings of community
center. And one day I hope I will be able to make my own community center
call The Voices. I think young people need to be heard.

MRS. BUSH: They do need to be heard, you're absolutely.

Q I want a community center called The Voices with a face that's -- on the
building. So I think --

MRS. BUSH: Well, I like that, and that's one of the great things about this
radio program, and this chance that you all have to be on the radio
program, is that you both have a chance to get your message out to people,
to ask other people their opinions.

But while I'm on your program, I'd like to say something specifically to
young people, to both of you and to young people, all your listeners
everywhere who are young people. And that is, think about your life, really
think about what you want it to be. It's like asking to draw what you want
a community to be.

Also sit down sometime with a piece of paper and a pencil, and make your
goals for yourself. Think about what you want your life to look like. And
then when you've got those goals, take that list to your mother, or to your
grandparents, or to your teacher, or your favorite counselor or coach, and
say, these are my goals. I've thought about it and this is what I want my
life to be like, and how can you help me strategize what are the important
ways I can reach my goals.

And it might be, number one, doing very well in school. And we know that.
If you can do well in school, then you're more likely to be able to go to
college or get a good job. Or it might be avoiding drugs or alcohol. It
might be a lot of other things. It may just be a desire to help people, to
make sure every single day you do something that helps your family or your
friend or your school or your community in some way. We know that when we
help other people, when we reach out to other people, we expand our own
lives, and we make ourselves happier.

Q How can community programs find out about Helping America's Youth
program?

MRS. BUSH: Well, there's a website for Helping America's Youth, and it's
www.helpingamericasyouth.gov -- that's g-o-v at the end of it. And when you
get on Helping America's Youth website, you can actually put in your own
community, and the website will show you some of the problems that young
people in your community face. And then it will also let you know about
some of the resources your community has to address those problems.

But also on the website are a list of the many, many resources that are
across the country that you can look through and think, Buffalo could
really use this; or I wish we had that in our community. And it's a way to
try to address the problems that are specific here.

And for communities whose law enforcement has crime statistics mapped,
those communities can put their crime statistics on top of the map of their
town, and they can see that there's a lot of crime at this corner between 4
in the afternoon and 7 at night, which makes you know that kids are out,
they don't have any place safe to go, and they're just on the street and
getting in trouble. And so then that allows the community to say, this
corner needs a Boys and Girls Club, or this corner needs a public library
where kids can go after school and do their homework, or whatever. It's a
way to really address specific problems about your own specific community.

Q Well, I would like to thank you for coming. Wow, it's a very good
experience.

MRS. BUSH: Thank you to both of you. Thanks for getting good messages out
to young people all over the world. I saw your letters from Japan and South
Africa and Scotland and other places.

Q International.

MRS. BUSH: That's right, that's right.

Q This is AM 1700. We're in the building with the First Lady, you guys, the
First Lady, Mrs. Laura Bush, wow -- a member of the Helping America's Youth
initiative.

MRS. BUSH: Thanks so much, Amber. Good luck to you both. Thanks a lot.

END 2:01 P.M. EDT
===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061005-1.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)