The State of California is going to spend $540 million in 2008 to lock children up in the California Youth Authority, at a cost of $216,000 per child per year.
30,000 Bay Area kids will drop out of school this year.
51,000 Bay Area kids will use drugs this year.
Juvenile Halls in the Bay Area continue to fill up.
The problem isn't drugs, or alcohol, or poverty - the problem is these kids need leadership.
Big Brothers Big Sisters provides the adult role models these kids need. Having someone to look up to helps them stay in school, avoid bad behavior, and stay out of trouble.
Introduction
The life of Ramon.
Twelve-year-old Ramon (not his real name) has lost a brother and a cousin to gang violence. He has no father or long-term housing - his family has been evicted from 5 homes in the last 8 years. After switching schools so many times he has all but dropped out, and he expects to legally drop out in four years. He has no plans after that.
He has never left San Jose.
The Bay Area is failing its children.
- Over 30,000 students will drop out of high school this year.1
- 4,247 births to teenagers will be reported.2
- Over 40,000 single-parent households are living below the poverty line.3
No one wants this misery. These events are not our values. But they are facts. Why, in a region so devoted to aggressive anti-poverty programs, does this problem reach epidemic levels?
The life of Tray (not his real name) helps explain.
A minority third generation American, Tray's family has lived in poverty since it arrived in this country. His father vanished years ago. He is loosely looked after by a small network of older relatives, none of whom have ever held steady work. If he graduates high school he will be the first member of his family to do so, but right now he's on academic probation, frequently truant, and spends most of his time with friends, some of whom are drug dealers with a history of arrests.
He has never left Oakland.
Moving East, we look at the life of Neil (pseudonym).
Born to a teenage mother who dropped out of school to look after him, Neal has dropped out of school to look after his younger brothers. He joined a gang for protection because violence in his neighborhood frightened him. He wants his younger brothers to do better, but has no idea how to steer them on a different path.
He has never left Richmond.
- Data provided by Education Week
- Based on 2000 Census Data compiled by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy
- Compiled from the 2005 Census update
- The Concentration of Negative Child Outcomes in Low-Income Neighborhoods; Mark Mather and Kerri L. Rivers; The Annie E. Casey Foundation Population Reference Bureau, February 2006
- Compiled from the 2005 Census update
- Serving Low-income Families in Poverty Neighborhoods; Using Promising Programs and Practices: Building a Foundation for Redesigning Public and Nonprofit Social Services; Bay Area Social Services Coalition
- The Environment of Childhood Poverty; American Psychologist; Volume 59(2), February/March 2004, p 77-92
- Concentrated Poverty vs. Concentrated Affluence: Effects on Neighborhood Social Environments and Children's Outcomes; Anne R. Pebley and Narayan Sastry; RAND; May, 2003
- As rich-poor gap widens in U.S., class mobility stalls; David Wessel; Wall Street Journal, Friday, May 13, 2005
- Enduring Poverty and the Conditions of Childhood: Lifecourse and Intergenerational Poverty Transmissions; Caroline Harper, Rachel Marcus, Karen Moore; World Development Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 535–554, 2003
- The Intergenerational Transfer of Psychosocial Risk; Mediators, Vulnerability and Resilience; Lisa A. Serbin and Jennifer Karp; Annual Revue of Psychology, 55:333-63, 2004
- The Environment of Childhood Poverty; American Psychologist; Volume 59(2), February/March 2004, p 77-92
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Enduring Poverty and the Conditions of Childhood: Lifecourse and Intergenerational Poverty Transmissions; Caroline Harper, Rachel Marcus, Karen Moore; World Development Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 535–554, 2003