Afterschool Programs: Keeping Kids - and Communities - Safe (2007)

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• According to USA Today: “Tight local budgets and reduced federal funding for police, along with new anti-terrorism duties, have stretched police departments and led to cuts in community programs for youths. Historically low crime rates in recent years often have been linked to a booming economy. Now, with the economy slowing, officials in several cities are tying poverty and financial uncertainty to rising crime, particularly among juveniles.”[i]
• The FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report for 2005 reflects a rise in violent crime throughout the country compared to 2004. Nationwide, the United States experienced increases in three of the four violent crime categories: homicides (3.4 percent), robberies (3.9 percent) and aggravated assaults (1.8 percent). These statistics reflect the largest single-year percentage increase in violent crime in 14 years.[ii]
• Of all violent crime arrests in 2005, 16 percent (or 2 million arrests) involved juveniles under age 18. Twenty-nine percent (or just over 3 million) arrests involved youth ages 18 to 24.[iii]

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• The crime problems in the area of the Bayview Safe Haven recreation center fell, with a police officer noting, “Calls for [police] service have gone down — there used to be probably three or four times what they are now.”
• Compared to non-participants with similar profiles, program youth were significantly less likely to be suspended from school; participants with histories of involvement in the juvenile justice system were significantly less likely to recidivate; and participants without such involvement were significantly less likely to commit a first offense.
• A study of afterschool programs established through the California Juvenile Crime Prevention Demonstration Project in 12 high-risk California communities found that, compared to when they started the program, crime and delinquency-related behavior among participants declined significantly after students completed the program. Vandalism and stealing dropped by two-thirds, violent acts and carrying a concealed weapon fell by more than half, and arrests and being picked up by the police were cut in half.[ix]
• In the three years after Baltimore’s Police Department opened a Police Activities League (PAL) afterschool program in one high-crime neighborhood, juvenile crime in the neighborhood dropped nearly 10 percent, and the risk of children and teens becoming crime victims was cut nearly in half. While juvenile victimization rates were coming down for all Baltimore juveniles, the rate in the area served by the PAL program came down nearly three times as fast as it did for the city as a whole.[x]
• In New York City, afterschool programs started by Boys and Girls Clubs in selected public housing developments saw significant drops in drug use, presence of crack cocaine and police reports of drug activity. The decreases: drug activity 22 percent; juvenile arrests 13 percent; and vandalism 12.5 percent. At the same time, parental involvement increased, compared to public housing developments not selected to implement the afterschool programs.[xi]
• For years, California has been a leader in funding afterschool, and has shown impressive results through programs such as San Diego’s “6 to 6” Extended Day Program, LA’s BEST, After School All Stars, and Woodcraft Rangers.[xii]^,[xiii] At the same time, California’s juvenile arrest rate dropped 42 percent from 1995 to 2005, while its youth incarceration rate dropped 73 percent during the same period.[xiv]

• The U.S. Conference of Mayors 10-Point Plan recommends fully funding 21st Century Community Learning Centers and other afterschool programs.[xv]
• “We’re a rural area, so kids have little to do. ...According to the Portland-area Drug Enforcement Administration, with one afterschool activity, 70 percent of youth are less likely to get involved in illegal drugs or bad behavior. With two activities, that percentage increases to 90,” said Shirley Morgan, Village Police Athletic League president.[xvi]
•  Fifty-five percent of Chicago high school students say there are no safe places to go after school. [xvii]
•  Two out of three young people nationwide wish there were more places they could hang out where they could feel safe and have fun.[xviii] 
• More than one-third of California teens said that there are not enough supervised after school activities in their areas that interest them. Of these, 77 percent said they would be likely to participate if interesting activities were available to them.[xix]

• Rochester, New York Mayor Robert Duffy, a former police chief, says graduation rates and homicide rates have a direct connection. He noted, “One hundred percent of our street level drug dealers are high-school dropouts.”[xx]
• According to a survey of police chiefs by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids:[xxi]
• Eighty-six percent agreed that “expanding after-school and child care programs like Head Start will greatly reduce youth crime and violence.”
• Nine out of ten police chiefs agreed with the statement: “If America does not make greater investments in after-school and educational child care programs to help children and youth now, we will pay far more later in crime, welfare and other costs.”
• Sixty-nine percent of police chiefs said “after-school and child care programs” are the most effective strategies for reducing juvenile crime, preferable to trying juveniles as adults, hiring more police and putting metal detectors in schools.

• Tulsa, OK – Mayor calls for more mentors; Bank of America donates $41,000 to afterschool programs to help combat the “growing gang problem.”[xxii]
• Yonkers, NY – City anti-gang coalition announces $77,000 for new county-funded afterschool program.  The $77,000 grant will fund "Achieving Success," an afterschool program, through the county Department of Social Services. The program will provide computer and other skills training and tutoring for at least 60 kids 13 to 17 years old.[xxiii]
• Fairfax County, VA - With $2 million in funding that grew from a federal seed grant worth $516,000, Fairfax police have created a holistic approach to combating the growth of gangs in the area that has proven to be successful. Fifty-one percent of the money goes to police work and 49 percent to intervention and prevention. Part of the prevention strategy includes placing five-day afterschool programs in all 26 of the counties middle schools. Since the implementation of the new strategy, serious gang crime activity has dropped 39 percent and continues to decline. [xxiv]