After School Effects on Youth and the Crj System

596 Words3 Pages
Every year millions of youths go home to an empty house afterschool, every year millions of parents are in search for a safe place that will inspire learning and help them decrease their child’s stress from the burden of the school day. This has been a social problem for many years, and will continue to be if nothing is done about it. Afterschool programs are essential to today’s youth, without these services many youths fall into trouble and begin their cycle into the criminal justice system. More than half of the children in New York City especially those in low socioeconomic neighborhoods are on their own after the school day ends and are forced to take care of themselves until their parents get home from work. From 3 pm until the time an adult arrives home at 6 pm children are at risk of being introduced to and participating in criminal activity, whether it be peer pressure, gang activities, or just hanging outside. Having an extracurricular activity and a safe place to go can help prevent or minimize these activities from taking place. Without the use and access of an afterschool program many of these children especially those beginning at the age of 11 participate in gang violence and vandalism. The African American and Hispanic communities are in high demand for Afterschool programs, they are also the communities where budget cuts are high and the funding is not enough to keep a lot of these programs open. The programs that are trying to stay open have to fight and compete each year for funds just so they can have activities to provide for the youths, they try to not focus on the academics and more of being mentors, and providing a safe space so they won’t have to be outside causing and getting into trouble. Many youths from low income neighborhoods are forced to grow up too quickly because their parent or guardian have to work two and sometimes three

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