“Hey Timmy, do you want to go hang out with my friends and me?”, said Billy.
“Sure. I have nothing better to do anyway,” said Timmy.

As the boys were walking, Timmy was confused and scared because he didn’t know where Billy and his friends were going.

“What are we going to do here, Billy? It’s just a construction site,” said Timmy.
“Nothing. We just come here to hang out and stuff,” replied Billy.
Timmy looked at him suspiciously and followed because he let his curiosity get the best of him. When they walked in there were so many holes and cracks in the floor. They found a place that wasn’t messed up as much as the rest of the house and sat down. Charlie, Billy’s friend, took out a deck of cards from his book bag, and they started playing crazy eights.

A few minutes later, the boy heard sirens down the block but ignored them. Then, 15 seconds later, they heard it outside of the house. They looked at each other in fear wondering why the cops would be outside. The boys tried to find an escape route. Right when they found an escape route, the cops busted into the house.

All the boys were able to escape except for Timmy. When the cops caught him, he knew he was going to be in so much trouble. They sat him on the curb and ran his name through the system. Timmy sat there reminiscing about how he should’ve listened to his mom and went to his after school program.

Nowadays, many kids find themselves alone and unsupervised after school. Many parents aren’t able to watch their kids because they have to work and provide for their families. Studies show that most juvenile offences occur after school. Afterschool programs protect students.

According to Network For Youth Success,“The hours between 3 and 6pm are when kids are often unsupervised and most likely to participate in risky behavior, commit crimes, or be victimized by crimes. Strong support and guidance are critical to middle schoolers during a life stage that shapes their trajectory into high school, college, career and beyond.”

Afterschool programs offer wide range of benefits to the kids, families, and communities. It helps improve academic performances, reduces risky behavior, provides safety, improves leadership, and much more.

Some great after school programs that are offered include Harlem RBI, Girls Write Now, Harlem Children Zone, SEO, and many more. Aside from helping kids stay safe, the programs help students prepare for college. For example the program SEO, has a 100% college acceptance rate. The program Girls Write Now helps teenage girls become better writers.

Shanai Williams, a sophomore, said, “It’s hard for me to find time to write on a daily basis between all the schoolwork, so with this program it allows me to prioritize writing. And it’s fun.”

Many people believe that by going to afterschool programs, it helps reduce the amount of drug and alcohol usage and sexual activity.

According to Mahoney, J., Lord, H., & Carryl, E., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, 2005, “a study measuring the health and social benefits of afterschool programs found that controlling for baseline obesity, poverty status, and race and ethnicity, the prevalence of obesity was significantly lower for afterschool program participants (21 percent) compared to nonparticipants (33 percent) at follow-up.”

Kids who attend after school programs are known to have better chances at becoming more successful than kids who do not attend after school.

If students would like to attend an afterschool program, they should talk to our guidance counselor, Ms. Colon, or Assistant Principal Ms. Leimsider.