Moments of Opportunity; Lifetime of Success!
Benefits Of "Success"
At a time when most school systems are seeking to improve student achievement, the evidence that afterschool programs play a critical role in improving student outcomes is overwhelming.
Student Achievement
Academic: High quality afterschool programs have a proven track record of improving student achievement in school. Regular participation in high-quality afterschool programs is linked to significant gains in standardized test scores and work habits, improvements in school attendance as well as reductions in behavior problems, especially among disadvantaged, low-income and low-performing youth.
Social and Emotional: By providing students with consistent enrichment activities such as music, art, sports, conflict resolution, cultural experiences, and other alternative ways of learning, Avenues for Success improves students’ social skills, gives them more confidence, creates higher educational and career aspirations, and motivates them to consistently attend school.
Violent juvenile crime triples during the hours from 3:00 to 8:00 PM, and it is during these same hours that students face the most serious danger of becoming victims of crime. High quality afterschool programs are endorsed by law enforcement organizations because they are effective in reducing violence, theft, vandalism, gang activity, and other adolescent crimes.
Consistent participation in Avenues for Success programs helps reduce the risk of youth experimenting with alcohol and other dangerous drugs, and teen pregnancy. A survey of teenagers conducted by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids found that teens unsupervised afterschool were four times as likely to have smoked cigarettes, three times as likely to have had sex, and four times as likely to have used drugs as teens who were supervised.
Avenues for Success programs provide effective venues for nutritional information and physical activity to help combat childhood obesity. For example, an Applied Developmental Science study showed that afterschool program participants in three elementary schools were significantly less likely to be obese after participating in the program.
Every dollar invested in high quality afterschool programs saves taxpayers roughly $3, according to a study by the Rose Institute at Claremont McKenna College. If benefits from crime reduction are factored in, each dollar invested in an at-risk child saves $8-$12.
In a recent study, parents said that afterschool programs helped them balance work and family life: 60 percent said they missed less work than before because of the program and 54 percent said it allowed them to work more hours.
Afterschool programs prepare youth for today’s workforce through providing academic enrichment and teaching skills not taught during the school day. According to the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care, “Companies view their investments in dependent care in the community not as charity, but as sound business practice.”
A poll by The Afterschool Corporation found that 94 of voters agree that quality afterschool programs are important to supporting the academic and social development of students. Seventy-eight percent would favor legislation requiring that all students have access to free, quality afterschool programming.
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FACT: Afterschool programs result in higher school attendance, higher language re-designation rates, increased homework completion, better grades and work habits, and improved behavior in school.
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FACT: Afterschool programs have a particularly strong impact on low-performing or at-risk students. Low-income teenagers who participated in the an afterschool program in several large American cities were more likely to be high school graduates (63%) compared to non-participants (42%) and more likely to go to post-secondary schools (42%) compared to non-participants (16%).
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FACT: Kids who attend high quality elementary and middle school afterschool programs are less likely to drop out of high school than non-participants. The lifetime earnings losses associated with dropping out of high school are $262,519 and a high school dropout will contribute $59,210 less in federal and state income taxes over his or her lifetime.