For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
June 6, 2006

Mrs. Bush's Remarks During a Visit to Meadowbrook Collaborative
Meadowbrook Collaborative
St. Louis Park, Minnesota

Photos

4:25 P.M. CDT

MRS. BUSH: This morning, we had a regional conference on Helping America's Youth in Indianapolis, and Dr. Peter Benson, who is here, who is one of the people who did a lot of the research that shows -- his research shows 40 different things we can do for young people to help them have successful lives. Part of his research is used in this collaborative at Meadowbrook, and the great example that Meadowbrook is for the rest of the country. It's a housing project that's turned into a real community where a number of groups, including the school district, the housing project itself, the government, the Mayor's office, the Rotarians -- many other groups, actually, have worked together to make sure all the children and adults in this community have the chance to live a real life of community.

So they help kids after school here with homework help. They have summer programs for children who live here. They feed children. In the summer, they have a summer lunch, a sack lunch when they come for the summer program. They have computers upstairs to make sure the children here have access to computers like children in other neighborhoods do. They hire -- this part of the school district, actually, one teacher from the local school who comes in one afternoon a week to do the homework help. So four different teachers come in on Monday through Thursday to make sure children get their homework help.

This is a really great example of what communities can do when they all work together. And I'm so thrilled to be here. Dr. Benson, who actually made -- did a lot of the research that all of this is based on spoke today in Indianapolis. He's here, as well, now, but spoke this morning at the Helping America's Youth conference, regional conference.

So thank you all, thanks for coming out to see it. And I'm so happy and it's such a thrill to get to be here. Thanks, everybody.

END 4:27 P.M. CDT

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