Every day for the past few weeks, since committing in my mind I'd be running for Mayor of the City of Buffalo, I wake up with something nagging at my consciousness. A story that needs to be told, an effort I'd like to see take hold in our city, a person or group that needs access or support to take their work to the next level. I've started to document these, so that each day I can share my thoughts about how we can expand our capacity to serve and strengthen our communities.

Today, I woke up thinking about Meech. Meech was a young man who lived on Interpark on the East Side. I recruited him on my bicycle in 2006, to join the Buffalo Youth Corps. In the first Summer of Buffalo Youth Corps, we took ten teenagers from the City to the Allegheny National Park in Pennsylvania to build hiking trails for the Forest Service.

It was an intense Summer for sure, but we all completed that Summer with an immense sense of acccomplishment. We demonstrated to the National Forest Service staff that young people have an immense capacity for doing quality work and for contributing when given positive support and mentoring. The young men and women who participated in the program had incredible feelings of accomplishment and pride in the work they completed and in their own capacity as human beings. It affirmed for me the immense potential and capacity of our out of school young adults.

At the time, nearly 40% of our young people weren't completing high school. Though the documented statistics point to an increase in completion rates, too many young people continue to leave high school. When they leave school, all too often, they become liabilities in our communities, engaging in criminal and gang activity, and entering the criminal justice system.

Meech was arrested the year after we returned from the woods. I believe he's still incarcerated today. His story is a daily reminder to me that as a community we need to do more to mentor, support, and provide opportunities for these young men and women. Their potential and capacity can be leveraged to do meaningful work to strengthen our communities, but they need a community of mentors, they need positive experiences to build their own self confidence, they need access and opportunity, and they need educational support.

Too often our local and state training initiatives focus on specific skill development, to train people for specific jobs. While this is important, you can't focus on teaching skills until young people have the confidence, preparedness, and interpersonal foundation for learning. They need guidance to manage their own personal lives and show up each day, prepared and ready to acquire new knowledge and skills. They need comprehensive mentoring and pre-apprenticeship training and this takes time and commitment.

These young people are an immense, untapped resource for our communities. When they are given support and mentoring, I've witnessed tremendous growth and contributions, but it requires an investment of our time, our resources, and our people. We only expand our capacity as a region when these young people become work ready and have a personal belief their lives matter and they can make a difference.

Onward!