Who taught you how to cook? Or how to get a driver’s license? Or how to budget? Many of us may roll our eyes at our parents’ attempts to share these skills – how they kept hitting the imaginary brake on the passenger side of the car whenever we took the wheel or maybe it was their constant harping that “a penny saved is a penny earned.” But however annoying their teaching style was, we did learn independent living skills.

But what about the teenager in a single parent home, whose mother works two jobs to make sure her child has shelter and food. When is she going to fit in the time to teach these basic life skills? Or the child whose father is an alcoholic – will he give his child effective training in how to fill out a job application? Or the child who lives in an abusive home? Can that teenager expect help from her parents in learning proper nutrition?

Schools teach our children so many important things, but independent living skills are often not one of them. Parents usually step in to provide their children with the basics in nutrition and cooking, budgeting and handling credit cards, searching for a job and properly interviewing, and obtaining a driver’s license. But some parents are not able or will not provide those valuable lessons that will profoundly impact that child’s ability to be a productive member of our community.

That’s where Middle Earth steps in. Our staff instructs our youth in any and all of these important life skills. Any youth can walk in off the street into one of our Community Youth Center and learn these skills. So if you know a child that isn’t receiving these valuable life skills for whatever reason, don’t deprive them of the gift of independence. Send them to Middle Earth for a little Life 101.