After-School Programs

Gov. Pete Wilson just signed several key pieces of legislation that greatly increase the investment in our city’s children. The After-School Learning and Safe Neighborhood Partnership Program calls for investing in safe, quality after-school programs that provide some of our most vulnerable children an alternative to unsupervised activities including the negative temptations of gangs and drugs.

Here in Los Angeles we have witnessed the wonders of what after-school programs can do. Los Angeles’ award-winning after-school program, LA’s BEST (Better Educated Students for Tomorrow), has given thousands of students the opportunity to make significant academic gains. We must fulfill the unrealized opportunity of providing children’s afternoons with reading, real-world explorations and recreational activities.

The legislation will provide a cost-efficient, statewide program and will grant $50 million to support after-school programs for elementary and middle school students.

No child should have to spend his/her after-school hours unsupervised and alone until a parent or guardian returns home. Unfortunately, in Los Angeles, we have thousands of children who are at risk of getting involved in criminal behavior or becoming victims of crime.

VIVIAN WEINSTEIN, Pres,

Commission for Children, Youth

and Their Families, Los Angeles