6/24/05
Kids need activities and opportunities when not in school
Having plenty of out-of-school-time activities is a challenge to every community. While every leader talks about the need to keep young people active and out of trouble after school, few communities have taken a systematic approach to do it.
As a result, kids whose parents have the time and the money have more than enough to do. The uninvolved kid who goes home to an empty house and looks at bad stuff on television and on the Internet is headed for trouble.
The Minnesota Commission on Out-of-School Time has found that almost half of the states kids 5-18 years old are not involved in supervised activities after school.
Moreover, a survey has found that 42 percent of kids, 10-12 are home alone after school. Thatís scary, because itís a vulnerable age when they begin to choose their values and their friends. In its recently-released report, the commission notes that young people engaged in activities and programs outside of school or home have life-long changes taking place in the brain.
Many young people are involved in athletics at all levels and ages, largely because parents believe in the values of athletics: character builder, teamwork, learning to win and how to lose. Communities have built and maintain ball diamonds and soccer fields and provide gyms in high school field houses.
Some communities have brought in YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs with national programs.
Community Education and Community Recreation agencies are programming more out-of-school time activities.
Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and 4-H continue to involve parents and provide time-proven programs that keep kids focused and busy. Many of these programs, however, happen at night and not in the critical hours of 3-6 p.m.
Some communities have built teen centers, only to discover that kids often shun them or canít get to them. Community Centers designed with family involvement are sprouting.
Churches are looking for ways to give young people more activities.
Even those communities who have after-school, summer and weekend programs, find transportation is a problem, because the working parents have the cars and under-age kids cannot drive.
All of this suggests that most communities, unfortunately, do not have a plan that involves mapping where the kids are and seeing that the programs match kids needs, with ways to get there.
The Commission on Out-of-School Time believes EVERY kid should have five opportunities to be involved in developmental activities both formal and informal. The timeline is to increase the number of engaged youth to 80 percent by 2010 and 100 percent by 2020.
To accomplish that, it recommends the community assess the needs of kids, how the community is addressing them, note the gaps and develop a plan to involve all youth in developmental activities after school, weekends and summers.
Such a plan will include funds to train youth workers and uniting all youth-serving agencies to avoid giving more opportunities to kids in certain age groups while neglecting other age groups.
Those who care about developing youth in their communities can get the commissionís report at www.mncost.org. An important contact is Dale Blyth at 612-624-2188.
Above all, community leaders must decide that there are more kids than ever in growing areas that need activities and opportunities when they are not in school. The Commission on Out-of-School Time is providing that road map. -- Don Heinzman
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