It’s three o’clock. Do you know where your children are?
Is your child on the way home from school to spend time mindlessly watching television, rather than doing their homework? Is he bullying another boy or being bullied by another youth? Is she involved in some kind of high-risk behavior with kids you do not know?
Or, is your child in a safe environment with other children engaged in enriching activities supervised by a caring adult?
How the 65 percent of working parents answer this question has an impact on their state of mind and upon the well-being of their children. Having all children who need it in a high-quality after-school program is the best answer to this question for many parents.
Recent articles in the Post Dispatch and St. Louis American about after-school programs give compelling answers to this question. Angela Cotton, a parent of five children, says the following about the Christian Activity Center: “The Center is a better environment for my kids. It keeps them away from drugs, and I feel safe with them there.” A 15-year-old boy at Gene Slay’s Boy’s Club who is a junior staff member said, “I’ve had many good role models here, and I always said that I want to be just like them some day.”
These quotes reinforce the recent call for more after-school programs by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and similar statements by Judge Jimmie Edwards, creator of the new Innovative Concepts High School.
Another indicator is a recent study by the Office of State Courts Administrator on the rate at which non-violent delinquent youth return to criminal behavior, which suggests that referrals to after-school reporting centers after adjudication may reduce their chances of getting into further trouble. It costs $3,000 per year for a youth to participate in a 1,200 hour per year after-school program and approximately $50,000 a year to incarcerate a young person.
Research evidence shows that youth in after-school programs have improved academic performance, higher graduation rates, and better school attendance/conduct and engage in less risky behavior. The cost/benefit ratio clearly supports increasing public investment in programs.
A 2003 St. Louis for Kids study of the number of programs in the St. Louis region, revealed that only 1 in 10 children had access to an everyday after-school program. To address this need, in 2005 St. Louis for Kids began organizing a collaborative initiative focused initially on the city of St. Louis. With the leadership of Mayor Francis G. Slay in hosting “Afterschool for All By 2010” summits in 2005 and 2006, a strategic plan was developed to create the Afterschool for All Partnership.
A collaborative partnership evolved including Area Resouces for Community and Human Services, St. Louis for Kids, the St. Louis Public Schools, the St. Louis Mental Health Board and the Mayor’s Office. The purpose of A.S.A.P. was to create a system to increase the number of children having access to high-quality, everyday after-school programs to the national average of 22 percent by the year 2010.
The strategy was to create incentives for diverse funders to pool resources for grants to providers; to develop a system for monitoring, accountability and evaluation; and to provide quality improvement/professional development and best practices services. ARCHS successfully secured more than $800,000 in funding for three years, from the State, the City, and local foundations and corporations. This year the St. Louis Mental Health Board added $700,000 and SLPS $100,000. As a result, this fall 2,560 more children in the city have access to everyday after-school programs than in 2006.
What can you do to help?
Contact your local school board and elected officials requesting more quality afters-chool programs and funding to support them. Urge your company to adopt or sponsor after-school programs and to implement workplace policies that support working parents and caregivers. Become a volunteer, mentor or tutor. Contact St. Louis for Kids and A.S.A.P. to become an Afterschool Ambassador.
Ron Jackson (314/531-0011, jacksonr@stlouis4kids.org ) is executive director of St. Louis for Kids.