Chicago Reporter (https://www.chicagoreporter.com/author/montana-butsch/)
Sometimes, young people value doing nothing over doing something. Why? Positive activities have never been presented to them in a way that addresses their values, which are often misplaced.
Despite modest increases in the number of available after-school
opportunities for our young people over recent years, the demand for
quality programs far outpaces the supply. According to Chapin Hall, an
independent policy research institute, and the Chicago Out-of-School
Time (OST) Project, there are only enough publicly funded opportunities
to reach a little more than one-third of Chicago’s teens. Last summer,
the number of applicants to the City’s YouthReadyChicago summer jobs
program was more than 70,000—for fewer than 30,000 jobs.