The Need
A 2000 study by the Morino Institute identifies factors, such as unmet nutritional needs, substandard housing, unequal access to educational opportunities and lack of parental involvement as risk factors for school failure. Factors related to poverty have a strong correlation to substandard school performance. The Youth Life Foundation of the Triangle seeks to close this gap for students in low income housing communities through daily academic enrichment, teen leadership, juvenile crime prevention and parental empowerment programs.
Studies also demonstrate that children who are left unsupervised after school are at greater risk of problem behaviors such as smoking and using drugs. Constructive activities – like after school programs – can keep children safe and out of trouble, enhance their academic achievement, improve social skills, and strengthen communities.
The Marino Institute estimates that, “the cost, including increased crime and welfare costs, of failing to provide at least two years of quality educational child care to low-income children is approximately $100,000 per child. That is a total [national] of about $400 billion for all poor children now under age five.” (*) The flipside of these costs is the savings to taxpayers and society generally from investing in our children today. One study found that investing $6,000 per child on early childhood programs would save the nation $24,000 per child – a four-fold return.
East Cornwallis Public Housing Community (ECPHC) is especially in need of assistance, as evidenced in the community’s statistics: the average annual income is $4,574.00 (well below the national poverty rate); 99% of the households are headed by females, consisting of one mother in her mid-twenties with four children; approximately 80% of the community is unemployed, only 1 out of 4 having a high school (or equivalency) degree. ECPHC falls in U.S. Census tract 13.04 of Durham County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, out of 1,201 males in tract 13.04 over the age of three who are applicable for school enrollment, 816 males are not enrolled.(**) Even more disconcerting, the number of enrollment substantially decreases from middle school (108 enrolled) to high school (51 enrolled).(**) This is exemplified in Durham County through the wide disparity of academic performance between African Americans and their white counterparts. In regard to reading comprehension, only 63.9% of Blacks are reading at or above the required level compared to 91.9% of Whites. Only 69.3% of Blacks are proficient in Mathematics compared to 93.6% of Whites. This discrepancy is polarized in census tract 13.04 which is 84% African American, and particularly in East Cornwallis which is over 99% African-American. YLFT Learning Centers provides culturally competent academic enrichment programs.
* Morino Institute