California's Next After-School Challenge - Fight Crime: Invest in Kids

gives high school participants the opportunity
to prepare for, and participate in, mock
legislative and court proceedings. The
California program was established in 1948 and
now serves over 2,000 students per year.
Nationally:
• A national study of 8,600 students,
following them from eighth grade to two years
after twelfth grade, found that students
consistently involved in extracurricular
activities were approximately 50 percent more
likely to vote and engage in community service
than other students, even after taking into
account family background, standardized test
scores, parental involvement and peer
influences. 44
“the program gave them access
to supportive adults who care
about them in ways that other
adults in their lives have not”
Positive Youth Development
Studies show that quality after-school
programs provide students with the
experiences and opportunities that experts
agree young people need to succeed. These
critical developmental experiences include
meaningful relationships with adults,
leadership and employment skills, and
connection to their communities. For further
discussion of the keys to positive youth
development, see Chapter 5. In California:
• At the Youth Together program at six high
schools in Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond,
90 percent of teen leaders and teen members
reported having more positive relationships
with adults in their school and improved
leadership skills as a result of participating in
the program; and 89 percent of teen leaders
and 79 percent of teen members felt more
connected to their community as a result of
participating in the program. 45
• At the Bayview Safe Haven program in
San Francisco, 78 percent of program
participants reported that since starting the
program they felt more connected to the
community; and of participants who entered
the program without an adult in their lives
with whom they could confide, nine months
later 80 percent reported that they felt they
could talk to and trust their Bayview Safe
Haven mentors or program coordinators. 46
• Ninety percent of participants in the
Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education
Program, an after-school and summer program
in San Francisco offering paid internships,
reported an increased knowledge of
postsecondary opportunities; and over 70
percent reported that they knew more about
community issues than before participating. 47
• One hundred percent of teen participants
in the East Palo Alto Mural Art Project reported
that the program gave them access to
supportive adults who care about them in ways
that other adults in their lives have not and
who have the ability to teach them and reach
them in ways that teachers in their schools
cannot. Ninety-three percent reported that
they developed a connection to, and learned
more about, the community. 48
• Eighty percent of primarily high school
youths at the Panorama Teen & Family
Resource Center in San Diego County, which
provides homework assistance, college
preparation, and life skills classes, reported
increased knowledge about how to get a job. 49
• Ninety percent of high school participants
in the Friday Night Live Mentoring Program, in
which high school students mentor middle
school students, reported that they gained
skills they could use for a career or college. 50
Research from California and across the
nation confirms that after-school programs not
only can prevent risky behavior by teens, they
can yield positive impacts as well.
FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS CALIFORNIA