Mar 25, 2019 2 min read

“Working group” too often is a political term that translates in the long run to talking much about a problem – but doing little.

Let us hope a meeting hosted by First Lady Melania Trump this week breaks the mold.

Trump called a meeting Monday at the White House of the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs. An alphabet-soup lineup of federal agencies, ranging from the Agency for International Development to the Environmental Protection Agency, sent representatives to the gathering. The working group was established under former President George W. Bush.

It appears Trump wants to jump-start worthwhile coordination of federal programs aimed to help young people.

Her chosen vehicle is her own “Be Best” initiative. It is intended to improve children’s lives, with concentrations on online safety and drug abuse prevention.

Both are serious concerns for a variety of reasons. Keeping children from coming to harm physically, emotionally, even financially because of their online activities is a problem that grows, seemingly geometrically, by the day. Child predators continue to become smarter, and bullying has left the playgrounds and schoolyards to follow children everywhere via social media.

And drug abuse is a two-pronged challenge. First, obviously, we need to do a better job of convincing young people that drug abuse is dangerous – something with which even experimenting can be hazardous. Second, too many children have found themselves cast adrift by parents hooked on drugs, having to be raised by grandparents or another relative or passed on to child services.

Worse yet, some kids are stuck in a situation where they must take care of their addicted parents or are abused by addicted adults.

Helping these youngsters is important, and it is a challenge with which schools and social service agencies not only locally but nationwide are having trouble coping.

More funding is needed, and a federal focus on making more money available to entities that can help these kids is a huge step in the right direction.

Precisely what type of federally coordinated campaign to better the lives of children Melania Trump has in mind is unknown.

Her greatest service may well be making the federal bureaucrats understand the importance of doing something meaningful.

The Altoona Mirror contributed to this editorial.