NCJ Number
237677
Date Published
July 2010
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This report presents the methodology and findings of the evaluation of an experimental after-school program in the Red Hook public housing project of Brooklyn; the program was designed to change youth's positive perceptions of youth crime in the housing project.
Abstract
Participants unanimously felt that the education campaign work they were doing was important and mattered to other youth. They believed they could make a positive difference in their community and expressed their preference for more opportunities for positive programming that is youth-led. Program participants, who received a biweekly stipend, wanted to be perceived as successful and many expressed interest in developing skills that would improve employment opportunities. They had positive attitudes toward work and did not value "easy money." Still, the youths' attitudes and behavior were complex and often contradictory as they drifted between delinquent and conventional norms and behaviors. The youth who were most often in trouble were also the most outspoken in their campaigns against crime. The findings suggest that delinquency in Red Hook is related to feelings of boredom that come from living in a physically and socially isolated neighborhood where dealing drugs grows out of financial or social needs. The findings suggest that individual aspirations held by youth who live in neighborhoods with socioeconomic deficits will drift between their positive desire for an elusive better life and community and the real world where people and communities must adapt their behaviors to deal with the harsh realities of financial and social hardship. Data were collected between January 2008 and June 2009 through individual interviews with 23 Red Hook youths, as well as through focus groups, surveys, and program observations of Youth ECHO and the 21 youths involved over its 2 years of program operation. 26 references