by Alison
As a current veteran intern of ArlingtonTeens.com (The Teen Portal), I would consider the elimination of this program a great loss, both for Arlington teens and the County in general. I have held this internship for three years and can personally attest to the experience that it provides in journalism, marketing and website managing to all of its participants. It’s true that we have to fight for the interest and attention of the teens we reach out to, but this is true of all such programs. In spite of this, we manage to receive nearly 200 views per day; some of our most popular pages are for our events calendar, jobs information and crisis center.
Our age group is least likely to participate in our community at large. We are stereotyped as apathetic, disinterested and downright rude – even though we are the age group that most needs unconditional, understanding support. We are least likely to be provided with a countywide center to help us with information on transportation, job offerings, emergency situations, future education and recreational activities – among other things – precisely because of this. Yet we have one – indeed, we have been asking for such information since the mid-1990s.
This fact was not lost on the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) when it chose our County as one of the Top 7 Intelligent Communities of the Year for 2010. The ICF is a think-tank that studies global economic and social development; its yearly Top 7 are meant to be role models of development for the “vibrant Digital Age communities in the 21st Century.” In detailing why Arlington had been chosen for this award, the Forum specifically mentioned ArlingtonTeens.com by its former name, the Teen Portal, calling it a “Web-based approach to grounding young people” in their community by way of “a range of social media and creative interfaces.”
Lastly, ArlingtonTeens.com has been in the process of redesigning itself for several years. I can personally attest to the amount of time, planning and input necessary for creating, maintaining and revising this enterprise. I don’t know what the County plans to do with this asset it has created, but I would never support simply dropping it, web address and all, into the digital waste bin after only four years of existence. I understand that a low rate of return is never pretty when faced with a budget in the red. But there are other ways to keep the program running on a reduced scale for the duration of this temporary economic bad weather, ways that, once the time is right, will allow it to unfold again, like a desert flower after rain.
--> Return to arlingtonteens.com.
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