No one we know starts out life wanting to be a substance abuser or to be poor. Most ofuswanttobelucky,cool,rich,andsuccessful.Someofusare,fortunately,butmany of us aren’t. Part of the reason for individual success and failure has to do with what we were given biologically in terms of good health, intelligence, and the ability to stick with projects and finish them. The other part of it has to do with the families we grow up in, the social and economic conditions of our lives, and the parents, teachers, and friends who influence us. Some parents do wonderful things for their children and provide safe and happy homes. Other parents fight, use substances, and sometimes abuse and neglect their children. It doesn’t take a genius to know that the child who grows up in a happy family has a better chance of being suc- cessfulinlifethanthechildgrowingupinatroubledfamily.Childabuseiseverythingit’scracked up to be and so are poverty, abandonment, unsafe neighborhoods, and poorly functioning schools. Some of us start life out on the right track, but a lot of us don’t. Often those people whose families function poorly overcome early life problems by the inner strength some people call resilience. But many children who grow up in difficult, unloving, and abusive homes suffer harm to their bodies and to their spirit. It’s difficult for them to be as successful as many of us who grew up in healthier homes. People sometimes pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but for those who don’t professional help can make an enormous difference.
To help our most troubled families and the children who grow into adulthood having to cope with the burden of a great many early life problems, we’ve developed social programs and social service organizations to deliver those programs. We have organizations to help familieswhentheylosetheabilitytoworkandtoearnanincome.Wehaveotherorganizations that help families when the loss of work leads to the loss of their homes and health care