By Lisa Levitt Ryckman
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

For children born in Colorado at the dawn of the new millennium, the future shines with the light of possibility.

Angrith Na is one of seven remarkable Colorado children embracing a new century's challenges

Colorado's millennium babies are more likely than other kids across the nation to be born into two-parent families. Those parents are more likely to have jobs than ever before.

Colorado's millennium babies are more likely to graduate from college and work in the high-tech industry than babies born almost anywhere else in America. They are more likely to be breast-fed and immunized and to have a mother who's over 25.

They are less likely to be born into poverty. They are more likely to have parents who read to them.

Colorado's millennium babies might see the births of three more generations -- or even the dawn of another century. A boy born in Colorado early in the 21st century can look forward to an average life span of 76 years; a girl, 82 years.

But babies born today also face a century's worth of challenges created by the changing way families live their lives.

Tomorrow's adults will rely even more heavily than now on computers, to do their work, to run their homes, to plan their free time. They will live closer together as residential room shrinks.

Tomorrow's adults will need help from their parents to buy homes as real estate prices climb. And increasingly they can expect to care for their parents as the population grays -- one in three Coloradans is a baby boomer.

As Colorado's population pushes past 5 million -- by 2015, projections say -- the landscape of childhood will change even more.

"Past generations grew up taking for granted their ability to get out in the wilderness, to get up in the mountains and out on the plains," said Barbara O'Brien, executive director of the Colorado Children's campaign. "In the future, there will be many more barriers to kids having part of their childhood outdoors -- traffic barriers and more miles of housing to get through."

For 21st-century kids, another formidable obstacle looms: negative stereotypes forged by the rare violent event -- even though violence by Colorado youth is at its lowest level in 14 years.

"Until we stop looking at every teen-ager as a problem, it's going to be very difficult to reconfigure the way we involve them in our lives," said Maria Guajardo Lucero, executive director of Assets for Colorado Youth. The group runs a statewide initiative promoting 40 developmental assets to change the way young people are viewed and supported in their communities.

The assets fall under headings such as support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, constructive use of time, commitment to learning, positive values and positive identity.

The seven young people profiled in these pages reflect the power of the positive -- and the strength of Colorado's future -- in seven different and important ways.

Love of the land. Focus on faith. Commitment to community. Development of intellect. Dedication to parenting. Overcoming obstacles. Pursuing excellence.

Their energy, insight and determination make them all exceptional -- and yet they are also the rule. An Assets for Colorado Youth survey in 1998 showed that most kids statewide are involved in positive activities and have caring adults for support.

Even so, as many as 40 percent don't feel very valued, involved or cared about.

"We need to begin to value the relationship that exists between adults and adolescents," Lucero said. "As a society, that has not been on our radar screen. We've been about fixing problems, caring about what's broken -- not about strengthening relationships."

What advice would you give adults? the Assets survey asked. The answers came from 825 Colorado kids aged 11 to 18.

"Make me feel wanted." "Listen as if it matters." "Show appreciation when we do something good." "Stay involved in our lives." "Listen to our ideas." "Treat us with respect." "Just remember you were young once, too."

"Be nice to kids -- they are going to be the adults someday."

December 26, 1999

Colorado Millennium 2000 is a yearlong project by the Denver Rocky Mountain News, NEWS4 and the Colorado Historical Society
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