This is a problem with the conservative message in that it amounts to preaching to the choir. With 40 percent of childbirths now being out of wedlock, the situation for conservatives and the nation at large will only grow bleaker unless conservative messages are changed to better address current realities.
For people that never knew a two parent family or even a nuclear family, conservatives need to develop some "helping hand" quasi-welfare-socialist programs designed to steer people already on the wrong side of the tracks toward a better way of living.
I could do a lot of work with unwed mothers, I could help them get their start. (With apologies to Steve Martin)
As long as this is privately funded,,I have no complaint, but in reality is the charity receiving money from the Govt to perform charity?
The demographics are killing us. More kids born to single parents..fewer parents with education and skills raising kids. More people with the knowledge and motivation to get money for nothing.
The only cure may be a generation of real poverty...a real depression. Looks like that is coming again in the UK.
yeah my helping hand is one that says get a job you slob and no more free food and housing, that is incentive for most people to work, when they have an empty feeling in their stomach, they will work. the old and disabled eccepted.
maybe all welfare should be like this. privately funded, and dependant on behavoir.
I am working with a committee to look at jail recidivism in our county. In a poll taken over a 24 hour period of time, 98 prisoners represented more than 500 past stints in jail. Many were substance abusers and almost all had histories of relatives who also served time in jail or prison.
Many of these are also in the same families that social service and welfare serves. A large number when tested, have a functional equivalent of a fifth grade education, even though they may have graduated from high school.
Increasingly, our county money is going to provide legally required mental health treatment in the jail.
How is government going to turn this around? How is government and the community going to keep another generation from following this path? We have learned from the past that ignoring the problem only makes it grow in size and severity. The resources these families take to deal with bad behaviors and the violence that slops over into criminal activity has become a serious problem impacting our ability to serve the general public with services such as libraries.
We are trying to cobble together an in-jail individual needs assessment and school to provide classes in parenting, anger management, managing money, life skills etc. (These will be through mini contracts with non-profits or local schools that already do this.) Then have each inmate have a plan to continue with non-profit or faith based programs in literacy, GED or college tech., sober living, etc. upon release. We will also have former inmates who have successfully re-entered act as mentors.
We will track to see if this intervention has an impact. The punative approach is not working. We have a six month waiting list to get into our jail to serve sentences and a lot of early releases. We also have a violence level for cases such as assault, which are greater than L.A. (We are a small rural county.)