Interact with youth to build their trust

We have all heard and read the statistics. One survey after another shows that our youth feel disengaged from and disinterested in government. What can be done about this?

I believe that we, as local elected officials, have a unique opportunity to help change this mindset.

Youth involvement in the 2008 presidential election was the highest in years, with polls showing that more than 52 percent of voters between the ages of 18-29 turned out. In 1996, only 37 percent of young voters actually voted in that year's presidential election.

How do we continue this trend?

One survey recently showed that children tend to have more trust in defined social institutions, such as family, schools or government, with which they have regular contact. Children have the highest trust in family because they are around family members every day. They also have a higher trust in schools because they attend school almost daily and are constantly interacting with teachers and principals. Their trust in government is not as high, in part because they don't have nearly as many interactions with governmental entities or officials.

Several years ago, the Association's Board of Directors approved the creation of a County Speaker's Bureau. Two years ago, the Association started a new educational Web site, www.welcometoyourcounty.org. We have posted many resources for teachers on this Web site to help them better educate their students. They can order copies of our award-winning video on county government, our award-winning county seals poster, or our booklet, Welcome to Your County.

As elected officials, we cannot rely solely on our public schools to educate our children about the services provided by counties. The amount of time spent on civics education is minimal. And remember, the teachers are also covering state and federal governments during this time as well as the other branches of local government.

The media only seems to pay attention to local governments when there is a controversy or scandal to report.

We can sway these attitudes. One of our five strategic goals adopted by the Board of Directors in 2004 is to "educate the public and the media about the role of county government." I encourage all county commissioners across the state to seek out opportunities to speak to our youth, either at school functions or through organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Indian Guides or Indian Princess programs offered through your local YMCA or YWCA or other such youth organizations. If you would like to sign up for our County Speaker's Bureau, please contact the Association at (919) 715-2893 or ncacc@ncacc.org to be added to the roster. We will post this roster of speakers on our www.welcometoyourcounty.org Web site as another resource for teachers.

As Greek philosopher Diogenes once said, "The foundation of every state is the education of its youth."