The need for after school and summer enrichment programs within communities has been demonstrated by the increasing number of teen pregnancy, unwed mothers, juvenile crime, gang related activities, and adolescent drop out rate. In addition, most African-American and Hispanic children enter public schools at a disadvantage due in part to substandard schools in depressed neighborhoods with a lack of funding resources and language barriers, many are placed in special education classes, and alternative schools due to these barriers. These adolescents would benefit from programs that mentor and tutor after school and during the summer months to assist them in creating positive study habits.
Texas Cops & Kids specializes in "Long-Term Preventative Maintenance." Working with children from the first grade through the twelfth grade; provides a relationship and a long-term commitment. Early intervention for at-risk children and their families is the key to many Society problems, followed up with preventative maintenance programs, that offers incentives to stay in school. Early intervention saves lives, money and prevents a lifetime of problems for at-risk children and Society as a whole.
Prevention designed to develop a strong support system between our participants, their families and the surrounding community. In most instances, kids just want to be kids, yet in most impoverished communities families depend upon kids to baby sit and supervise their younger siblings. This prevents children from experiencing a real childhood. We have observed many children under the age of 10 providing care to their brothers and sisters. This number is also increasing as more and more families have only one parent present. This generational curse cannot be discontinued unless we as a group participate and provide cost free alternative activities for this group.
AMERICA A NATION FACING A CRISIS
Over fifty-seven percent of public elementary and secondary school principals reported least one incident of crime to law enforcement authorities these crimes are committed by children between the ages of 6 and 14
Statistic report children between the ages of 14 and 17 commit approximately 4,000 murders each year. Juveniles are committing adult crimes and are now being tried and convicted as adults (in some states including Texas as young as 10 years of age).
Forty-five percent of adolescents who enter eighth grade have experienced alcohol, and twenty-five percent used drugs.
As per The Coalition for Juvenile Justice, 50 to 75 percent of incarcerated juveniles have mental health disorders. Illiteracy goes hand in hand with most juvenile offenders. These offenders are incarcerated in prisons, and mental health facility then placed back into society with no employable skills. The majority of these offenders will return to prison within two years of their release. The juveniles with mental health problems will return sooner to a mental health facility, because most of them do not have continued care after they are released. They don’t get the costly psychotropic drugs they need.
As per The Nation Attention Deficit Disorder Association, 2.5 millions juveniles, mostly boys are thought to have ADHD. Of these with disabilities the majority enter a lifetime of crime and never imagine having a high school diploma or its equivalency.
As per The National Association of Sports and Physical Education, one in every four school ages child is considered over weight or obese. Children face the same health problems over weight, obese adults (diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep apnea, and certain cancers). Studies have shown that childhood obesity can lead to depression, low esteem, suicide and risky behaviors such as drinking and smoking.
America is facing a serious health care crisis with our children’s health problem, health care problems that will cost this country billions of dollars in medical bills, lost wages, and premature death for many.
As per the National Institute of Mental Health, 3 million adolescents suffer from depression. Without treatment children are at risk of failing in schools, social isolation, promiscuity, "self medication" with drugs or alcohol, and suicide-suicide is now the third leading cause of death among 10 to 24-year olds.
Researchers think the stress of high divorce rate, rising academic expectation, and social pressure may be the cause. With the shortage of adolescent psychiatrists and mental health centers disadvantaged at-risk children living in low-income areas the consequences are severe, a community economically stressed have many traumatic circumstances that can lead to other types of depression, major depression, dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder, double depression (depression is often misdiagnosed as ADHD or chronic fatigue) without medical help these children, their families and their community are on a dangerous path of destruction.
As per U.S. News and World Report, The United States leads the developed World in teen pregnancy, it estimates one million teenagers every year become pregnant and that 25 percent of these teenagers will have a second child within two years of the first child.
As per Census, 27 percent of female-led household live in poverty, they work low-paying jobs with few benefits. The number of children in low-income families exceeds 10 million. Texas has the highest rate of children living in poverty 20 percent, 9 percent in Alaska, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Washington, New Mexico has 26 percent. Americans living in poverty rose from 31.6 million to 32.9 million last year, the bureau sets the poverty line at an annual income of $18,104 for a family of four, $14,128 for a family of three, $11,564 for a family of two and $9,039 for individuals.
As per Census, 2.2 million households fathers raise their children without a mother. The number of single father households rose 62 percent in 10 years.
As per The Office for Education of Homeless Children and Youth, estimates that 130,000 children in Texas are Homeless over the course of a year, 240,000 children go hungry in Houston, 90,000 of these children are under the age of six.
As per The Houston Food Bank, more than 750,000 Gulf Coast area residents live in poverty. According to the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Texas ranked third in "food insecurity", this means that about 2.5 million Texans lived in households that did not have access to enough food to meet their basic needs at all times.
As per The AARP, 2 1/2 million grandparents are raising their grandchildren, because of aids, drugs, or prison.
As per The Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 1.5 million children had mothers in prison or jail.
As per The Justice Policy Institute, Texas hikes funding for prisons faster than for education. In 1986 Texas spent about 3.1 billion from its general fund on state, colleges and universities. That same year $590 million was spent on corrections, or less than a dollar for every five spent on higher education. Higher education grew to $4.5 billion. Meanwhile the state budget for prisons had risen to $2.7 billion. In that period, the amount spent on colleges and universities grew by 47 percent, compared with a 346 percent increase on corrections.
As per The Justice Department Report, Texas Prison Population is the top in the United States over 2 million with about 106,000 being juveniles.
As per The Government Report, Texas has more adults under correctional supervision (probation or parole) than any other state 755,100 California was second with 704,900. A record 6.6 million people are in the nation’s correctional system, the number rose by 147,700. In 1990 almost 4.4 million adults were incarcerated or being supervised.
As per The Texas Education Agency, the drop out rate for students between grades seven and twelve is 29.35 percent for Hispanic Students 25.7 percent for African American Students and 14.3 percent for White Students.
Harvard University reports that 50 percent of college freshman are dropping out of school, and forty-five percent of students in Texas are failing algebra final exams, which means these students will not receive their high school diploma. Harvard University also reported too many minority children are being placed in special education classes, three times as likely as white students.
STATISTIC REPORT THERE ARE 40 MILLION ILLITERATE AMERICANS
As per The Department of Education, 52 percent of adults in Texas are identified as functionally illiterate, Texas ranks 47th of the fifty states with the most serious illiteracy problem. In Houston alone the Texas Adult Literacy Survey, has identified more than one million functionally illiterate adults.
ILLITERACY IS A VICIOUS SYSTEMATIC CYCLE OF PROBLEMS AND DESTRUCTION
The problems and destruction starts mainly with disadvantage at-risk children in economically stressed neighborhoods. America has low priorities for disadvantage children and their families. Children are warehoused in substandard inner-city public schools, alternatives schools, foster care, mental health facility and jails/prisons all across this country, with no hopes of a decent life.
Law Enforcement and the Communities Greatest Fear is: what type of people are we releasing into our Communities after being warehoused as children and released as adults.
