Dead by 35? Some Kids Think It'll Happen

By: Bonney Bowman - Email

Updated: Wed 5:40 AM, Mar 13, 2013

Study: Kids Have Short Life Expectancy - Bonney Bowman Reports at 10

We don't normally consider 18 middle-aged.

But for 15 percent of kids, that's their reality.

A recent UNL study revealed 15 percent of kids in the United States don't think they'll live past 35.

It all has to do with where they grew up.

The less affluent the neighborhood, the more violence the kids were exposed to - all this makes them less likely to feel they have a future.

Volunteers at The Lighthouse in Lincoln work with kids like this every day.

They say it's all about changing perspectives.

When a kid has nothing to look forward to, they're less likely to work hard in school and stay out of trouble.

That's why access to a positive influence, like The Lighthouse, is so crucial.

Executive Director Bill Mirchener says, "We don't say if you graduate here, it's when you graduate you will be on our graduation wall and we will give you a graduation party so everything that we phrase here and do here is based around you will be successful. There's no if in it."

Volunteers say it often takes just one source of hope to override all the negative influence kids have to face.

Say'von Miller told me he was once one of those kids.

He said, by 35, he either expected to be in jail or dead.

But that changed when he started coming to The Lighthouse during his freshman year of high school.

He has since graduated and wants to be a PE teacher and coach football at his alma mater.

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