[PDF] Older Youth Need Afterschool Programs Afterschool Alert Issue Brief eBook

Author : Afterschool Alliance, Washington, DC.
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Page : 2 pages
File Size : 46,50 MB
Release : 2004
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Afterschool programs provide myriad benefits to all who participate, but the lion's share of programs are geared toward younger children. According to a recent survey, 6.5 million children in the U.S. are in afterschool programs, and just 8 percent are in grades 9-12. However, there are 2.3 million high schoolers who would participate if programs were available. In spite of the autonomy that typically comes with age, teens still need guidance and adult supervision to help keep them safe, in school and on the path to success in life. Results of a study of high risk teens from an urban school district are presented, and strategies for reaching out to older teens who often have adult responsibilities are also provided. This issue brief highlights the following findings: (1) Teens need guidance to stay on the path to productive adulthood; (2) Teens need additional help preparing for college and the workforce; and (3) Reaching out to teens can be a challenge. This report concludes by saying that perhaps the most important aspect of creating an afterschool program for older teens is simply listening to the young people they aim to serve. (Includes 12 endnotes.).

Author : Afterschool Alliance
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Page : 6 pages
File Size : 23,54 MB
Release : 2009
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Not only are middle and high school-aged youth difficult to engage in afterschool activities, but they are more likely to have unique demands on their time in the hours afterschool. This issue brief highlights the challenges providers face in serving older youth and the innovative strategies that programs have used to recruit and retain older youth in afterschool. (Contains 19 notes.).

Author : Afterschool Alliance, Washington, DC.
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Page : 2 pages
File Size : 13,30 MB
Release : 2004
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Some say America's attention to community is in decline. As people work longer hours, endure longer commutes, and have less time to socialize and join community organizations, they are not getting to know their neighbors and communities. Schools exist in a vacuum, having little or no association with the surrounding neighborhood, and many neighborhoods lack safe places for youth to gather and socialize without parents being concerned about violence, drug use, abduction, traffic or other dangers. After school programs are uniquely suited to fill this void and become America's new neighborhood, a safe space for both kids and parents to gather to learn, play and connect. By giving schools, community based organizations and communities a sound investment in one another, after school programs have the power to reduce crime, increase safety, bring neighbors together, and foster community pride and ownership. Successful after school programs help young people become productive adults, get parents involved in their children's education, produce safer streets, address community needs, foster civic responsibility, strengthen community groups and rally residents around a common goal. In short, after school programs make communities safer and stronger. Successful afterschool programs help young people become productive adults, get parents involved in their children's education, produce safer streets, address community needs, foster civic responsibility, strengthen community groups and rally residents around a common goal. In short, afterschool programs make communities safer and stronger.

Author : Afterschool Alliance, Washington, DC.
Publisher :
Page : 2 pages
File Size : 10,1 MB
Release : 2002
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Afterschool programs provide safe places for youth after school in addition to improving academic achievement and helping working families. Afterschool programs provide youth a safe, supervised environment that reduces their risk of committing or becoming a victim of violent crime. A recent report from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids has found that violent juvenile crime is most likely to occur between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., and that youth are more likely to smoke, drink or do drugs during these hours. Moreover, the U.S. Justice Department has found that murder rates among 14-17-year-olds has increased 165% from 1985 to 1995. Afterschool programs promote safety by preventing youth violence, providing safe places afterschool and educating youth about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. This issue brief highlights some afterschool programs that have been successful in providing a safe environment for students. (Contains 12 endnotes.).

Author : Afterschool Alliance, Washington, DC.
Publisher :
Page : 2 pages
File Size : 41,87 MB
Release : 2004
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This issue brief presents the obstacles that a number of youth face in America due to factors such as, failing schools, dangerous neighborhoods, poverty, disproportionate incarceration, poor health and nutrition, lack of employment opportunity, language difficulty and marginalization of their heritage and culture. The heavily structured school day does not offer many opportunities to address these problems, and when left to their own devices, youth can find themselves facing boredom at best and danger and risky behavior at worst in the hours after school. This brief highlights the benefits of quality afterschool programs for at-risk youth. Such programs have the ability to reach youth in meaningful ways that take their backgrounds and cultures into account. A quality afterschool program is an open place where youth can feel safe, express themselves, and learn from and form bonds with both their teachers and their peers. Quality afterschool has the potential to help youth develop life skills and turn young people into problem solvers, creative thinkers, community participants, lifelong learners and productive, successful adults. (Contains 16 endnotes.).

Author : Afterschool Alliance, Washington, DC.
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Page : 5 pages
File Size : 27,34 MB
Release : 2007
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After 14 years of decline, cities across the nation are reporting spikes in crime rates, which many law enforcement officials attribute to decreased federal spending on crime prevention and more juveniles becoming involved in violent crimes. This report highlights the "after-school" gap: 20-25 hours per week that children are out of school while most parents are at work, noting that teens who do not participate in after-school programs are nearly three time more likely than participants to skip classes at school, use drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, and to engage in sexual activity. After-school programs: (1) provide a safe haven that keeps kids away from violence; (2) provide alternatives to gangs and street life, allowing kids to develop new skills and interact positively with peers; (3) offer youth hope and opportunities, offsetting the sense of nihilism that can cause youth to turn to crime; and (4) Contribute to economic opportunity by providing academic support and job skills. Comments of law enforcement officials from cities in California, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma and Virginia are highlighted. The report concludes that it may be too soon to determine whether the recent spike in youth crime is the start of a rising trend, but the nation must declare youth crime unacceptable and demand more support for children and youth. Investing in quality after-school programs for communities where more than 14 million children and youth have no safe place to go after school that offers the enrichment or recreational activities they need to succeed is necessary to prevent young people from committing and/or becoming victims of crime. (Contains 24 endnotes.).

Author : Afterschool Alliance, Washington, DC.
Publisher :
Page : 2 pages
File Size : 15,10 MB
Release : 2002
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The need for youth to be supervised and safe does not end with the school year. For this reason, summer programs like those funded by the US Department of Education's 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program are vital for the well-being of youth. Summer schools have traditionally served youth who are in need of remedial academic assistance, although many schools and community-based organizations have created programs which provide recreation and extracurricular learning for all youth. Like afterschool programs, summer programs keep kids safe, help working families and improve academic achievement. Summer programs also provide opportunities to encourage service and volunteerism among young people. Additionally, summer programs are also critical to ensuring that youth receive the same nutritious meals and snacks during the summer as those offered during the school year. Although summer programs provide an essential service to youth and the community, these programs are often among the first to be affected by budget cuts, and communities increasingly are looking toward grants like the 21st CCLC program to provide youth with safe and enriching summer experiences. (Contains 10 endnotes.).

Author : Sandra Naughton
Publisher :
Page : 19 pages
File Size : 26,26 MB
Release : 2003
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Since the 1900s, US leaders have worked to address the needs of American children and youth. Social services, educational resources and health organizations have targeted the needs of youth. In every decade of the 20th century, the White House has brought together prominent scholars, social workers and community leaders to address the contemporary needs of youth. Despite this long history of youth programming, the youth development field is a relatively modern movement, beginning in the late 1980s as research on prevention and intervention approaches in youth programming that did not attain desired results. Many publicly funded prevention or intervention programs assumed that the "problem" resulted from a fault or deficit in a young person rather than considering the complex environment. These prevention and intervention programs attempted to "fix" problems by offering corrective knowledge or skills, all of which proved unsuccessful and indicated that social engineering was limited. The new youth development movement advocates for a more holistic approach--one that emphasizes supporting the development of youth, rather than the "fixing" of youth. This new orientation focuses more on building strengths as a way to reduce weaknesses. This new youth development movement steadily gained more recognition in the field of youth programming, as evidenced by a 1997 Presidential Summit for America's Future, which highlighted examples of programs designed to enhance social, emotional, physical, and cognitive growth of youth in structured, supportive and safe environments. Recent scientifically based research appears to validate the strengths of this more comprehensive youth development approach. The growing body of knowledge about youth development, both in research and in practice, demonstrates that communities can successfully meet the diverse needs of the youth through afterschool programs. While individual communities need to take steps to meet the unique needs of youth during the hours after school, national leaders and federal agencies need to work together to build a supportive infrastructure of funding opportunities, technical assistance and research efforts to make a significant and long-term impact for American youth. (Contains 41 endnotes.).

Author : Afterschool Alliance
Publisher :
Page : 5 pages
File Size : 40,1 MB
Release : 2009
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Afterschool provides older youth with critical academic supports including credit attainment and recovery opportunities. Many educators are turning to afterschool programs to reach students who fail one or more courses, become disengaged, or want alternatives to the traditional path to graduation. Credit recovery refers to recovering credits that are lost due to failure or drop out. Credit attainment refers to alternative methods of gaining credits outside of "seat time" in the classroom. In a study of afterschool programs in New Hampshire, researchers found that education leaders see afterschool programs as a way to tie credit attainment and recovery to student interests and learning styles. Most say that credit attainment and recovery through afterschool programs has advantages over the school day, including the ability to better engage students (78 percent) and to personalize learning (60 percent). In conclusion, older youth who are struggling in school, especially those who are disengaged, need both support and challenge to reconnect with learning and stay on a path to higher education and meaningful work. Afterschool incorporates youth development principles that stress building on individual assets and integrating family, school and community and provides a venue for students to attain and recover credits, allowing them to successfully graduate high school and giving them real options for their future. (Contains 14 footnotes.).

Author : Afterschool Alliance
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Page : 6 pages
File Size : 21,96 MB
Release : 2011
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The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation, is proud to present the third in a series of four issue briefs examining critical issues facing middle school youth and the vital role afterschool programs play in addressing these issues. This brief focuses on service-learning opportunities for middle schoolers. Pairing service with academic enrichment can support youth success in many ways. Middle schoolers in particular can benefit greatly from the improved self-confidence and learning gains afforded by service-learning opportunities. Afterschool programs interested in providing service-learning for students must be mindful of the important blend of providing community service opportunities along with an academic component. Whereas community service activities allow youth to develop and apply their skills and knowledge to real-life situations and enhance their ability to become productive, contributing adult citizens, including an academic component by allowing youth to lead the service project ties youth development goals to actual gains in the classroom. All of this leads to better students and a brighter future, and highlights an example of how afterschool benefits children, schools and their communities. (Contains 15 endnotes.) [For the related reports, see "Aligning Afterschool with the Regular School Day: The Perfect Complement. MetLife Foundation Afterschool Alert. Issue Brief No. 50" (ED522625); "Afterschool: A Strategy for Addressing and Preventing Middle School Bullying. MetLife Foundation Afterschool Alert. Issue Brief No. 51" (ED539793); and "Literacy in Afterschool: An Essential Building Block for Learning and Development. MetLife Foundation Afterschool Alert. Issue Brief No. 53" (ED539788).].