Committee Hearing, December 9, 1997

PUBLIC HEARING JOINT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES AND THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON PARKS, RECREATION AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS Tuesday, December 9, 1997 1:27 p.m. Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - - - Bill No. 970661 - To examine the effect which quality after-school programs have on protecting youth from crime and violence in our city. PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED-MILLER, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILWOMAN HAPPY FERNANDEZ COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ COUNCILMAN FRANK DICICCO COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 I N D E X BILL NO. 970661 Estelle Richmond -------------------------- Commissioner of Dept. Of Health 7 Dr. Paul Fink ----------------------------- 20 8 Chairman Youth Homicide Committee 9 Richard Neal ------------------------------ 29 Commissioner Philadelphia Police Department 10 Andrew Wigglesworth ----------------------- 56 11 Pres., Delaware Valley Health Care Council David W. Hornbeck ------------------------- 70 Superintendent of Schools, Phila. District Kinney Zalesne ---------------------------- 79 Assistant to U.S. Attorney Gen. Janet Reno Dr. James Fox ----------------------------- 88 Dean, College of Crim. Justice, Northeastern U. Rebecca Goins and Anthony Szagut ----------- 110 Students, Philadelphia Public Schools System Michael DiBerardinis ---------------------- 113 Commissioner, Department of Recreation Joan Reeves ------------------------------- 119 Commissioner, Department of Human Services Marty Friedman ---------------------------- 131 Exec. Dir., National School & Community Corps Tyra Gulley-Cherry ------------------------ 131 Private Citizen 3 (Index, Cont'd.) BILL NO. 970661 Shelly Yanoff ---------------------------- 140 Exec. Dir., Phil. Citizens for Children & Youth Susan Foreman ---------------------------- 156 United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania Marie Delaney ---------------------------- 168 President, New Frankford Community Y Frances Walker --------------------------- 171 Parents Against Drugs Patricia Fultz --------------------------- 174 Parents Against Drugs Jennifer Clement -------------------------- 176 Curriculum Specialist, Foundation Enrichment Prog. Benjamin Brown ---------------------------- 182 Allegheny West Task Force Julio Paz Y Mino -------------------------- 186 Dir., Philadelphia Child Care Resources Levy Joynes ------------------------------- 189 Youth Coordinator, Strawberry Mansion Unified Org. Harriet Jaffe ----------------------------- 194 Private Citizen 4 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. P R O C E E D I N G S

Good afternoon. Can we have everyone's attention. The Special Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs and the Joint Committee on Public Health and Human Services will be beginning immediately. It's now in session. We're here today -- this hearing is in regard to City Council's Committee of Public Health and Human Services and the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Public Affairs to hold public hearings to examine the effect which quality after-school programs have on protecting youth from crime and violence in our city. Will the clerk please read the resolution.

Resolution No. 970661, calling on City Council's Committee on Public Health and Human Services and the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs to hold public hearings to examine the effect which quality after-school programs have in protecting youth from crime and violence in our city; Whereas national statistics show that 5 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. among groups victimized by crime, teenagers under the age of are at the highest risk, almost 10 4 times more likely to be victims of crime than 5 persons over the age of 65; 6 And whereas from 1992 to 1996, over 7 half of all homicides in the City of Philadelphia 8 were committed against young people under the age 9 of 20; 10 And whereas critical new information 11 prepared for the U.S. Attorney General finds that 12 nearly half of all violent crimes committed by and 13 against youths take place between 2 p.m., 14 following school dismissal, and 8 p.m.; 15 And whereas the Philadelphia 16 Interdisciplinary Youth Fatality Review Committee 17 comprised of representatives from private and 18 public health organizations, police and law 19 enforcement, school districts, courts and 20 community groups, have been reviewing the records of deceased youth city-wide, in an effort to determine how to prevent future deaths; And whereas quality after-school programming has proven effective in protecting youths from crime and violence in two ways: by 6 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. providing safe havens for young people after school and by insulting children from developing high-risk behavior; And whereas the City of Philadelphia has undertaken efforts to a number of City agencies to expand the availability of after-school program opportunities city-wide assessment of City's. An assessment in the City's investment in providing proactive, preventive opportunities to protect youth from crime and violence is needed; Resolved by the Council of the City of Philadelphia that we hereby authorize the Committee on Public Health and Human Services and the Committee on Parks, Recreational and Cultural Affairs to conduct hearings to examine the efficacy of after-school programs in protecting youth from crimes and violence in our neighborhoods. Thank you.

Thank you. My name is Councilwoman Donna Miller, and this is for the record of those Council persons that are in 7 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. attendance. To my left, we have Councilwoman Happy Fernandez, Councilman Frank Rizzo. To my right, Councilwoman Marian Tasco, Chair of the Public Health and Human Services Committee, Councilman Frank DiCicco, Councilman Richard Mariano, and Councilman Angel Ortiz. If there's anyone here to testify today, we would appreciate it if when you come to the mike, you state your name and/or any other identifying information that you think we should know. At this time, I want to call on Councilwoman Fernandez for some remarks.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This City faces a clear choice. Are we going to invest in after-school programs, or are we going to continue to pay for after-school crime and vandalism? That's essentially the choice we're facing as a City. And I think we're blessed to have with us today a number of people from the community who have been working with youth, trying to prevent 8 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. crime and violence, and also to protect innocent youths from being hurt or injured. We will also have some experts from Washington, D.C. and Boston who are here with us today, along with people in the City Administration -- our Police Commissioner, our Health Commissioner, our Recreation Commissioner, and our Commission of Health and Human Services -- who will share with us what this City government has been doing and what their plans are for the future. So I think these hearings, again, put a very sharp question before us: Will we continue to pay a high price for after school vandalism, crime and violence, or will we begin to even more seriously invest in after-school programs to protect our children and our neighborhoods? Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Fernandez. Does any of the members of this panel and Council people have any opening statements they'd like to make regarding this resolution?

They all need 9 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. after-school programs. (Applause.)

I'd like to make a brief one.

Well, I'd like to make a brief one. I'd just like to say that I am pleased to join in with Councilwoman Fernandez to sponsor these hearings. As Chair of Public Health and Human Services, I certainly know the conditions that exist in the City that contribute to crime and the increase in violence. We have a number of after-school programs that are operating in the City, and some are -- certainly I have a identify in the ninth Councilmanic district that are working and doing very well, but we need to be able to do more to be able to expand the existing programs and to also provide resources so that additional programs can be implemented. Crime is on the rise, as we look at the newspapers every day with our young people. And while this is just one small way of trying to provide programs and activities for young people 10 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. after school, I'm sure Shelly Yanoff will join me in stating that we have to look at early-childhood intervention because it is getting the child at an early age and establishing those values to keep that child on the straight and narrow and to prevent that child from becoming violent as he or she grows to become a young adult. So we thank you all for coming out this afternoon, and I am pleased to join with Councilwoman Fernandez and Councilwoman Donna Miller to host these hearings this afternoon. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Tasco. I have a brief statement. I'm glad to be a part of this joint committee on these hearings of a most important issue. The future of our children is essential of our success as a society. Reviewing and assessing the need and purpose of after-school programs is vital to the life blood of our communities. We must make a commitment to provide our children with constructive activities that promote healthy, 11 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. social, emotional and intellectual development. I am a strong supporter of after-school programs for children and I am a strong supporter of prevention programs for young children. The numbers of arrests and incidents that the police department will state is astounding that children that young are being arrested at the rate they're being arrested during the hours after school. So I'm really glad to be a part of this and thank Councilwoman Fernandez and Councilwoman Tasco in regards to this bill. I think our first person to testify -- or the panel, okay, the first panel is Commissioner Estelle Richmond, Department of Health. She's going to give an overview of the homicides. Dr. Paul Fink of the Youth Fatality Review Committee. And Commissioner Richard Neal, Police Department, overview of crimes. Please come to the table, and don't forget to state your name. ) COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: Good afternoon, 12 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Councilwoman Fernandez, Councilwoman Tasco, Councilwoman Reed-Miller and other Members of Council. My name is Estelle Richmond. I AM the Commissioner of Health for the City of Philadelphia Department of Health. I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with you today about a crucial issue facing the City and the Nation, youth violence. Many young people in Philadelphia are dying preventable deaths; even more are involved in acts of violence that do not, at least at that time, result in death. In order to implement effective prevention strategies for other children, more needs to be understood about who is dying and the risk factors which precede their deaths. One means of gathering this information is through the child death review teams. As part of a statewide effort to determine the number and nature of the deaths in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Interdisciplinary Youth Fatality Review Team routinely and systematically reviews the deaths of all Philadelphia residents under the 13 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. age of 22. Its mission is to prevents future child deaths and related violence by review, analysis and subsequent initiation of corrective actions. Actions include programs to prevent violence at the community level, changes in the court and juvenile justice system, any intervention that may along the course of someone's life intervene in their path to violence. The first local child death review was started in 1976 in Los Angeles Health Department. Despite a lack of leadership or funding legislation for death review teams at the federal level, this grass-roots effort has lead to death review teams in every state. At the present time, nine counties in Pennsylvania have teams, and two are just beginning. More than 50 percent of child deaths statewide are reviewed by local teams. Philadelphia's team was convened June of 1993 by Commissioner Ross. The team has reviewed complete data for 1994 and has just completed 1995 data. The team operates in two 14 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. subcommittees. One examines homicide and suicide deaths; the other examines natural death by injury, motor vehicle deaths, and drug-related deaths. Dr. Fink, Chair of the Homicide Committee, will provide more detail on the work of his team and the other activities they are involved in. The Philadelphia Team is funded through a State Prevention Grant and is a cost-effective means of gathering information.

Individual agencies who participate come to the table with information about the death so the group can learn more about where the system may have intervened along the way. The Philadelphia Team works closely with the Pennsylvania State Team, and data is shared back and forth. Deaths are reviewed for all Philadelphia residents who die, regardless of the place of death. The key to the review teams is the determination of which deaths might have been prevented and subsequently what policies, laws, regulations, and prevention strategies should be developed or implemented to prevent a recurrence. 15 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. It is important to note that while the teams are examining violence that resulted in death, the findings and interventions may apply to all acts of youth violence. The Health Department is about to release the complete 1995 report, which provides details of deaths to residents under age in 9 1995. per 12 100,000. 2 of those deaths were due to 14 injuries. 2 16 percent were suicides. 17 One quarter of the Pennsylvania deaths 18 to youth are Philadelphia residents. The 19 percentage of homicides for youth in Philadelphia 20 is more than twice as high as that of the state as 21 a whole. 22 Males represent half of Philadelphia residents age 0 to 21; however, 61 percent of all 1995 deaths to Philadelphia residents involved males. 16 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Youth of color accounted for more than out of deaths, which is about 81-82 percent. While less than half of Philadelphia's youth are African-American, about 46 percent -- 70 percent of the youth who died -- were African-American. More than half of the youth homicide victims had school problems in the year before their death. Overall, one third had been truant, and 1 in 4 had dropped out of school before their death. Other potential risk factors exhibited by youth homicide victims included mental health diagnoses, reports to DHS for being victims of abuse or neglect, known substance abuse problems, as well as a history of arrests. More than 1 in 4 homicide victims were on probation, bench warrant or arrest warrant status at the time of their deaths. Specifically related to some of the issues before us today, the 1995 report shows us the following: 30 school-age children between the ages of 5 to 16 died from unintentional injuries. Of these, 30 percent were injured between 3 and 7 17 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. m. Almost half of the events causing unintentional deaths occurred on Saturdays and Sundays. school-age children between the ages 6 of 5 to 16 died by homicide. m. m. m. m. 11 Overall, in 1995, the deaths of 54 12 school-age youth between the ages of 5 to 16 were 13 caused by unintentional injuries, homicides, 14 suicides, and undetermined causes. m. m. 9 19 percent. The two years of data-gathering analysis have begun to lead to important discoveries and recommendations, including program development, reduction in availability of weapons, continued data-gathering and communication between agencies, and changes in the legal, judicial and 18 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. school systems to better address youth at risk to violence. In addition, the Health Department is actively working with the medical community to revise and disseminate the Weapon-related Injury Surveillance Forms. This form, when completed and submitted by physicians, will give the Health Department vital information about weapon-related injuries, not only homicides. This surveillance will enable us to learn about youth violence in a much broader sense since we will learn about incidents before someone dies, the time and the place of the incident, the type of weapon, and, hopefully, the circumstances of the incident itself. We will also learn about the time and place that injuries take place, which will enable to us better focus violence prevention and other youth programs.

This information will enable us to intervene both in community-based programs and in individual cases. We are hopeful that the form will be completely revised, distributed and in use by July 1, 1998. Before I turn the microphone over to 19 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Dr. Paul Fink, Chair of the Homicide Committee, I want to mention that Philadelphia has recently begun a Women's Death Review Team. This team will examine deaths for women under age 60 and will specifically examine the role of interpersonal violence in the lives of the women who die in Philadelphia. The Women's Team is a collaborative effort between the Health Department, District Attorney's office, law enforcement, Philadelphia Health Management Corporation, and some of the domestic violence agencies and advocacy communities in Philadelphia. The Women's Team will begin, in January 1998, reviewing deaths for 1997. As with the Child Fatality Review Team, the Women's Team will disseminate its finding and make recommendations interventions and policy changes to reduce the number of women who die from violent deaths. The team has already received inquiries from other groups in the state who are interested in learning from Philadelphia's work. The Women's Team is now actively seeking outside funding, and I have just been 20 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. advised today that we have received approximately $20,000 in outside funding. I will now turn to Dr. Paul Fink to speak about some of the specific interventions planned and in place to address the issues of youth violence in Philadelphia.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Members of Council. My name is Paul Fink. As Commissioner Richmond said, I'm the Chairman of the Youth Homicide Committee. I am also a professor of psychiatry Temple University School of Medicine and a member of the Board of Health for the City of Philadelphia. I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to come before you to talk about the work of the Youth Homicide Committee and the violence prevention projects throughout the City, which we have helped to generate. The Youth Homicide Committee is made up of representatives of a number of governmental and non-governmental agencies in the City. Prior to each monthly meeting, we receive the names of homicide victims or suicide victims for a given month. 21 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. We have between 10 and 15 murders of children a month under the age of 22 in this City, 10 to 15 murders of children under the age of 22. Everyone checks to see if their respective agencies have data on these children, and they bring the data to the meeting. The purpose of the data collection is to determine if any of these murders was preventable. We have come up with some interesting results: It has been found that truancy is one of the earliest indicators for trouble in both the victims and the perpetrators; the time of day is a big factor; the age of the first arrest is significant, and the profiles of the murderers and the victims are very much alike; a large number of the perpetrators and the victims are on outstanding bench warrants at the time of the crime; and the weapons of choice are automatic weapons. The breadth and involvement of various City agencies is demonstrated on the charts which you have received. There's a special set of color charts which is a work in progress. Working with 22 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation, we are in the process of putting together as comprehensive as possible a broad picture of city-wide anti-violence efforts. I would like to expand upon the key factors I've mention: 1. Truancy. There are 30,000 kids absent from school in Philadelphia on any given day. This number is larger than more school districts in America. 2. m. The largest number of murders and acts of violence are committed at a time of day after kids are dismissed from school. We desperately need meaningful after-school programs. 3. Age of first arrest. In a given year, a study was done showing that 80 percent of the perpetrators and 52 percent of the kids that were murdered -- and this is low because it includes kids under 5 -- had their first arrest between the ages of 10 and 14. We need to address the needs of younger children from birth to 8 or 9 years of age in order to prevent some of the problems that we 23 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. face. The profiles of these murderers and the murder victims are essentially the same. 4. Bench warrants. Approximately 7,000 children under the age of -- most of our 6 statistics are for children under 22, but 7,000 7 children under the age of 18 were on bench 8 warrants at the time of the murder, both victims 9 and perpetrators. The failure to address these 10 troubled kids who are free and wandering streets 11 is a serious issue. 12 5. Guns. Most murder victims over the 13 age of 10 die of multiple gunshot wounds which 14 would indicate automatic handguns are being used, 15 and many of the recovered bullets are found to be 16 jacketed. The availability of weapons of war and 17 destruction in our City should be a source of 18 shame. Through our work of the Youth Homicide Committee, we have been able to generate the following programs: 1. The VUFA Program. With the help of the Department of Human Services, we developed the Violation of the Uniform Firearms Act program. Up until this program went into effect last month or 24 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. two months ago, the average kid that was found with a gun was put on probation.

Now the program includes 40 hours of instruction on consequences of gun use, 40 hours of public service, and the assignment of a mentor. 2. Court projects. With the full cooperation of District Attorney Lynne Abraham and the help of John Delaney, Deputy District Attorney, Juvenile Division, and Judge Paul Panepinto, the Administrative Judge for Family Court, we are working on three projects: a. A policy is now being developed which will allow bench warrants to be processed much more rapidly. b. A cooperative effort between the Police Department and Probation -- I'm sure you'll hear about it later -- will address probation violation more vigorously. c. And, finally, in an effort to reduce truancy, we are going to decentralize the Truancy Court. In addition to the two days per month that Judge Somers holds truancy court, a master will be appointed to hold court in number of schools, thus increasing the annual number of 25 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. cases heard from 2,500 to 10,000. Hopefully, this will help involve more parents and guardians as well as school personnel in the process. 3. Mentoring and At-Risk Children. The Philadelphia Bar Association and the School District of Philadelphia are cooperating in the Attorney Mentoring Project, which has been started in six schools, to provide mentors for "at-risk" children. The identification of at-risk children is critical if we are to reduce the amount of injury and murder among children. This is difficult for a number of reasons; the most complex of which is the issue of confidentiality. Sharing information about children before they die, the way we do after they're dead, is vital in finding a solution in preventing future murders and violence. " The problem of multiple agency families also arises in our review of these cases. 4. The Rapid Response Team. This is a Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. cooperative between the Department of Health, the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network, and the Police Department. We have developed a cadre of volunteers: child psychiatrists, social workers, and community leaders who respond to calls from the police when they find a situation in which a child has either been a victim of or a witness to serious act of violence. The volunteers will evaluate the child, assess the needs of the child and the family, and call the coordinator, an employee of the Health Department, with their findings. The coordinator will triage the child and arrange for immediate care with a cooperating agency. The need for this project has become apparent several years ago when we reviewed a case at the Homicide Committee of a 28-year-old man who went into an apartment and murdered his 28-year-old girlfriend and her 16-year-old sister. Unbeknownst to anyone, a 7-year-old brother witnessed the murders of his sisters. This kind of thing occurs frequently, and there is scientific evidence that within 72 27 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. hours of such an event, the brain begins to get "hard-wired" from the trauma, which then later shows up in destructive and violent behavior. Studies also show that if the trauma is dealt with before the hard-wiring takes place, the outcome to these traumatized children is much better. 5. Gun control. Under the leadership of the Commissioner of Recreation, Michael DiBerardinis and the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network, James Mills, there are ongoing projects to reduce the number of guns, trace the origin of guns, educate our children about guns, and, hopefully, involve kids in nonviolent activities. Kids are really afraid and don't feel that they have any options other than arming themselves. They don't feel they have any other options. The Police Department's recent action to consolidate all gun-related issues into one department is an important step in the right direction.

Yesterday James Mills announced at a press conference the Goods for Guns Program that will start this week. 6. Information-Sharing and Community 28 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Cooperation. One of the most important functions of the Youth Homicide Committee is to provide an opportunity for the representatives of a large number of governmental and nongovernmental agencies to share data, formulate plans to take back to their respective agencies, generate recommendations for public policy change, and work on cooperative projects. Often the data we need is just not available, and much of what we do get is incomplete or inadequate. You have received the 1994 report of the Youth Fatality Committee. And, hopefully, you will be receiving the 1995 report very soon. There are several programs in the works, which have been designed to stimulate community cooperative action between neighborhoods and public health, mental health and associated service agencies. Because City Hall passed an ordinance, a project like Weapon-Related Injury Surveillance System has become possible. With your help and with real help from the media, we can keep moving forward. We must promote the concept of zero 29 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. tolerance for murder, guns, and any acts of violence. The City of Boston has clearly demonstrated that this can be successful, as evidenced by their marked decrease in murders. We can and must save hundred of lives and make the streets safe for all citizens in Philadelphia, especially our children. Thank you. COMMISSIONER NEAL: Good afternoon, Madam Chairwoman and Members of Council. I am Police Commissioner Richard Neal, Philadelphia Police Department. I would like to thank you for permitting me the opportunity to come before you today to discuss the importance of quality after-school programs for our youth. Young people who are bored and who have been provided with little supervision and even less guidance will only find trouble, unwittingly and otherwise. Before I begin, however, I must inform Council that the age group I have been asked to address, the 10- to 22-year-old's, includes both what the Department considers juveniles (those under 18) and adults (those over 18). 30 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. In 1996, there were 160 young people between the ages of and arrested for 4 homicide out of 320 total arrests city-wide. And 5 that is 50 percent of all arrests for homicide in 6 1996. 7 With regard to other violent offenses 8 such as rape, robbery and aggravated assault, 9 young people are clearly having a negative impact. 10 In 1996, individuals in this age range were 11 arrested for 127 rapes out of a total of 378 12 city-wide. This is slightly more than one third 13 of all rape arrests in Philadelphia. 14 With regard to arrests for robbery, 63 15 percent of suspect arrested were between the age 16 of 10 and 22 years old. That amounts to 2,717 17 arrests for robbery out of a total city-wide 18 figure of 4,351 arrests. 19 Now, 43 percent, or 1,805 individuals, 20 arrested for aggravated assault also fell into the 21 same age group from a total arrest figure of 22 4,207. Arrests for property crimes, including vandalism, show that the impact young people are having is no less dramatic. 31 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. In 1996, there were 16,069 overall arrests for property crimes (burglary, theft, auto theft, arson and vandalism) of which 7,197, or over 45 percent, were members of this age group. As the chart numbered 6 clearly indicates, the following crime at the hands of young people begins to increase during the mid- to late-teenage years, and then slowly begins to fall as an individual reaches his or her early 20s. It should also be noted that though most of the persons who commit crime as well as those arrested for it are males. Girls and young women are not immune from criminal activity in Philadelphia.

As a matter of fact, percent or 16 401 arrests for aggravated assault in this age 17 group were females out of a total of 1,805 members 18 of this age group arrested for aggravated assault. 19 For the crime of theft, nearly one 20 third, or 911 females, were arrested in this age 21 category out of a total of 2,888 individuals in 22 this range. The number of females arrested for the other offenses previously mentioned are small when compared to their male counterparts. However, 32 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. this does not indicate that females are also -- this does indicate that females are also at risk with regard to criminal involvement and, consequently, are in need of the same or similar after-school programs. Young people, though many times the offender, are often just as likely to be the victims of crime. In 1996, for instance, of the 416 homicides which occurred in Philadelphia, 149, or nearly 36 percent of the victims, were between ages of 10 and 22. I commend Council on its efforts to investigate the need for and the availability of successful after-school programs in our city. As Police Commissioner and a 35-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, I have seen the positive impact our department's after-school programs have had on youth. The Philadelphia Police Department has long been in the forefront of providing young people with opportunities to get off the streets, to increase their knowledge, and to build a sound body and mind. Probably one of most successful programs now utilized extensively across the City 33 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. is the Police Athletic League. "PAL," as it's known began right here in Philadelphia in 1947 and was the creation of concerned Philadelphia police officers. Through the 50 years of this program, young people have gotten to know police officers as friends, mentors, and role models. PAL provides alternatives to street life, with programs involving anti-drug education, tutoring, career counseling, as well as the ever-popular sporting events. PAL currently operates centers across the City, with over 13 24,000 members -- all of them young people. 14 Another popular program our department 15 has operated successfully over the years is the 16 Police Explorers. The Explorers are young men and 17 women aged 14 through 20 who have an interest in 18 law enforcement and related issues. This program 19 not only serves the educational and career 20 interests of youth, but instills character, 21 citizenship, and discipline, building blocks for 22 an effective and responsible citizenry. 23 The Explorers operate in every police division in the City as well as in a number of schools. There are currently 14 posts -- 12 in 34 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. police districts and 2 in public schools -- involving over 2500 young people across the City. These posts are operated by our Community Relations Unit and have Unit personnel supervising. Only in its fourth year, the Commanders Basketball League involves 12- to 14-year-old's in spirited competition with veteran police commanders over a 12-game season. This community policing program serves to break down the barriers between police officers and young people. It also provides youth with an opportunity to discuss problems and ask questions of our officers in a casual and uninhibited environment. This program is also regarded as having been very successful -- except, however, the commanders, who have yet to win a game. As you can see, the Philadelphia Police Department has a long history of supporting our young people and guiding them through what is generally accepted to be some of life's most difficult years. Unfortunately, we also see all too often the dangerous and often deadly path many of 35 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. them choose to take.

If we are to stem the tide of juvenile crime and victimization, we must provide an array of resources and a dimension of leadership that will sustain our young people as they attempt to bridge the chasm between childhood and maturity. It must include recreation activities, drug- resistance efforts, and educational opportunities. It must also involve parents, community leaders, schools, church groups and government. In ending, I would also like to say that in addition to the resources we contribute to the effort, their foundations must rest on less tangible grounds. In other words, along with sports equipment, anti-drug films and educational texts, children must have as a basis an understanding of respect, discipline, self- control, concern, compromise, dignity, justice, loyalty, morality, and principle to name but a few of the attributes conducive to a productive community. These characteristics must be instilled on our young people through our own actions and 36 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. resolutions and our determination to pass them on to succeeding generations. For without these pillars, sporting events will be just games, drug-resistance efforts will be just lectures, and educational texts will only be books. I am available and look forward to working with the Members of Council as we continue this effort towards effective after-school programs in our City. Thank you.

Thank you very much to our panel. I believe Councilman Rizzo said he had questions for Commissioner Neal.

Good afternoon to the panel. First of all, could Dr. Fink explain something. Why are we at years old in these 19 statistics? 20

That was a determination by 21 the state to collect common epidemiological 22 information. It's kind of an abnormality but we're doing it because we think it will give us greater information about more kids.

Commissioner Neal, 37 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. you know that the subject of truancy is something that I have had interest in, and you were kind of enough to meet with me. We have a substantial School District police department, and I get calls and comments made regularly that the School District police, the marked units that travel between school to school, they'll pass a location, and there will be at 10 o'clock in the morning, 10:30 in the morning numerous young people that are of school age, and they just travel right on by. Are they empowered, the School District police, to stop and take an action? Because I understand that we have very few truant officers. But what is their role, as best you know it? You're not their commissioner or their supervisor, but are they able to take a police action and take these young people into custody or at least back to their school? COMMISSIONER NEAL: Well, as you said, I certainly have no responsibility for those officers; they're assigned through the school system. However, the School Board does have 38 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. relatively few truants, and the Philadelphia Police Department does very extensively address the issue of truancy on a daily basis. Just to give you some statistics relative to our efforts in truancy, in the first months of this year, we took into custody over 8 16,000 truants here in the City of Philadelphia, 9 taking those individuals back to their respective 10 schools. And we do this on a daily basis. That is, you are also well aware that it's part of a block grant that has been provided to the Philadelphia Police Department, that we assign officers in all of the districts around the City on a daily basis, to address this issue of truancy.

But, Commissioner, I guess what we really need is -- there's no one here representing the School District here today?

Councilman, let me just say that on Tuesday, I believe there will be a hearing on the whole issue of truancy. And so we'd like to -- not that you can't answer that question, but maybe we could just save those questions for that hearing. 39 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

Yeah, now that I'm aware of that.

I think it's scheduled for January the 28th.

My last question is to Commissioner Richmond. What effect, in your professional opinion, has the lack of after-school activities contributed to the problem that we're discussing today? And, again, in your opinion, shouldn't the School District be doing more in the area of after-school activities? COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: I think the effect of not having after-school activities means that we have more youngsters -- I think as covered by Commissioner Neal -- who have nothing to do. And when children of school age, between 10 and 18, have nothing to do, they seem sometimes to put themselves in highly compromised positions. And I think what we have seen both through or Fatality Review and what we're picking up in our Injury Review tells us that these times after school are times that need to be better planned, with more alternatives for children. 40 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. My belief is that it's not just a School District issue. It is the issue of all of us who work within the field of working with children -- whether it be in health, whether it be in human services, whether it be at the School District, whether it be in recreation -- to begin to look at good alternatives for children to have things to do after school that give them support, that give them opportunities to grow and that give them opportunities to have fun. And if we can all do it together -- to say one group or another is responsible primarily for it, I'm not sure this will ever help us solve the problem. I think we're all looking at ways to resolve the problem now and to look at how to provide the kinds of activities for children that we need to. One of the things that I think I heard my colleague, Commissioner DiBerardinis say several years ago was that children can't hold basketballs and weapons at the same time. And I think we need to hear that and figure out how to get the basketball into their hand, as opposed to the weapon. 41 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Fernandez.

That's a very good line. You can't hold a basketball and a weapon at the same time. Great. (Applause.)

Commissioner Richmond and Dr. Fink, thank you for the work done with the Review Team. I know it caught my attention. It must be three years ago when I first saw the data and was astounded, and then the work you've done to think threw what are some of the ways to prevent some of these fatalities. It certainly woke me up to some of these issues. And the fact that you're sticking with it each year, case by case, is a very important service so that we have not only the information, but also the focus of your Committee, how could these deaths have been prevented. And then that also leads to Commissioner Neal. Again, just so the record is straight, the reason we requested the information of 10 to 22 was we wanted to use the same 42 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. categories as the Youth Fatality Review Team. But I think, as you noted, looking at the higher-aged kids, 19, 20, 21, 22, where, in a sense, the failure in the earlier years to have programs and activities and supports that might have prevented kids from getting into violence, that's then the price we pay as they get 16, 17, 18, 19, where we saw in your charts that the amount of violent crime, both experienced and perpetrated, increases. But, I must admit, I was just astounded when I saw the figures that you all came up with. And I would never have dreamed that one third and up to half of the various types of violent crimes, were committed by young people. I really was astounded. I knew we needed to look at prevention, and I knew we needed to take a careful look at youth and how to prevent it, but I had no idea that so many of the violent acts of crimes and vandalism were being committed by young people. And also, again, I was astounded that 36 percent of the homicide victims were people of this age group. So it's both kids who are victims 43 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. and then kids who are getting into trouble and getting into all kinds of vandalism and crime. And you did note -- and, again, I want to underscore that for many of the kids that are arrested, they're arrested -- their first arrest might be between the ages of to 14. And, 8 again, how can we catch those kids at an earlier 9 age, kids at school age, even younger than 10? 10 That's, again, why I think the focus of these hearings are on after-school programs. If we can find a way to have after-school programs for every young person in this City, in every neighborhood, I can't help but think that both the homicide rate and the victimization rate would go down here as it has in Boston, which we'll hear about a little later. (Applause.)

Thank you for that. Can I just add one point? I think identifying the at-risk child has to start very early. And in the first, second and third grade, you begin to see some of the signs that will ultimately lead us in the sixth, seven and eighth grade to recognize a problem kid. 44 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. But you can already see that, and we need greater acuity. It's okay to get the basketball in the hands of the kid instead of the weapon, but a kid won't have the weapon unless he's one of these kids who's at risk, with greater chances of acting out in a negative, destructive way. I think your points are very well taken. I just wanted to add that point about the at-risk child.

Could I just clarify something? You did say in your testimony that 10 to -- there are 10 to youths murdered 15 each month in the City?

That's what I said.

Murdered?

Murdered.

No accidental deaths?

No. There are 10 to 15 murders of children, 0 to 21, in the City of Philadelphia every month.

That is very sobering. 45 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. One last thing I would like to note. I know the Youth Fatality Review Committee's report is not out publicly yet, but we did get permission to use this one chart, which may be either Dr. Fink or Commissioner Richmond. If you could see it from there, we'd like to note figure number 8 regarding time of day. 9

I think Dr. Fox is coming up 10 in testimony later and is going to use that along 11 with one of his own charts. I think that would be 12 a better time.

Good, okay, great. COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: The report, actually, is being reviewed now and should be released within the next week or so.

I have a few questions for Commissioner Richmond and Commissioner Neal. Commissioner Richmond, I sponsored the bill for the Health Department to have the weapons-related injuries reported. What kind of cooperation have you received from the hospitals? From the doctors? I should I saw. 46 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: This is a hot one. With your help, we did pass the ordinance, and we've been working on a form to be filled out in the emergency rooms by doctors in the hospitals. We are collecting data, and some of those forms are being filled out. Unfortunately, the compliance with that has not been extremely good. Some of that has been due to the complexity of the form, and we're now working with a variety of doctors and the hospitals around in simplifying the form and making it more doctor-friendly. We hope to complete that. We've been working with -- we met, oh, at least within the last month with representatives from the Delaware Valley Hospital Council, members of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and with a couple of emergency room doctors to look at the form, to try to make it as friendly as possible for docs in an emergency-room environment, which is busy and hectic, to make sure we get the data and don't block their time up unnecessarily. We now have another draft of that form, 47 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. which we hope to introduce to them probably the first of the year and to begin to do it city-wide. There has been discussion as to whether we should do it just for children, whether we should pilot it in only certain places. And I think at this point in time, we're seriously looking at when we begin it, we begin it so that we can get as much information as we can. Some of what we have learned -- just to tell you again why it's so important -- is that we are beginning, in reviewing the fatality statistics, to see that many of the youngsters who are victims of violence have also been victims of injuries shortly before their death. And "shortly" in this case means within the year. So if we can begin to look at which children are at risk for injuries through weapons, we can also begin to get a better feel of which children and youth are most at risk for death through violence.

So we get all of that information and we have some idea that a child who may be injured has a higher chance of being killed later on? 48 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: Right.

What do we do with it? COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: Well, I think this is why we are beginning to do all of these other activities along with it, as we analyze this data, to know where to intervene. One of those has been that many of the children who have witnessed violence have also been victims of the injury but not the death. So if we can within hours get that child into a 13 treatment environment and supported, then perhaps 14 we can intervene so that the child doesn't die six 15 months later. 16 So what we're beginning to look at is 17 what is our best mode of intervention that we have 18 learned from other places in the country. This 19 particular one, Rapid Response Team, comes out of 20 Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. But 21 look at other interventions that have been used to 22 begin to stop that child from continuing on the 23 path. 24 I think sometimes when we say children are witnesses to violence, it is often more than 49 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. witnessing. A child may have been injured, just not killed.

Some time ago, I think we had hearings about children, and I can't remember -- recall right now the circumstances, but here we're talking about the individual child. What are we doing to address the family? Because it is a family issue. COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: Yes. (Applause.)

You just can't take the child out and isolate the child, because there's something going on back at home. And, as Dr. Fink says, you know, we have children that at an early age, we can see a problem. What can we do? An after-school program is but one way to provide something for young people who will take advantage of that program 'cause there are many children out here who know that the programs exist -- it could be next door -- and won't take advantage of that. We can get the ball into the hand but the ball is not as seductive as a gun. So I want to talk about what's 50 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. happening with our support and help families.

Well, part of what we need to do is increase the amount of parenting education, particularly for teenage mothers, and help them to be kinder, gentler people with their children. We need to reduce the amount of violence against children in the home, which is then translated into violence in the street from the children five to ten years later. Also, to go back to your question to Commissioner Richmond, if we know that 10 or 20 injuries have taken place in the neighborhood prior to the first murder in that neighborhood, police action, community action can take place not only to prevent murder but to quell the problems. We don't know those things now, and that's why the action you've taken on risk, weapon-related injury surveillance, is so critical to us. COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: I also just want to comment on the fact -- to reinforce that children cannot be treated or provided support in isolation. If it's not done with the family, it's 51 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. probably not going to be as effective as if it does involve family. So anytime there's a child involved in treatment, it not only has to be done with family concept, it really has to be done with family involvement. And it's not just the parents; it has to be done with other siblings and other related members that are living in that household or close to that household. I think as we begun to try to figure out how the Health Department supports this between our Drug and Alcohol Office, between all the activities currently going on in behavioral health and maternal and child health, that all of these folks need to pull together to give support to that family and to integrate our services so that we're treating whole people and not parts of people. And I think we're moving in that direction. And this information will help, so we're working very hard to get the surveillance instrument more institutionalized than it is right now.

I have a question 52 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. for Commissioner Neal. On pages 3 and 4, you give data on the involvement of juveniles in nearly 50 percent of the reported crimes in the City. It would be beneficial if you could share with us, if you know, how many of those juveniles were involved that were accompanied by someone over 18. COMMISSIONER NEAL: Now, I don't have the data in terms of breaking that out to find out if, in fact, they are arrested with someone else and how old that individual is. However, I could have our unit make a computer run to see if, in fact, we could garner that, if you would like.

It could be helpful. We don't want to place an undue burden on you, but I think it would be helpful to you and also helpful to the Health Department to have that information. COMMISSIONER NEAL: Okay.

You discussed the PAL programs that are operating in the various parts of the City. Are they adequately staffed? COMMISSIONER NEAL: Yes, the PAL programs are adequately staffed. We have 53 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. approximately 30 officers that are assigned to our PAL programs. As was stated here, we have PAL 4 centers, and we reach about 24,000 young people. 5 We are currently in the process of looking to 6 establish additional PAL centers around the city. 7 We have very recently met with the 8 Salvation Army because we realize that the 9 Salvation Army has a number of facilities. We 10 have visited their facilities, and they're in 11 excellent shape, many of which are in some 12 neighborhoods which we feel it would be 13 advantageous to implement new PAL centers. 14 Once we're able to reach some 15 agreement, which we hope will be forthcoming, we 16 anticipate that there will be additional PAL 17 centers being implemented around the City. 18 One of the things that we find in many 19 cases, which clearly demonstrates to us, obviously 20 we have picked a community that there is an 21 obvious need. We opened a PAL center at 17th and 22 Brown over a year ago. And within a month, we had 23 enrolled over 500 young people, which clearly demonstrated that there was an obvious need in that community. 54 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. The same thing is West Oak Lane. When we opened that center, within a month's period of time, we had enrolled several hundred young people into the center. One of the things that PAL is, it's not just about sports, but it is about academics, it is about being a good citizen. Last year, through our PAL program, we gave away over 200 scholarships to young people here in the City.

Thank you very much. Commissioner Richmond, I have one more question. When you talk about the number of deaths that you have recorded, how many of them were drug-related? Maybe you or the Commissioner could give us that information. COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: I don't have that. I will try to get it for you, but I don't have it in front of me.

But do you record that in your information? COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: Yes.

Okay. It would be helpful to know. 55 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. COMMISSIONER RICHMOND: I just don't have the full report.

Okay. That will be helpful to know.

Will that be in the report that comes out next week? I think it does.

Thank you. Are there any questions from any other Members of Council for this panel? (No questions.)

There being no 14 further questions, we thank you so much for your time and your information. Thank you. (Applause.)

The next panel we have, this panel will discuss the cost of juvenile crime. Andrew Wigglesworth, Delaware Valley Health Care Council. And Theresa Kelly, National Crime Prevention Association. (Mr. Wigglesworth comes forward.)

Hi, Mr. Wigglesworth. How are you?

How are you? 56 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

I don't think Ms. Kelly is available this afternoon, so would you like to proceed with your testimony?

Absolutely. Members of the Council, my name is Andrew Wigglesworth. I'm President of the Delaware Valley Health Care Council. The Health Care Council represents 150 different hospitals, health systems, and other provider organizations in Southeastern Pennsylvania. And I'm pleased to have the opportunity to share with you some of the data that will take a slightly different look at some of the data of the first panel presented to you, but I think it paints a fairly consistent picture with some of the data they have presented. And I would like to say at the outset that, like the members of the City Council, area health care providers are very concerned about the impact of violence on our children as well as our community as a whole, and we want to commend Council for its initiative in conducting these hearings on programming, particularly after-school activities for young people which aim to reduce 57 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. youth violence. Additionally, we are pleased that the Council has considered the cost to the City's health care system of the acts of youth violence. Our health care organizations are facing pressures brought about by a whole array of forces, including the increase in managed care, reductions in payments from various government programs, as well as increases in the number of uninsured citizens in this region and in this City. And just to underscore that point, uncompensated care in the Delaware Valley last year was more than $300 million. The increase in the City of Philadelphia grew by percent last 16 year, the increase in uncompensated care rendered 17 to uninsured individuals. As juvenile crime strikes a disproportionate number of disadvantaged youths, the health care resources needed to serve emergency care resulting from violence obviously has an impact on this overall financial mix and the ability to continue to provide services to the whole community. In terms of the data that I want to 58 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. provide to you, what I'm going to present to you is data on inpatient admissions resulting from youth violence. These data are collected every time someone is admitted to the hospital. They are also reported to a state agency, the Health Care Cost Containment Council. What I'm not going to include is the specific data as it relates to as many as 15,000 emergency room visits where the individual is basically treated and released. We will be providing -- be in a better position to provide that kind of data as we continue to work on the weapons-related injury surveillance system, which I think Commissioner Richmond aptly described that we are working hard to try to make that system a reality. There are a variety of logistical issues that we've working very hard with the Department to sort out and to make the program succeed in order to get additional information to you all. I also would, just as a footnote, like to say that the data I'm going to present is data directly related to violent acts or acts that are 59 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. basically self-inflicted. Accidental injuries are also a very significant source of problems; and many, in fact, are preventable in and of themselves through the kinds of some of the programs that you're talking about. But we're focused specifically on acts of violence. The summary of the findings in 1995, which is the most recent year, shows that there were 881 young Philadelphians that were hospitalized for injuries related from acts of violence. Of these injuries resulting in hospitalization, two out of three were inflicted by others, and just less than one third were self- inflicted. But additionally, an overwhelming number of these hospitalizations, 85 percent, were admitted directly through the emergency room or from the emergency room. 8 million or an average charge per case of about $18,000. And what I would like to do now is to describe some specific charts. These are included in your packets.

And it looks like this material 60 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. will also be put on the screen back there that's placed in a way that will be difficult for you to see it, but they are in your packet. The first chart basically describes hospitalizations for injuries of Philadelphians less than years of age by cost. And you'll 8 note for injuries inflicted by others, those 9 resulting from gunshot wounds and explosives far 10 and away lead the other groupings of violent acts, 11 and they represent about 268 cases. 12 And, again, these charts are in your 13 packet. It's difficult to see that. But you can 14 see the whole range of different kinds of acts of 15 violence that data is collected for. 16 Chart 2 provides an average -- the 17 average charge for hospitalizations. And, again, 18 in terms of those, there is one aberrant category, 19 which is strangulations, which are the highest bar 20 on that chart, but it represented two cases. So that there again, by far and away, gunshot injuries are by far and away the most expensive, representing an average charge per case of about $34,000. Bottom-line hospitalization charges in 61 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. 1 million. In terms of the next chart, which is again Chart 3, which goes through hospitalization by age, I think this confirms on some data that you were seeing earlier. 8 years. And you'll see that it grows rather traumatically. It goes up the bar, and the end there is age 19. We can provide the additional data to go up to age 22, and we'll submit it for the record so that you'll have that as well, to be consistent with some of the other data. m. But because this data shows the time of admission, the assumption is that the actual injury occurred perhaps as many as three hours before that, one to three hours, and that would 62 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. involve, obviously, the response of ambulances stabilization in the emergency room, and then admission. But it does -- it does tend to support the information that was previously provided in terms of the importance answer of after-school activities for young people. And, again, by hour, you can see where it's occurring. The next chart basically shows the frequency of hospitalization by area of the City. And this chart basically shows, again by zip code, where most of the hospitalizations occurred and where the acts of violence occurred. And, not surprisingly, there are some zip codes in North Philadelphia as well as in West Philadelphia where there is the highest incidents of youth violence that has resulted in a hospitalization.

But that's by the residents -- where the person comes from, not hospital.

Yes, by the residence of the individual. The last chart gets to the point that 63 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. you just raised, Councilwoman Fernandez, and that's in terms of the hospitalizations, where they fell in terms of the institutions. And Temple University -- many of these institutions are the designated trauma centers. They're also in terms of the top institutions in terms of treating these kinds of injuries obviously are also in those areas of the City or approximate to those areas of the City where most of the acts are occurring. But while I say that, this is still very much, as the previous chart showed, a city-wide problem that needs a city-wide response. Now, these costs are just the hospitalization costs, and I would suggest to you that the costs are just, in fact, you know, the tip of the iceberg. 8 million does not include the cost associated with as many as 15,000 emergency room visits, where the individual's injury was not sufficient to warrant hospitalization, but they were treated and released. 8 million even touch upon the behavioral health 64 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. services that often follow an act of violence, that are needed by youth. It does not also reflect the physical health care needs that follow the hospitalization. Oftentimes, there are extensive rehabilitation services that are needed too. In fact, if you went to Magee or any one of the rehabilitation facilities, you would find that there is a tremendous instance of people that have been paralyzed by gunshot wounds. And those long-term costs are not reflected in this as well. And it also doesn't reflect the overall utilization of health care services in terms of -- as an example, the additional costs associated with someone who has suffered from rape. The statistics and research show that the utilization of health care services is 18 percent more than comparable young women in the year following that assault, and 56 percent more in the second year following that assault. So, as I said, the costs associated with this to the health care delivery system, the state government in terms of Medicaid, to the City government, to hospitals in terms of uncompensated 65 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. care, is enormous. In closing, I would like to touch on the fact that hospitals also are trying to do their share to try to help address the problems. The hospitals throughout Philadelphia and throughout Delaware Valley sponsor mentor programs and school to work programs, and other opportunities for young people to be involved in their community and learn useful skill. As I said, we are working closely with the Department as it relates to the weapons-related injury surveillance system. And, additionally, hospitals also provide space, activity space for community groups to sponsor activities. I think there are two examples of the types of programs, and there's a listing in this packet of many of the examples of hospitals. For example, Children's Seashore House runs the Rescue and Prevention for Children at Risk Program. This University City-based provider program is aimed at those children at risk, with chronic conduct problems and academic failure. The primary services include community- 66 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. assisted reading rescue programs for poor readers, playground survival training to prevent peer aggression and victimization, classroom survival to help teachers manage behavioral problems, and a variety of other services. And currently, this program is active with the Bartram School and University City public school clusters in Philadelphia. Another provider-sponsored program is the Einstein Better Start Initiative, which currently conducts ongoing violence prevention programs for approximately 200 fourth-graders at the Birney Elementary School. It sponsors six classes weekly.

Better Start addresses stereotypes, conflict resolution, inappropriate and appropriate behavior, problem-solving, and cooperative learning. As I said, attached to my testimony are examples of other institutional efforts by hospitals to again fill the need for help in trying to combat this very serious problem impacting on our City. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. And I again want to commend Council for 67 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. holding this hearing.

Thank you. Does any members of the Committee have any questions?

I just have one.

Councilwoman Fernandez.

Mr. Wigglesworth, I just want to thank you very much for taking all the time to compile this data. Again, when we initially asked the question, What do you do it's costing us to have so many youth injured and killed? when we asked for the information from you, if you had asked me to make a wild guess, I might have said maybe a million or two million dollars. So the thought that it's $15 million a year just again for this initial hospitalization. And, as you noted, I think if some of the young men particularly I've seen at Magee who are there years sometimes, and plus their whole life is damaged. So, again, I think we need to continue to think together as to how could we start to prevent and reduce some of this violence? Not 68 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. only, you know, to save money, but also to really save this havoc and injury of all types to our young people. Again, I was sitting here thinking 6 million a year for just these initial hospital 7 costs. What if there was a way to get, you know, 8 5 million, 7 million diverted to effective 9 prevention programs. It could really make a 10 difference. 11 So I hope the health industry and the 12 City could continue to be in conversation to find 13 a way to save for all of us. 14

Absolutely. It's 15 something that we are committed to working with the City to do. And, as I said, 15.8 million is really just the emergency room visits, 15,000 visits to an emergency room where an individual may be treated and released. That would be another several million dollars added on top of that. So this is a very costly problem. Unfortunately, you know, in terms of resources, just to underscore your point, we can't divert the resources that are going to take care 69 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. of these individuals before we can develop the prevention to prevent them from utilizing those services. So, unfortunately, it's almost like a period where you have to have a little bit of double funding, if you will.

Right.

Until you can withdraw the resources from the treatment side. So it's a very serious problem that we all must continue to work on. And developing after-school programs is a priority for hospitals and the health systems in this area.

Right. And maybe the people here involved with after-school programs who want to expand them, whether it's the Rec. Department or United Way or various private groups, maybe we need to redouble our efforts to talk to some of the HMO's. Again, they are ultimately paying some of the costs, along with the hospitals who are having to eat it.

I think the HMOs and I think it may be an avenue because a large proportion of these costs are also borne by Medicaid,, not only the HMOs but to the state in 70 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. general in terms of Medicaid-related expenditures and trying to work to develop a rationale for funding primary prevention programs for this would also be an opportunity that we would want to look at.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Wigglesworth.

Thank you.

Next, we're going to call on Superintendent Hornbeck because he has to leave at 3. (Superintendent Hornbeck comes forward.)

State your name, please. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: My name is David W. Hornbeck. I'm the Superintendent of Schools for the District of Philadelphia.

Thank you. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Let me say by way of a comment. First I introduce to you Naomi Gubernick, the Director in the Family Resource Network in our office. And if you should have some additional questions beyond the time I have 71 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. -- I've got 35 teachers waiting for me up at a school -- Miss Gubernick will bible to help. Secondly, my apologies both to you, Councilwoman Miller and to Councilwoman Tasco, for noting upon my arrival here your cosponsorship of this resolution, and this testimony is addressed only to Councilwoman Fernandez in the first instance.

That will be 11 latches. 12 SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Let me say, first of all, that all of us really do appreciate your raising the issue of the availability of programs to engage our students when the school day is over to the kind of public level that these hearings do. You've correctly recognized in the resolution the broad range of evidence here in Philadelphia and across the nation consistent with the findings that you've identified. After-school care is critical to families where the caretakers are employed outside the home. In addition to providing basic safety and security for the children, after-school care, through the lens of the school, provides a 72 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. structured but not a restrictive environment for students to learn to appreciate themselves and their peers. In fact, recent census data says that there are about 162,000 youngsters between the ages of 6 and 12 years old in Philadelphia, and almost 40 percent, or 64,000, are in need of quality after-school care. Some of the figures you've already had in front of you tell you that at least half of violent juvenile crime occurs between 2 and 8. And up to 71 percent of our families are working or working or in training while there are only after-school opportunities for percent of those 16 youngsters 6 to 12 to, which I referred a moment 17 ago, . 18 The more time we spend with students in 19 extended-day programs, frankly the more 20 opportunities we have to work with them to improve their academic and social skill development. And there's a lot of research across the nation that shows a direct link between that after-school support and their success in school. And, of course, then there's a lot of research that 73 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. underlines the connection between success in school and kids staying out of trouble, both in a disruptive sense in school on the one hand and in the broader community. From the beginning, if one were to read again the children achieving action designed from 3-1/2 years ago components 6 out of the 10, we have recognized the need of the School District to explore and deliver new ways in which to work with partners in the community to meet the needs of students in and out of the classroom and to provide our young people with adequately supervised and stimulating places where they can learn, grow and be safe after school. I am pleased to inform you that we have recently fulfilled an important component of children achieving related to this set of issues. And as of about a month ago, I guess, we now have is a family resource network coordinator in each of the clusters. 22 These staff members identify programming gaps for our youngsters and work collaboratively with schools and parents and community partners to begin new program 74 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. initiatives across the City such as -- and importantly -- after-school care. There are a lot of ways, even within our limited resources, that we've had some success on this front. More than half of our 259 schools have chosen to apply portions of their extracurricular funds to underwrite the operation of after-school clubs and activities such as tutorial sessions and art classes and athletic activities. There are at least 117 of our schools partnered with the City's Department of Recreation to open our buildings for athletic and recreational activities run by the Recreation Department in this partnership. In fact, I just asked Commissioner DiBerardinis if 117 sounded about right, and he said, in fact, that he thought it was about or more that. Schools in the South Philadelphia Cluster have linked with United Communities of Southeast Philadelphia to establish after-school for students and their families from the Key, Southwark and Vare Elementary Schools. And this program is housed or 75 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

administered from Bok, one of our vocational schools, which transforms itself into an exciting community learning center after-school hours. In the Germantown Cluster, the Houston School has partnered with the YMCA to offer after-school services. The Urban League of Philadelphia is joining with the Strawberry Mansion Cluster to establish after-school homework clubs for students. The CHAIN Cluster has a partnership with Federation Day Care Centers to serve children from the Greenberg School. And another program that has played a growing and important role is that of the National School and Community Corps. I know you're scheduled to hear from it. I think I saw a moment ago -- yes -- the program's national director, Marty Friedman, so I'm not going to go into detail here except to say that the Corps now has its staff in 65 schools across the District, working with students and parents in the after-school hours. I should emphasize that these programs 76 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. are not meant simply to provide a baby-sitting service or homework help. They're aimed also at: Reducing the number of latch key children, creating safe environments, creating enrichment activities of a variety of kinds, providing opportunities for community service, life skills training, and positive social activities, and reducing idle time that too often leads to crime. While I am gratified that these partnerships exist, we can't lose sight of the fact that 4 out of every 5 children between the ages of 6 and 12, 80 percent, are far too often uninvolved, unsupervised and at risk daily because of the absence of an after-school secure environment. Because we are keenly aware of the need, the School District's newest initiative to provide after-school programs involves a partnership between the School District's Family Resource Network, and one of the preeminent institutions of the City focussed on after-school care, the Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth. 77 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. The goal of this partnership is to create 40 new or expanded after-school programs serving elementary and middle-school school children. At this point, we are identifying schools that will partner with parents, churches and synagogues and community groups to provide these. They will programs run from 2:45 to 5:45 in the afternoon, Monday through Friday. And, in all cases, parents and the community will be involved in the process of designing the program activities that will best serve their children. ), whom I also think I saw in the audience. But the School District will provide about $5,000 in start-up funds for each of the 40 programs which, will be located in our elementary schools or in a nearby community site. PCCY will provide training workshops, technical assistance and support to ensure the quality of the programs. PCCY also will recruit volunteers, provide orientation for them and involve parents. PCCY will also help us identify sources of 78 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. long-term funding for the programs. As our goal in the School District, as stated originally in February 1995, is to have the physicals open until at lease o'clock, all 259 6 of them. To all the Council, as you and your colleagues know, the School District is struggling with a funding crisis of unprecedented proportion. Our continuing efforts to address the after-school needs of our students comes at the same time that we face -- absent a change in the way in which Harrisburg treats Philadelphia's children -- a $150 million shortfall just to move our current instructional program into the 1998-99 school year. For the sake of our children, our goal must be not only to close our existing funding gap, but to identify the resources with which to expand the after-school efforts I have described; to extend them into Saturdays, and into the summer months; and to expand them to serve our middle-school and high school students.

We look forward to working with Council, the Mayor, and the citizens of 79 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Philadelphia to provide the support during school and after school that is necessary to the success of all our children. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Mr. Hornbeck. Does any Member of the Committee have any questions for Mr. Hornbeck? (No questions.)

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. SUPERINTENDENT HORNBECK: Thank you all very much.

We will now have our third panel, National Research on the Benefits of After-School Programming, Kinney Zalesne and Dr. James Alan Fox. (Panel comes forward.)

Please state your name and any other identifying information.

Good afternoon, Madam Chairwoman and Members of the Council. My name is Kinney Zalesne. I'm an Assistant to the Attorney General in the United States Department of 80 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Justice. My responsibilities include juvenile justice issue, and, in particular, the proposed federal juvenile justice legislation. It is a particular pleasure for me to be here today not only representing Attorney General Reno but also because, for me, Philadelphia is home. I grew up in the suburbs and after law school, came back here to clerk in the Federal District Court and served as an Assistant D.A. under Lynne Abraham for several years before moving to Washington. So it's a pleasure to be here in my official capacity, and I look forward to assisting the City in any way that I can.

Thank you for coming.

I thought I would mention basically two things: first, the Attorney General's and the Administration's commitment to after-school programs generally; and I will also mention some available federal resources for after-school programs. After-school programs have become the cornerstone of the Clinton Administration's 81 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. juvenile crime prevention agenda. In this year's budget process, the Administration requested $63 million for a program -- solely for after-school programs in addition to $75 million for the At-Risk Children's Initiative, which is a general delinquency prevention program, that would fund after-school programs among other juvenile crime reduction of the efforts. Protecting children from harm and from the influences that lead them down the road to delinquency and other destructive behavior is perhaps the longest-standing passion of Attorney General Reno's entire career. The reason the Attorney General and President are focussing on after-school programs as one of the best means of delinquency reduction is that research proves that after-school programs work. As you have heard this afternoon, and as Jamie Fox will elaborate, juvenile crime peaks in the hours that kids get out of school. And although I don't think there are any studies on this, I suspect that victimization of juveniles peaks also in those same after-school hours. 82 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Freed from school and unsupervised at least until dinner, young people get into trouble, too often hurting, themselves. Each other and their communities. Offering children something productive and challenging to do in those hours can make a big difference. In a study of a 32-month after-school recreation program in a Canadian housing project, juvenile arrests declined by 75 percent among kids who were offered constructive. Creative activities in their free time. By contrast, in a control group where kids had only minimal recreational services, the juvenile arrest rate increased by 67 percent. And quite apart even from these arrest rates, we can't overestimate the value of the emotional and intellectual growth that goes on for children when they're stimulated instead of left to the street corners and the influences of their peers. The after-school hours can be much better used for homework assistance, supervised games and sports, mentoring programs, drug- and violence-prevention education, preparation for college prep courses, as well as chorus, band, the 83 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. arts, technology education programs, and a whole host of other activities that give kids something to say yes to. It's a small investment in the lives of young people that costs far less than the alternative -- delinquency, vandalism, violence, and the destruction of families and neighborhoods. Unfortunately, as of the 1993-'94 school year, only 30 percent of public elementary schools in this country had any kind of before- or after-school program, and only 10 percent of students participated. Even those numbers include supervised care more like baby-sitting for the youngest students. So among 7th and 8th graders, fewer than one percent were enrolled in after-school programs. These empty hours too often spell wasted time, wasted time, wasted talent, wasted opportunities. I want to mention some federal resources that are available to Philadelphia for funding after-school programs. I mentioned before that the President requested $63 million for an after-school program. In this last round, Congress 84 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. " The program description says it will be grants to rural and inner-city public schools, or a consortia of such schools, that enable them to plan, implement or expand projects that benefit the educational, health, social services, cultural and recreation needs of the community.

So this is pretty broad-based, and I would urge you to apply for these funds from the Department of Education, to build upon the kind of after-school programs that Superintendent Hornbeck just described. In my testimony, I put the contact names and phone numbers of the people at the Department of Education to make it as easy as possible for you, and they are expecting applications. The applications will be available next week, December 16th, and their due date is March 9th of 1998. So that new federal money is available just for this purpose. In addition, through the Department of Justice, through our Office of Juvenile Justice 85 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. and Delinquency Prevention, there are the existing funds that I know Philadelphia now receives. 5 million this year. And the Title V program, which is all delinquency prevention, is at million, and 7 there's 10 million in state challenge grants. 8 All of these monies are funds that 9 Philadelphia already receives and all can be used 10 for after-school programs. So I would urge you to 11 work with the State Juvenile Justice Specialist to 12 make sure Philadelphia's getting maximal funds and 13 is using them for effective after-school program. 14 I would like to close simply by noting 15 what new federal money is not available for 16 after-school programs, to give you a sense of the 17 debate going on in Congress and that will heat up 18 as the juvenile justice legislation come to the 19 Senate Floor in 1998. 20 In the appropriations bills just passed, Congress created a new $250 million Juvenile Accountability Block Grant for states and communities. This is a substantial amount of new money that you will want to obtain for prosecutors, juvenile courts, graduated sanctions, 86 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. juvenile recordkeeping, and juvenile detention facilities. But, significantly, not one penny of this new juvenile -- not one penny of this new money dedicated to juvenile delinquency can be spent on delinquency prevention, including after-school programs. So even if you decided that your most significant investment in the safety of this City was programs to keep at-risk children out of trouble, you couldn't spend any of that new money on that purpose; you can only use it to deal with those children who are already in the juvenile justice system.

Which bill was that?

Well, it was based on a bill that came out of the House of Representatives, sponsored by Congressman Bill 21 McCullum from Florida. He dealt only with the crime side, the accountability side of juvenile justice. A different committee dealt with the prevention side. But in the end, when they got to appropriations, only the accountability side was 87 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. funded, not the prevention side. So that's a big issue that will continue to be fought in Congress as they take up the reauthorization of the juvenile justice bill, not the just the appropriations side, but the authorization side. And it is a very important commitment on the part of the Attorney General to be sure that there is not only permitted prevention money in the new juvenile justice bill, but guaranteed prevention money. That should be one of the big fights surrounding the juvenile justice legislation in the spring. And I wanted to let you know where the Attorney General stands on that issue and where President Clinton stands on that issue. And to the extent that you all participate in or seek to influence that debate, you should know that permitted and then guaranteed prevention funding is one of the critical things that we will be fighting for. That concludes my prepared presentation happy. I'm to answer any questions that the Council may have. 88 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

Thank you. We'll wait for questions until after.

Sure.

Good afternoon. My name is James Allen Fox. I am Dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston, and I am very pleased to be here, where I went to school, down the street at the University of Pennsylvania for many of my years. And I'm just going to talk to you for a few minutes. You have my prepared written testimony. I understand you also have a report that I released with a colleague about after-school programs. C. So I just thought I'd talk to you about some of the key points. Now, you were undoubtedly shocked by some of the statistics you heard from the first panel about the prevalence and extent of youth crime in the City of Philadelphia. You should be shocked but not surprised. In fact, the situation in Philadelphia is not unlike the situation that 89 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. we've been seeing in many cities across the country. I've spent a good deal of the last few years tracking patterns and trends in youth crime and findings, for example, showing that the rate of killing at the hands of teenagers, 14- to 17- year-old's has increased 102 percent since 1985. It's more than doubled even while the rate of killing at the hands of adults has been going down, we've seen a precipitous rise among our kids. I heard some of the statistics on guns. Nationally, the rate of killings at the hands of teenagers with guns has tripled while the number of kids who kill with all other weapons combined -- knives, clubs -- has remained virtually constant. The entire growth in teen homicide has been with a gun. Clearly, when you put a gun in the hands of an impulsive, anxious individual, you have a very dangerous situation. But perhaps the statistic that's received most of the attention, as I've testified in Congress many times in the past year, worked with the Attorney General's Office, worked with 90 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. members of the White House, and testified in situations like this across the country, the statistics that receive most of the attention is about the after-school hours. It's no surprise to many people that youth crime rates are rising, but people are alarmed when they see that it's not after midnight. In fact, the prime time for juvenile crime is in the after-school hours. You see in the overhead projection there and you have copies. These are the most recent statistics available from nine states of the time of day of youth violence. m. -- not after midnight, when many communities think they need curfew laws to deal with youth crime problems. After midnight, most kids are asleep; the good, the bad and the tired. It's really in the after-school hours when they're unsupervised, when they're bored and idle, when they have too much free time to kill, maybe even literally. You can also see in the chart there that the peak is really from about o'clock to 91 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. o'clock, when kids suddenly get out of school. They've been pent up in a classroom for many hours, and you can see the impact on their lives as they emerge into the school yards and into the neighborhoods, looking for some trouble. And the problem is, as has been said before, that they are indeed unsupervised in the after-school hours. Let me go to the Philadelphia data for a moment that was referred to earlier. These are data on homicides. m. A little over a quarter of youth homicides occur then. Actually, that kind of understates the problem. Because in the far right, you see that about 18 percent of the incidents, we don't have data on when they occur; it's unknown. If you remove the unknown cases -- 'cause they can occur anytime -- and recalculate the statistics, you'll find that about a third of the homicides occur in the short after-school time period, after the school bell rings and before the parents get home 92 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. to begin supervising.

And, in fact, this even understates it even more, the fact that these data include weekends, they include the summertime. And if you just look at the school days, you'll find that almost half of even the homicides during the school days occur in the after-school hour window. And I should also add before going on that many other problems, besides violence, peak in the after-school hours. Teenage drug use, teenage alcohol use also occur in the after-school hours when they're bored and idle. Also, teenage pregnancy, according to some Planned Parenthood data, the prime time for teenage pregnancy is also in the after-school hours. There's no need to use the back seat of the Chevy anymore like in the 50s because the houses are empty in the after-school hours, and that's where the kids go. And when the cat's away, you know what the mice do. So I think there's a lot that we need to do in terms of the after-school hours. One other idea also is to perhaps look at shifting the school day. High-schoolers get 93 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. out at 2, 2:15, o'clock. Perhaps if we shifted 3 the school day and started later and ended later. I don't think we'd have a problem with preschool crime. I don't see teenagers roaming the streets at in the morning, looking for no good. 7 Or if we just extended the day. Now, I 8 know there are additional costs with extending the 9 day, but when you understand that the 2-to-3 time period is indeed the peak, and the longer we can delay the departure from school, we can significantly reduce the problem. Now, many people, when I talk about these issues of after-school crime and having to implement after-school programs, many people I encounter, Well, it's really the parents' job to deal with after-school activity. You know, all the parents have to do is take a greater role in the upbringing of their kids. They have to be less selfish perhaps like in the good old days when parents were at home, monitoring their kids and watching their behavior. Well, that would be great. But the fact is that this is a different era. Right now 57 percent of children in this country do not have 94 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. full-time parental supervision in their lives, 57 percent. That means that they either live with a single working parent who works full-time or are in a dual-career household where both parents work full-time; not part-time for one parent, but full-time for both. Now, I know many of you are thinking that many kids, they don't need their mom and dad to be home after school to give them milk and cookies when they get off the school bus. You know, a lot of teenagers are quite able to take care of themselves. But if you look at kids under the age 6, 49 percent of kids under the age of 6 do not have a parent at home full-time. Now, I don't want to blame parents here. There's been far too much parental finger-pointing, blaming parents, holding them responsible, even passing these parental responsibility laws, which make very little sense. What we need to do is to assist parents, not assail them. )

Most parents are well-meaning 95 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. and would like to have a greater role in the upbringing of their kids if only they could. Most parents are working by necessity, others by choice. But, indeed, who can blame them? I think we need to help out as opposed to just pointing fingers. For example, one of the issues that we've been dealing with recently in this country is how to protect our kids from harm from such things as violent television, violent music and videos, or even sex on the Internet. These problems -- the problems -- it's not so much, What is it that our kids are watching? It's, Who is watching our kids? And, unfortunately, sometimes it's no one. And I think that's when we really all have to be involved; not just parents, but schools and every member of the community. Now, earlier, Ms. Zalesne had talked about some of the legislation going through Congress right now. And it is unfortunate that we seem to have an imbalance between prevention and punishment. There seems to be so much focus on the three R's. And I don't mean reading, writing 96 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. and arithmetic; I mean the three R's of the '90s, which is retribution, revenge and retaliation. We need much more attention to prevention, and I'm glad to hear some of the comments I heard earlier about basketball; for example, that it's difficult to hold a gun and a basketball. I might change that to say that it's better to shoot a basketball than a gun. And, indeed, it's sad when you think about the fact that in this country we'd rather tell kids "no" than "yes." We'd rather tell them what they can't do than what they can do. We embrace midnight curfews but we reject and ridicule midnight basketball as if it's a joke. And, in fact, most midnight basketball programs that were discussed, the ill-fated midnight basketball programs, most of them weren't even at midnight, and most of them weren't even basketball. They involved a whole wide variety of activities for kids after school, in the summer, like the good old days. And, indeed, kids used to be involved more in after-school activities. We used to have not just recreation, not just basketball; but also drama and music. It used to 97 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. be "violins" as opposed to "violence" in the after-school hours. Unfortunately, we seem in this country to have a Value Jet approach to childhood in public education, sort of a no-frills. We've closed down everything, our ball fields, our swimming pools, we've closed down childhood. And I think now we're seeing the effect of it. Now, it might seem odd for some of you to have me here talking about crime and after-school crime when we hear all this wonderful news about crime dropping in this country. In my city of Boston, we haven't had a single youth killed by gunfire two and a half years. (Applause.)

Things are getting better, but I don't want to -- I don't want to suggest that we should have rose-colored glasses. The rate of crime among teenagers in this country has dropped 10 percent since 1994, but that's only because 1994 was so bad. It's still 50 percent higher now than it was in 1980. So we're moving in the right direction, but we have a long way to go before we can start claiming 98 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. victory over violence. And I think the time is right now to deal with these issues. Because if you look into the future, the number of kids in our country, the number of teenagers in our country, will grow, will grow by about 2 percent more teenagers every year for the next 10, 15 years. These are the baby-boomerang generation, these are the offspring of baby boomers who will be growing up in the teenage years in the years ahead. We'll still have about percent more 13 teenagers by the year 2005 than we have now. And, 14 in fact, the growth in the teen population will be 15 even more pronounced among blacks and Latinos, among kids who are at risk. So unless we start investing in kids now and investing in after-school programs now, we will have a much greater problem in the years ahead. It may get so bad in the years ahead that we'll look back at the 1990s and say, Boy, those were the good old days. Let me close by quoting from literature. I know it's supposed to make you look particularly intelligent if you quote from 99 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. literature. (Laughter.)

I'm going to quote from Batman I. It's as high intellectually as I get. In Batman I, if you remember the character of the Joker played by Jack Nicholson and he kept saying, "Think about the future" was the line he kept saying over and over again. And I hope that we all here think about the future because if don't think about the future and start building for that future now with the kind of prevention programs that we talked about today, then the joke will be on all of us. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you, Mr. Fox. Does any member of the Committee have questions or comments?

I just have one. Mr. Fox, you made powerful points. I'm sure the press loves one sound bite after another.

Some sound bites are whole meals. 100 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. (Laughter.)

One after another. You mentioned Boston, and I know that's attracted the attention of a lot of us. And I know Boston is only one third the size of Philadelphia. But, again, could you tell us what you think accounts for the good news and the basically astounding fact that there's been, you say, two and a half years with no homicides by gun.

Right.

By firearms in the City of Philadelphia -- I mean, in the City of Boston.

I know it's wishful thinking. It's not just youth crime that fell off the table; it's crime generally. In fact, we will have an all-time low probably this year. We're still -- we've had about thee does homicides so far this year. Our average used to be 90, and one year we had only 150. So this has been a great year. And I think it's a balanced approach. 101 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. It's not just police, it's not just prosecution; it's also prevention. On the police side, one of the programs which I understand is being replicated in Philadelphia, fortunately, is what's called "Operation Night Light," which is an approach that takes police officers and probation officers basically to do checks, bed checks on kids on probation rather than have a city-wide curfew that's affects all kids, the kids who need it and the kids who don't. It's basically a highly focussed way to make sure that kids who are at risk, kids who are in trouble are at home and not prowling the streets after midnight. That's one of the good approaches. And it's also been a story of cooperation, not competition. If you look at the criminal justice in this country, you hear so many discussions about turf wars, turf battles between prosecution, police, corrections, probation. And what we've done in Boston with the able leadership of a commissioner who has put his own ego well behind and has built partnerships with all the parts of the criminal justice system, we find that 102 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. all parts of the criminal justice system are working together to share information and are enjoined together in programming. And it's involved the public sector and the private sector. It's involved the universities, it's involved the corporations such as John Hancock, not only giving their money but also their time in involving themselves in the lives of kids. It's also the fact that in the City of Boston, we targeted youth crime and prevention of youth crime as a problem many, many years ago. I heard some of the statistics from the last panel about the costs of dealing with crimes once they occur, the medical costs. And, indeed, I think the point was made that it's much cheaper that we invest in prevention, and it's quite true. It's far better and certainly less expensive that we build the child than try to heal the child or rebuild the child through a prison sentence. So I think in Boston, we've spent a good deal of research on prevention programs and identifying the at-risk kids and involving them in 103 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. after-school programs. And we've involved them in summer programs, something called "A Summer of Opportunity," which takes some of the most at-risk kids and bring them into the universities, bring them into some of the companies during the long summer, and give them skills, give them attention, give them mentoring, and give them direction. So I think Boston is definitely a model. It's of model of policing, but it's also a model for crime prevention. And I know this has been a long answer here, but I'd like to make one other comment. We did a study at Northeastern where we surveyed chiefs of police around the country about what they see working in terms of reducing the crime problem. And we gave them a lot of options, everything from the death penalty to putting more cops on the street. You know what the number-one reason, the number-one factor that police chiefs around the country sited around the country as a way to deal with the crime? It was prevention programs for kids. They even placed that above putting more cops on the streets. 104 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. So I think they're the ones on the front line. They can see that involving ourselves in lives of kids -- not just the cops through PAL programs, but all of us have to be more involved in the lives of our kids; not just parents, not just cops, not just teachers, but everyone. That really is what works.

Could I add one thing to what Dr. Fox has said? The federal legislation that the President proposed, not the legislation that's actually moving through, but the Administration's bill was based largely on the Boston model. And it took into account this balance between accountability and prevention and the kind of cooperation among the different institutions that Dr. Fox referred to. The one piece of that that we were successful so far in getting into the bill is guaranteed money for state and local prosecutors in courts. And the reason is this Operation Night Light that he just referred to, this pairing of police officers with probation officers, going around in the evenings, checking on kids who are 105 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. supposed to be under the terms of their probation. And that's been one of the key factors in reducing juvenile crime in Boston. The new money that I just mentioned, the $250 million that can't be spent on after-school programs, it can be -- in fact, is expected to be spent on prosecutors and courts. And the court-based programs that fund probation officers to implement this kind of Operation Night Life Program is exactly what that money intended to go for. So that's new money that will come through the state, that can used for that purpose. So I urge you to expand on the program that we hear is just beginning in Philadelphia.

You may find initially that there's some resistance, that many probation officers are used to working 9 to 5, and their offices expect people to come see them. And this is a new model for probation. It gets the probation officers out into the streets in the evenings. But we have to redesign things. The same way we have to redesign our schools. You 106 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. know, our school buildings are there. We've already paid for the structures, we've already paid for the maintenance. Why are they only open six hours a day?

I did want to also thank Miss Zalesne. We always like to hear where there might be some money, so we'll be sure to --

I figured that was the thing I could bring to the table that nobody else could. Everyone's got the statistics, but I can tell you where the money comes from. Although I recognize that federal resources are a very small part of what you need and what you'll actually have. We don't expect that federal money can really do for you what you need in terms of after-school programs. But we can provide the research on research on after-school programs, we can give you the training and technical assistance as far as what's been working in other communities, and we can provide this kind of seed money and additional money. And that's what it's there for. And so I want to be sure that Philadelphia gets its fair 107 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. share.

Thank you. Because there are a lot of community groups here that want to know where funding is so that they can either start or expand their own after-school program in their neighborhood, who would you suggest that they contact to get the additional information you just talked about?

Well, the names that I put in my testimony, Carol Mitchell and Robert Stonehill at the Department of Education will be administering the new $40 million program, which is exclusively after-school money. So they'll be good resources for how to use it, how to implement it, and what kinds of ideas and activities other communities have implemented successfully. And those two phone numbers, I can read them into the record if you'd like.

Yes, I'd like you to.

Okay. Carol Mitchell's phone number is (202) 219-2128. And Robert Stonehill is (202) 219-2088. And they are the administrators of this new 21st Century Community 108 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Learning Centers program.

And I'm sure they could contact of our three offices for anybody that wants further information.

Can individual programs apply, or does the City have to apply for the money and then the groups apply to the City for the funding?

I have a feeling it has to come from the City.

So the City will have to --

I think so.

Or the School District?

It says that the grants to rural and inner-city public schools or consortia of such schools. So it probably has to come somehow officially from them. But those two people at Education will know more of the details. Since I'm at Justice, I don't know more than what I've said, but I wanted to offer you at least that many. 109 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

Can I make one more brief comment?

Yes.

And I'll make it brief. I think it's important that we start designing after-school programs and implementing them and that we look at trying to provide quality, attractive programs. Too often you see a program set up that has sort of broken down equipment. You know, where it's sort of a -- it's a half baked attempt to provide a place for kids to go. And if it's not fun, they don't go. What we really need to do is to provide a place that's fun, that's enriching and that looks like the kind of place that a kid would want to go. And I think maybe you have to involve the kids in designing those programs 'cause they know what will bring them out. Thank you.

Thank you. (Applause.). (Young students come forward.)

We're going to 110 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. keep panel number on hold for a second because we have three students here or two? ANTHONY SZAGUT: The one's not here.

Oh, okay. Please state your name.

And pull the mike way down so that it's right in front of your mouth.

Okay, who's going first. REBECCA GOINS: My name is Rebecca Goins.

Okay. Good afternoon, Rebecca. ANTHONY SZAGUT: I'm Anthony Szagut. REBECCA GOINS: I believe that the kids don't go to the after-school programs 'cause there's not enough, and they don't interest the kids enough. I think that there should be sport programs and programs that interest the kids more. And I think that because it will build a better future for the kids.

Okay, thank you. 111 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. ANTHONY SZAGUT: Some of the reasons the kids don't go to school is --

Don't forget to speak into the mike so we can hear you. ANTHONY SZAGUT: I think the reasons the kids don't go to the after-school programs is 'cause most of 'em money. And, um, a lot of the adults don't spend the money for that. They spend it for different things like bills and stuff like that. There should be a way for them, like for tax dollars and stuff, to be able to have like low-cost after-school programs.

Okay. Thank you. Sometimes adults have to spend money for bills, though, you know. That's like a necessity.

Do either of you participate in an after-school program? REBECCA GOINS: Sometimes I go to a basketball program in my old school. ANTHONY SZAGUT: I don't this year, but I did last year.

And does AMY 6 have an after-school program available. 112 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. REBECCA GOINS: No. 3 ANTHONY SZAGUT: No. 4

Well, maybe with some of this extra money, your school could get one. You have such a great campus up there. It would be a perfect place. ANTHONY SZAGUT: Yes.

I think AMY 6 is something we can discuss but I think that's a city-wide school, where kids come from all over the City, and there seems to be a problem. It's not easy to do an after-school program because kids have to be bused out. My daughter goes to a city-wide program, and I know that maybe twice a year, for two or three months, they have after-school clubs. Does AMY have that, after-school clubs at all? ANTHONY SZAGUT: No. They don't have really anything. They have basketball.

Okay. Well, we want to thank you for taking the time out today to come here and testify. Thank you. ANTHONY SZAGUT: You're welcome. Thank 113 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. you. REBECCA GOINS: Thank you. (Applause.) (Panel 4 comes forward.)

Okay, the fourth panel, Commissioner Mike DiBerardinis, the Recreational Department. And Commissioner Joan Reeves, Chair of the Children and Families Cabinet.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Committee Members. My name is Mike DiBerardinis. And I'm the Recreation Commissioner. And I'm pleased and excited to testify before you regarding our after-school programs within the Recreation Department system. I view after-school programs as a real alternative to violence, drugs and vandalism, which are challenging our City. I won't restate some of this information in my testimony. I think the last couple of panels talked about the need of after-school programs and what happens in those critical hours from to relative to youth 114 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. violence and youth crime, so I'll eliminate that. But I would want to say that my testimony is very narrow. And in my formal testimony, I was prepared to talk about our initiative, which is the five-day-a-week, three-hour-a-day programs, which we started two years ago out of some of our operating budget and our fund-raising efforts in foundation and other areas. But I did want to say that, in a very general sense, almost every one of our centers -- all our centers, 157 staffed centers, have some sort of after-school programs, and that we are most active from 3 o'clock in the afternoon until 10 o'clock at night. All our centers have sports -- some sort of sports or cultural programs for children between the ages of 6 and 18 during those hours. And tens of thousands of children and young adults participate in those programs Monday through Saturdays; and in many centers, on Sundays. And I didn't want to leave that out as I move into my more narrow testimony regarding our after-school care initiative. 115 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Although all our centers have some sort of after-school activities, very few up until two years ago had three-hours-a-day, five-day-a-week after-school programs. This fall with budget increases for this program, and that's both from the Administration and last year through City Council, the Recreation Department has established 48 new additional programs, to bring us to a total of 70. Our mission is to improve the lives of Philadelphia's children and to support their families by providing safe places and structured activity during non-school hours for children to learn and grow. We continue to collaborate with community organizations, institutions and schools and other governmental agencies to expand our after-school opportunities for the children of Philadelphia. And, in particular, we worked the past two years with PCCY in trying to create an effective and a quality five-day-a-week program. The strength and success of the recreation after-school programs can be attributed in large part to the communities we work in. Rec. 116 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. specialty instructors are recruited directly for the neighborhoods surrounding the centers. These instructors are most familiar with the needs of the families that we serve. The Recreation Department provides ongoing training for these recreation specialty instructors. They work three hours a day, five days a week, between the hours of 3 and 6 during the school user. Many of our after-school programs are assisted by community volunteers, which include: parents, grandparents, high school and college students who assist us in different capacities. This further strengthens the community around which we work and also creates a better quality program. Every program offers a quiet time for program and assistance for those children who need help. Additional activities reflect the cultural identity of the community as well as the talents and interests of the instructor. On a given afternoon, one might observe children completing homework assignments, working on environmental projects, singing, dancing, drawing, playing chess or even making chocolate- 117 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. covered pretzels.

In keeping with the Recreation Department's mission to bring cultural enhancement programs to all the communities we serve, we have instituted a fine arts component in our after-school program. Most sites are assigned a visual or performing-arts specialist who provides instruction two afternoons a week. A variety of subject areas are offered: drawing, cartooning, painting, sculpture. Music, creative dramatics, dance and even stand-up comedy. In collaboration with the Mural Arts Program, we offer mural workshops in selected sites. These are tremendous opportunities for our children to engage in consistent and structured adult-youth interaction. These relationships are critical in guiding and supporting young people to cope and succeed during these most challenging years. Currently, we are introducing a conflict resolution through drama to the after-school program. By learning and practicing communication skills, youths settle disputes in a 118 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. nonviolent manner through example and clear, consistent messages in this area being taught. C. The program consists of activities and exercises appropriate for youth ages 6 to 16. The goal is to develop coping and survival skills for youth in light of the astonishing numbers of guns on street and in their homes. We introduced this program last year in our Summer Day Camp programs, and it was met with enthusiasm by both children and the leaders. I feel this is an important component to our after-school programs. Just in closing, to try to talk about some of the issues that were raised earlier about the need for more of a comprehensive approach, under the leadership of Commissioner Reeves, who's the Chair of the Children and Families Cabinet, we've been working very hard to build a program model that would not only coordinate law enforcement efforts in certain neighborhoods in 119 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. the City, but also would coordinate those efforts with a lot of the programs that we're doing along with the activities of the Health Department, DHS, the School District, and the Housing Authority. So we are working very hard and trying to learn from what other cities doing relative to coordinated services in identified neighborhoods with clear objectives around youth and prevention of youth violence. And we think that we are moving rapidly in that direction and hope to have more to report at a future time. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Reeves. COMMISSIONER REEVES: Good afternoon Madam Chairperson and members of the Joint Committee on Public Health and Human Services and the Special Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs. I am Joan Reeves, Commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Human Services and Chairperson of the Mayor's Children and Family Cabinet. I'm here today to give testimony on the 120 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. City's investment in after-school programming. Council has heard from many distinguished speakers and the other four panels about the incidence and cost of juvenile crime in Philadelphia as well as the benefits of after-school programs in combatting youth violence, especially neighborhood-based after-school models. It is this type of information and data which DHS and the Cabinet have used to launch major initiatives focussed on reducing the incidence of violence among youths as perpetrators and victims. The City's increasing investment in programs for the prevention and early intervention of youth violence demonstrates the priority which we attach to this issue. And the strategy to deploy substantial amounts of those resources in after-school activities attest to our commitment to provide youth with positive alternatives to high-risk behaviors at the time of day when they are most vulnerable. The approach which the Department and the Cabinet have adopted is to emphasize the importance of the family and the community and 121 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. programs for at-risk youth. As important as the role of government may be, it is not a surrogate for the emotional and social supports which children need in their own neighborhoods. For us, the most enduring way to protect children from violence and provide them with alternatives is through strengthening families and building communities. One of the ways that we are doing that is through our neighborhood coordinating team, which I will just briefly discuss a little later. The Cabinet has been very aggressive in designing new programs and developing resources to achieve these ends. In fact, reducing the incidence of youth violence is one of the three primary objectives of the cabinet. Since 1995, Commissioner DiBerardinis has spearheaded our efforts in community-based youth violence reduction programs and major efforts to reduce the availability of handguns among youth. Also, under his leadership during this past year, the Cabinet initiated or expanded after-school opportunities in 70 sites. 122 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. In addition, we are pleased to have been selected in a rigorous competition as a recipient of a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as part of their national initiative to protect the health and safety of urban children. Our program, called "Safe and Secure in Philadelphia," has received a four-year foundation grant totaling $4,680,000. The initiative is targeted in North Philadelphia to reduce youth violence, teen substance abuse, and teenage pregnancy. It combines the strategies of community-building, strengthening the family and developing alternative experiences for youth. The neighborhood coordinating teams are a vital part of that in which community- organizing, and bringing together families, parents, and community leaders with youth is a major thrust of that initially. Within the Department of Human Services, we have made significant commitments to serving at-risk youth during the after-school hours. In the Division of Juvenile Justice Services, our day treatment, home detention and 123 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. m. m. to over 2500 youngsters, through a network of 30 contract agencies. Additionally, through the Support Community Outreach Program, also known as "SCOP," which is our primary prevention program, 194 community-based groups include after-school activities in the array of outreach services provided to over 85,000 youngsters.

3 million this fiscal year to make is this possible. There are several other important activities relevant to the issues of reducing youth violence in which the Department has made major investments. Time constraints do not permit me to discuss them depth, but I think it is important for City Council to be aware of them. They include: The Operation Peace in Philadelphia "Juvenile Justice and Youth Action Teams," the "Communities that Care" initiative in the Empowerment Zones, the Children and Families Cabinet "Youth Access Centers," the Family Court 124 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. "Reasonable Efforts in Assessment, Access and Prevention," and the District Attorney's Office "Youth Aid Panels" are just a few. In closing, I want to thank the Joint Committee for their initiative in bringing these panels together. In order to ensure the safety of our City's children, we must all work together to combat the cultural violence which threatens Philadelphia's youth. Today's proceedings will help to move that agenda forward. This concludes my formal testimony. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Reeves. Any Committee Members have any questions?

Yes. I'd like to ask, have you had any evaluations of the Access Family Centers, to establish their effectiveness in the community? COMMISSIONER REEVES: The area that we're working on right now is an evaluation which we've already started of the Family Centers, looking at outcomes and just those criteria that 125 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. would help us determine their effectiveness. The Youth Access Centers to date are --

I'm sorry. I didn't mean that; I meant the Family Centers. COMMISSIONER REEVES: Oh, the Family Centers, yes. We have established an evaluation, which is funded under the State Family Services System Reform. Each Family Center identifies outcomes for its own children and families, and we are in the process now of evaluating those outcomes.

Did you tell us how many Family Centers you have? COMMISSIONER REEVES: There are 13 now, 2 more in development.

Are they pretty much operating throughout the City? Do you have one in every area of the City? COMMISSIONER REEVES: No. Right now, we're working to bring one into operation in Southwest Philadelphia, and another one in Kensington. So we're looking at, based on some demographics, where Family Centers would be the most helpful. 126 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. So the have been operating at various levels over the last 2 to 3 years, and then it development of the 2 new ones. But we're also developing what we call a "Family Center Network" in which we can provide technical assistance to groups who want to start Family Centers but where we don't have the fiscal resources to help them do that.

Are the centers in 11 schools, or are they in churches or rec centers? 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: The majority are 13 in schools. There are about 11 that are in elementary schools, and 2 others that are in non-school sites. Women's Christian Alliance operates one of those.

Mm-hmm. How much outreach do you do to the parents? We talked earlier about having parental involvement and providing services and education to young -- particularly to teenaged patients. COMMISSIONER REEVES: One of the criteria for a Family Center on its governance boards is that 51 percent of the governance board be parents. We have also established a Family 127 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Leadership Institute in which we train parents in leadership development so that they can be more actively involved with their community and with the Family Center. There's a lot of outreach that is done by Family Center volunteers to community members as well. So one of the goals for us is to get more parents involved in the activities of their Family Centers and even those families that don't have any special needs but just have a commitment to the children in their community.

Thank you.

Okay, I have question, too. Commissioner Reeves, I'd like to hear a little bit more about the Safe and Secure Program in Philadelphia and the initiative it's targeted in North Philadelphia. What are the boundaries? COMMISSIONER REEVES: What are the boundaries? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: If you don't mind, I can talk about that a little bit. The target area stretches from the -- on the east of the Delaware River to all the way 128 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. across the eastern North Philadelphia and North Central Philadelphia, to the Schuylkill River, from Callow Hill Street in the south, to Tioga Street in the north. Part of the grant application dictated that we sort of create an area where we could target -- you know, create a target area where we could begin levels of programs on such a scale that we can measure impact. So given the resources, it was impossible to do a city-wide program, given the objectives of the grant application.

Thank you. One other question, and this one is for you, Commissioner DiBerardinis. In some neighborhoods, I've noticed that recreation centers are so small that they won't be able to put an after-school program -- they wouldn't be able to house it anyway. So other than schools, churches, are there any other types of -- maybe some buildings that communities organizations own to kind of provide that service? COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: That's a 129 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. good question. We have 157 staffed facilities. We believe that approximately 110 to 120 can support after-school programs, that the indoor space is big enough to support this kind of activity. So that would mean about two thirds or three fourths of our centers could sustain a program. Where that's not possible, we have partnered up and are partnering up with churches and schools to create opportunities outside of our system. And I really think that's a great model for us to explore this year in a limited way, to see how well that runs. I think it's very attractive to me because it blends city resources with the potential of other -- like our operating dollars from our department with either public or private entities, to create these opportunities. We are working in Potter-Thomas School right now to create a program, we're working in a few churches to create programs off-site, and I think this is a very exciting process for us to look at the potential of this, to see how it works this year and to, you know, promote it if it 130 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. works. I'm confident that it will. Because it really blends the two neighbor-based and City- based resources together to come up with a good product.

All right, thank you. Any other questions for the Commissioner? (No questions.)

Thank you for coming and being so patient, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER DIBERARDINIS: Thank you. (Applause.)

The next panel will include: Marty Friedman, National School and Community Corps; Tyra Gulley-Cherry, Corps Member/Team Leader - Strawberry Mansion Cluster; and Shelly Yanoff, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth; and Susan Foreman, Vice President - United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. (Panel comes forward.) 131 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

Okay, good afternoon. I guess we'll go -- maybe we'll go in the order that you were called. Marty Friedman first.

Okay. Thank you very much. I'm Marty Friedman, Executive Director of National School and Community Corps. And, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask Tyra Gully-Cherry to speak before I deliver the bulk of my remarks because Tyra is one of 185 people in this program serving the Philadelphia area. She is a parent of a child -- of children in the Philadelphia schools. She is like many of our 185 Corps members and parents living in this communities who are serving this community through this program, so I'd like to ask her to go first and talk about her experience.

That's fine. State your name, Tyra.

Good afternoon. My name is Tyra Gulley-Cherry, and I'm here primarily to let you know a little about my association with the National School and Community Corps. 132 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

Can you pull the mike closer and speak directly into it. Thank you.

I am a wife, a mother of four boys, and a community parent volunteer. I was, through the encouragement of staff members of my sons' school, encouraged to join the National School and Community Corps, and I became a Corps Member. I served as a Corps member in the MLK Cluster for ten months. During that time my team mate, a single person and I, served over 100 children in different programs that we 15 developed and designed. Our most successful programs were the Reading Recovery Program at Howe Elementary School, the Enthusiastic Books Club at the Ogontz district library, the Pastorius Community Conference, the ABC Breakfast Club, and the Write and Think Club, also housed at Pastorius School. All of our programs were successful, but these four stand out the most for us because of the number of students we served in those programs. My teenage son, Darnell, he attends 133 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Lewis Middle School. He and friends were participants in Martin Luther King Cluster's NSCC programs. Enthusiastic Books Club and the Intersite Art Program were the two programs that he participated in, and he also participated in the Pastorius Community Conference where he and his friends did the art work for the Conference. They were involved in many exciting things. My son's reading level went up one reading level last year because of the Enthusiastic Books Club. This summer he participated in a publishing project in which his art work was illustrated in the published book. And his hard work noticed by other organizations here in Philadelphia. And because of that, he was able to participate in a program at Delaware Valley College called the "Seed Program." And he really has grown since he has become a part of the Corps as a participant, but also because he has gone onto other things. Dimitri and Lawrence are two students that I had at Pastorius Elementary School, and they had breakfast with the Mayor as a result of 134 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. entering and winning an essay contest. They were also recognized for their art work in the Pastorius Community Conference. My husband became a Corps member because of all of the great things that he saw us do at the Ogontz Library, and he is now working for the Philadelphia School District. I now serve as a team leader in the Strawberry Mansion Cluster. This is exciting because I now have the opportunity to give back to the community in which I grew up in. I originally came from 32nd and Norris Street. I attended Blaine Elementary School for a number of years. And now I work in Blaine Elementary School, assisting students who attend there and also reminiscing with people with whom I grew up with, because their children also attend those schools. The Strawberry Mansion Cluster has two key programs that we are very proud of, and one of them is the Strawberry Club. The Strawberry Club is our team's signature program. It serves 7 of our schools. We serve over 140 children in our 7 schools through this program. In this program, 135 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. these students receive tutoring in math, reading, written expression and science. Our second signature program is our Interarts Program at Gideon, which is a very unique program. Our Corps members, staff, parents, and students all love this program. In this program, the students receive academic enrichment through expressive arts such as drama and dance. And during their dance and set design sessions, we focus primarily on mathematics and science. And this is just a brief overview of some of the things that we do at the Strawberry Mansion Cluster. Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

The National School and Community Corps is an AmeriCorps program operating both in New York City and in Philadelphia. We began in Philadelphia in 1994-1995, with 75 members serving in 10 schools. We have grown steadily. This year we have 185 members serving in 65 schools. Though school-based, we work closely with many community and municipal organizations, 136 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. including neighborhood recreation centers, the Family Centers, YMCA's, and the libraries. Last year, we had more than 170 community partners. In addition to after-school programs, we offer programs before school begins, during the school day, on Saturdays, on school holidays. More than 700 students were engaged in programs during the winter break last year alone. And we run summer camps for 6 to 8 weeks, 5 days a week, 6 to 7 hours a day, all over the city. Last year, we served more than 16,000 students, 1200 families -- we don't serve just students -- 1200 families, 9,000 other adults in the neighborhoods that we have in our programs combined. And we engage more than 700 Philadelphians as volunteers in programs. We are currently in our fourth year of running after-school programs in schools. We 20 have some viewpoints, and we feel we've learned some things that may be worth sharing as you consider the nature of after-school programs. First, we believe that after-school programs should include academic enrichment and support. We do not believe that even the youngest 137 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. school-age children are well-served by day care alone; nor do we feel that sports by itself is sufficient. We believe very strongly in academic enrichment. Second, we believe that successful programs have to offer a large variety of things. For example, we offer literacy in many forms, older children tutoring younger children after school, reading clubs, pen pal clubs. We offer the arts, drama, music, drawing, poetry. Service learning one very powerful component of what we do. Children engaged in serving the needs of others, working with senior citizens, working in homeless shelters are kids who are not going to just beat up other kids or anybody else; it just doesn't happen. Once they start serving the needs of other people, they change their sense of self, they change their whole way of being. We have established mentoring programs. We involve kids in homework -- we provide homework help, and 1600 kids are in our After-School Homework Help Program. We have chess club, crafts, cooking, 138 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. jewelry-making, cheerleading, scout troops all over the City. C. The third thing is we believe the student-adult ratio has to be kept as low as possible; not so much to supervise kids but to allow positive, caring, mentoring relationships to develop with the children. Fourth, we believe that parents and other adults in the community have to be involved. This is not just for professionals, this is not for just AmeriCorps members; it's got to be community-driven. Fifth, we believe in working with partners. We have university students from most of Philadelphia's colleges who are involved in our programs. We work with the PAL's, we work with the community-based organizations. We believe the focus has got to be on quality. We cannot just put programs in place. We have got to make sure that they are adequately staffed, that they have adequate facilities, that 139 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. they have adequate equipment. These things are critically important. And, finally, we believe that all of these programs need to communicate with teachers. We have been in programs, we have had partners where there's no feedback to the schools. And once that avenue gets opened up, things change substantially for kids. Some of the things which we've learned maybe break some myths, none of which I heard expressed here today. Let me just quickly say what they are.

We think it should be clear that children welcome more learning opportunities after school. They are not tired after school and needing a break. They welcome more opportunities to learn. Second, we think that children welcome people of all ages and races. Our corps members range from 18 to 83 years old. They're black, white, Latino, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Native American, and they are universally accepted and loved by the students with whom they work. Third, we believe that parents actively 140 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. will support these programs. It sometimes requires tenacity to continually be making the offer for parents to come in and offer and offer and they do come in and they come in over time and in greater numbers. And, finally, we want to make clear our view that these programs are not needed by Philadelphia's children because these children are poor or because the schools are not doing their job. They are needed because all children and adolescents need these programs. These kinds of programs are provided in my hometown of Yardley, they're provided everywhere on the Main Line, they're provided throughout middle class, upper middle class, and in the wealthiest communities in America. They're needed by all children not to meet deficiencies. This is not to meet serious problems; this is to meet the needs of youth. Thank you.

Thank you. (Applause.)

Shelly Yanoff.

Thank you. I want to 141 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. begin by thanking you all for holding this hearing and for urging you to hold a hearing in the evening sometime so that the parents who want their kids to be in an after-school program but are working, or so that the after-school providers can be here and the kids as well. I want to start in the way I'll end. 50 per child every day, you could transform this City. I am Shelly Yanoff, Executive Director of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, the region's major child advocacy organization. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about the importance of the after-school programs in preventing juvenile delinquency and in assisting our young people in developing their interests and aptitudes for success in schools and in life, and in creating a safer, stronger, more family-supportive community. As you're aware, we at PCCY have been working for more than three years in increasing public awareness of the needs of young people and families for someplace to go and something to do, with someone who cares, in the non-school hours. 142 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. " Each year, with your support and many others, we have been able to see at least 1,000 more kids having programs, safe havens, constructive things to do in critical hours. That's good news for the children and families who have been among those who could take advantage of those programs. But if we are to reap the rewards, the saving, the positive economic and human outcomes that common sense and research suggest are available, we have to get to scale. S. Attorney General, from the Office of Juvenile Justice, from the National Organization of Police Chiefs, and scholars that the time when kids are most likely to be involved in delinquent acts is after-school time. Other experts report that those are the hours when kids are most likely to get pregnant. A variety of other studies tell us that after-school programs help expose kids to opportunities to improve their school performance, to their explore interests, to have safe havens, to be protected and to protect. Public Private Ventures and the 143 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. President's Summit tell us that youth not engaged in structured, constructive activities in non-school hours have particularly high rates of trouble-making between the time that school ends and parents or care-givers return home from work. Among youth who lack key developmental resources such as caring adults, structured activities, and opportunities to serve, they also found that 44 percent report engaging in high alcohol use. A combined report by Public Private Ventures and the Search Institute of Minneapolis concludes that the relationship between positive developmental experience and youth outcomes holds across all kinds of demographic changes and patterns, including race, ethnicity, age, gender, geography and community size. Studies in process suggest that cities like Buffalo and Seattle which are making major efforts to make after-school programs universal as well as similar large-scale efforts and major housing developments -- and you heard about the Canadian experience earlier -- are having a serious impact on decreasing juvenile 144 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. delinquency. Other cities like Tucson, Boston and New York, which have expanded after-school opportunities, credit those programs in part with their reduction of juvenile delinquency. Because the research is very difficult and because you can't isolate easily one factor from among others and expensive, it is hard to really grab a hold and be very specific about what kind of impact we could have if we really got to scale. It's also true that can't do that 'cause we haven't gotten to scale in any city in this country. But everyone tells us, who's looked at the data, that this is critical, and that after-school programs could really change the nature of the environment for kids in cities.

But it's not only national experts who hold these views. After-school programs make sense from any perspective. Families want them so that the parents can work, knowing that their kids are safe. The kids want them. They tell us, they tell researchers that they want something to do, they want something to do that interests them, and they want to feel safe. They want to be a part of 145 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. the bigger effort. " Teachers want more after-school programs. As a variety of surveys and polls tell us, teachers feel that kids who go to after-school programs attend school more regularly and do better in school. And many business report that they are concerned about the productivity of many of their employees, particularly the female ones, between 3 and 5, who spend their time calling to check whether their kids got home safely and whether they're okay. We started on this campaign because all over the City when we asked the question and we asked it to Francis Walker, who is here, and of lot of times of other people, What could we do, what could be done to make your neighborhoods easier to raise a family, to make your kids safer 146 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. and more productive? " The parents wanted the programs where they lived. And while they were willing to pay something, they couldn't afford to pay the cost of the to 55 dollars per week per child that it 10 costs generally to run after-school program. 11 Other research conducted during this 12 last year in Philadelphia, which you will hear 13 about next, has confirmed that travel and cost are 14 serious barriers for youth participation in 15 after-school activities in Philadelphia. 16 The need has and will grow as more and 17 more of our single parents who had been on welfare 18 will be working. Thus, there will be at least 19 4,000 and more kids who could be home alone next 20 year unless we do something. We estimated several 21 years ago that there were about 50,000 kids 22 between 6 and 12 who are home alone after school. 23 Assuming that the programs that you've 24 heard a little bit about today, the potential 25 programs being started up by the Recreation 147 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Department and the School District, the programs started up through the School-Age Ministry Program, Congresso's new Beacon program, a variety of settlement house programs, a new youth development initiative which is being started by private philanthropy, all this mean 4,000 to 5,000 more kids will have opportunities next year than had them this year. But that will still leave between 40 and 42,000 kids with nothing to do after school. Because we are working with census data that is old and unreliable, and because we know there are programs that spring up that we don't know about, we've calculated need in other ways as well. We believe that Philadelphia would begin to reap benefits of increased community safety, better school performance and less juvenile crime if we were able to develop opportunities for 40,000 more youngsters in the next two years. We've increased the age level for the programming that we're talking about; from 6 up to 14 years of age, instead of 6 to 12, because of the importance of year between 11 and 14 to future development and to reducing delinquency and 148 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. truancy rates. We believe that additional programs to serve these youngsters, supported in part by public dollars, would stimulate more private and philanthropic investment we well. The environment for children and families for businesses and communities would be transformed. In each case, we've been conservative in our need estimate. But in each and every scenario, we've been more and more convinced that we can do this; that in getting to scale, we will not only see a better vision for kids, but a far more economically viable and safer city.

Today we estimated that there are about 20,000 youngsters in Philadelphia at every age level. At least half of them are living at or below the poverty level; thus, from the age of 6 until 14, there are about 160,000 youngsters, 80,000 of whose families cannot afford the cost of after-school programs for them. Yet everything that research tells us is that they need programs to engage them, to support them, to teach them and to protect them. Assuming that half of those kids were 149 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. lucky enough to have other arrangements, that would still leave us with 40,000 kids whose family, community, school and city would benefit from their having after-school programs. A ride through most of our neighborhoods underscores this. There are simply too many places that seem abandoned by the grown-ups and too many kids who do as well. We're in the process of working out a closer look at each Councilmanic District. We can begin in the fourth, which, in many ways, mirrors the situation in many others. Just looking at the public elementary and middle schools in the Fourth Councilmanic District, we have identified about 15 elementary schools and 3 middle schools. These are just neighborhood public schools. The total enrollment is about 12,800. More than three quarters of the pupils attending the schools in this district are categorized as low income. We assumed that more than half of these families would need help in providing programs for these kids. We thus would need in that District programs to serve about 4500 youngsters. 150 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. We were only able to identify a little over 500 kids being served in a variety of programs. Thus, we need about 4,000 new opportunities in the Fourth District. Taking that city-wide, we get to 40,000. We estimate that about 50 youngsters could be served in a program for $35,000 a year. 50 a day per youngster, our kids in communities could do better, work better, and be safer. That's about $70 per month, $700 per year. It would thus cost under $3 million in this District, or less than 30 million city-wide, to transform the City in this way. How might we do it? Through a variety of strategies. First of all, we are not suggesting the City pay for it at all. In fact, a long time ago, we proposed that the cost of after-school programs be shouldered through a three-way partnership of government -- local, state and federal -- private philanthropy, and the families themselves. In this City today, there are Girls' and Boys' Clubs, settlement houses, Y's, PAL's, libraries, communities of faith, AmeriCorps, and 151 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. private philanthropy already coming to the table with private support. But they need more; they need help to spread their positive, good outcomes. Many of the new programs, particularly for the younger children, could receive after-school child-care subsidies through existing federal and state child-care funds once the programs were licensed. Additionally, we're working with members of the General Assembly to have the state create a youth development line item in the budget, perhaps as part of the Safe Communities or Violence Prevention effort, to be accessed when counties show an interest in partnering in this important undertaking. The City's putting this as a priority while the State would advance the cost as well. The President, as you've heard today, has announced that after-school programs are going to be emphasized by the federal government in the next several years. We urge the City to create a mechanism, a place, a pool of funds that can be augmented by other levels of government to be combined with private philanthropy, to be used for 152 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. purpose now and ready to be augmented, to be able to take advantage of the new federal and state funds. There are many ways to grow what have now into the foundation needed.

In Seattle, the voters approved a Family and Education Levy, providing city general funds guaranteed over seven years. In San Francisco, another voter-approved initiative provided a guarantee of youth programs. In Tucson, a bond was passed to support the recreation and park service initiative on after-school programs. In other cities, a small percentage of juvenile justice prevention dollars or school district funds or general operating funds are being used. In Philadelphia, we have a major and expanded commitment from the philanthropic community for these activities. But we need to grow the local government support in a much faster pace if we are to see any of the savings and the $53 million we currently spend on juvenile delinquency or the million of dollars we spend to try to improve school performance or to stem the 153 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. exodus of families who want a more child-friendly environment in their city. Here are several other items to consider: If we added 50 cents to the cost of tickets to our stadium events so that each person who paid to see football, basketball or a hockey game or see a concert would be helping kids back in their own neighborhoods play ball or have safe recreational activities, we could more than double our City's current investment in after-school programs. We should do that. That's less than the cost of a candy bar or a pack of chewing gum at those games. But what a difference to the kids in Kensington or North Philadelphia or Olney or West Philadelphia it would be making. If we were to add that 50 cents to the cost of parking for those events, we could double it once again. Other ideas we've thought about touch on other aspects of our lives. If every convention booked at our center would be asked to round off their bills to support the Youth Development Fund, if the Children's Cabinet would 154 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. say that a small percentage of increased combined funds would be set aside for this purpose to enhance opportunity for violence prevention and youth development. We could be on our way. We also could think about voter-approved loans for these critical programs as have other cities. We are aware that the City faces a variety of demands and that you have indeed increased your support for programs in last several years. But to make Philadelphia a place where all our kids and communities are safer, where families can work and neighborhoods can be supported, where young people have something to do to help them develop, do better in school, stay out of trouble and to have more of a future, it's an important opportunity that we should seize. As we face the next century, we should be strong enough and committed enough to do something to make a big enough difference. That's the issue. Can we think big enough? We think we can where the will exists. Last year, more than three quarters of Philadelphia public school children had one or 155 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. more identified school performance risk factors when started school. Last year, one out of six of our children didn't meet performance standards to pass the first grade. Last year, more than half of our children were living in families whose income was at or below the poverty line. Last year, about 8,000 of youngsters graduated, and about 7,000 dropped out of their public schools. Last year, we arrested and detained almost 6,000 youngsters and spent more than $53 million on juvenile justice service. Last year, there were more than 40,000 youngsters with nothing to do in the non-school hours. After-school opportunities can make a difference in school and life for them. " We can make the time count for them, 156 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. for their families and for their City. We ought to do it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm Susan Foreman with United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. And I wanted to talk to you about the findings of some research that was conducted last year under a grant from the William Penn Foundation. I have copies of that research here for you. The grant to United Way was to study opportunities and barriers to the development of young people aged 10 to 14 in Philadelphia's low-income neighborhoods. And the grant was guided by recent developments in the literature on adolescents and how best to design programs to serve them. There had been a shift in the literature away from a deficit model that focussed on problems such as juvenile delinquency and teenage pregnancy, to a youth development model that focussed on the kinds of opportunities that all young people needs to acquire the skills that 157 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. will help them achieve adulthood successfully. Research, and the kind of research that Shelly just mentioned, shows us that one major key to this development is young people's use of their discretionary time, particularly in the non-school hours. And youth development organizations provide a very important and constructive use for that after-school time. Organizations like Boys' and Girls' Clubs, Police Athletic Leagues and the YMCAs are examples of such organizations. The grant to United Way had two components: a research project, which was conducted by Dr. Alvia Branch and her associates; and a 40-member Youth Opportunities Council, which was chaired by Reverend William Shaw of White Rock Baptist Church and included youth service providers, the business community, public agencies, religious institutions, and other relevant sectors. What Dr. Branch's associates undertook to do was to survey 1300 young people and 300 parents from 18 zip codes having middle schools with a higher median incidence of low-income households. They also surveyed public policy 158 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. makers and developed a census of 574 organizations providing services in these zip codes. What Dr. Branch's research showed was that a large percentage of young people were not filling their free time constructively. Very few regularly participated in structured youth activities such as community service, organized sports, leadership and decision-making. In fact, between 60 and 80 percent of the youth were not getting sufficient exposure to youth development activities. When asked to describe what they wanted from such programs, young people indicated a desire for more voice and more choice. They want to have a say in the programs they attend, and the they also want a wider range of activities than are currently available to them. This somewhat older age group does not want generic after-school programs; they want the choice of arts and culture programs, community service programs, sports, music, career development opportunities, computer programs, neighborhood improvement programs. And they don't know where these 159 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. activities are. More than half of the parents and 42 percent of the youth said that think could not name a single organization in their community that served youth. This, in spite of the fact that there are 574 organizations that we were able to identify and, I'm sure, more that we were not. A little over half of the organizations we found were community-based, another percent 10 were church-based, 13 percent were located in 11 recreation centers, and 4 percent in libraries. 12 In spite of the large number of 13 organizations, it was found that they are not 14 dispersed evenly across the neighborhoods. 15 In fact, there are a number of 16 neighborhoods which are significantly underserved. 17 They do not offer the range of activities that 18 young people 10 to 14 desire. They are not open 19 when young people want to attend them; in the evenings, on the weekends, on school holidays and breaks.

And, in some instances, they are not affordable to young people and families. Dr. Branch also conducted face-to-face interviews with 22 policy-makers, including the Superintendent of Schools, the Commissioners of 160 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Recreation, the Department of Human Services and Public Health. There was general agreement among them that the youth development system in Philadelphia is a very fragmented one without shared goals or direction. Specifically, the researchers found that unless they exhibit problem behavior, the needs of young people are overlooked, that funding for this age group is generally inadequate, and that there's no systematic way for parents, young people or service providers themselves to learn about the activities that are being offered. For these reasons, the respondents believed that there was a need for an organization or an entity that would convene key stakeholders and provide guidance for the development of a true youth opportunity system for Philadelphia. And with funding awarded by the William Penn Foundation this past Friday, United Way will be establishing a Center for Youth Development here in Philadelphia that will attempt to at least, in part, address these needs. This center will be responsible for promoting the youth development model 161 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. community-wide, for providing technical assistance to selected networks of youth-serving agencies, and for increasing the collaboration and planning by funders and major stakeholders towards more strategic use of existing resources and of new resources. The center will also, in collaboration with its many partners, including PCCY and the Children Youth and Families Council, advocate for additional public and private resources to provide a more stable source of support for youth development services. We expect its work to begin in the fall of 1998, and we hope to engage many of the people that attended these hearings in its work. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. (Applause.)

Any Committee Members have any questions?

Thank you for good work.

I have one question about the National Service Corps. I know 162 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. you operate a program at Pastorius. Can children from other schools come to that program, or is that Pastorius-specific?

Well, we're in a number of schools in our City. But at Pastorius -- in the Martin Luther King Cluster at Pastorius, we did have intercorps site, like a transfer program in which students from Lewis and Pastorius and A.B. Day participated in an art project for the Community Conference.

Okay. I attended the Community Conference, and I thought the questions the kids had were excellent. It was well put together. Thank you.

Madam Chair?

Yes?

One quick question.

Okay, Councilman Nutter.

Thank you. Miss Yanoff, as you can imagine, I was certainly intrigued by much of your testimony as it related to providing additional after-school 163 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. programs in the Fourth Councilmanic district, but certainly throughout all of the districts in the City. The idea with regard to, I guess, you can call it "an add-on fee" or "a surcharge," somewhat similar to, I guess, what we did with regard to additional School District funding by way of additional liquor tax, do you have any numbers on the amount of money that we might be talking about? For instance, I have no idea how many tickets get sold annually for Phillies games, Eagles games, Flyers games, Sixers games. And then you also talked about concerts and the like. Do you have any ball park estimates on what we might be talking about?

It's very ball park; probability $2 million. Well, if we look at just the --

And that's based on 50 cents on a ticket?

Right, one percent more. There's a five percent amusement tax now; it went to six percent. 164 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. The logic of pulling out the events at the stadiums are that that was a lot of public money, public lands that go in there, so it's different from another place. There are 65,000 seats in the stadium. But I think that the logic of it -- well, people are spending a lot of money to go see the games, and they should, and that's fine. But back in the neighborhood, kids should be able to have those games safely too. And I think that we don't care, obviously, where the money comes from as long as it's part of pool that then gets combined with private philanthropy and then gets to the spot where we can really see -- we've, all of us, have engaged in saying prevention pays, but we never get to the point where we can transfer the dollars because we're never big enough. And 40,000 more out of, you know, 160,000, being that the number of kids in that, that's not huge, but it would make -- I believe it could transform the system and would make it in every way, not just for the child people, but for everybody. 165 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

I want to commend my two colleagues who are still here, and I know other members have been here in and out, and I was listening to most of this hearing through our telephone system. I mean, I think the case has pretty much been made. And, I mean, we had a conversation yesterday about, How much do you think it costs, where do you think it comes from? And, obviously, you have not come and said, Well, we think the City should just put in an additional $30 million in the Recreation Department budget. But I would if, whether through your resources or maybe we should at least have some ideas of what goes on with the stadium with the Phillies and the Eagles, because it's ours, and we could probably start to gather of some of that information, and based on what we did with, I guess, CoreStates II, or whatever it's called now, Sixers and Flyers, we might have some way of accessing that same information. I would like to get to the point of once we say if that's the number, then what does that translate into? And try to start to build 166 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. that into any other kind of budget or be able to say to the foundation or corporate community, We think do this with this surcharge, we think we can increase the Rec. Department budget by X, living within our various guidelines, and start to cobble together a financial proposal that says, We know what we want to provide, this is how we think we can fund it. But that could be an intriguing idea. And if more of our teams actually started winning, the general public might not even mind paying. It may be difficult to convince them to pay an additional 50 cents for some of the activities going on in the stadiums or sport complexes right now, but I think we should pursue it.

Thank you. And we will be working on that and hope by the end of next week to have more data. But the extra 50 cents, of course, is not for the teams; it's for the City and the kids that support them, that live in the area. So I thank you very much for your interest. And the other part is that this Council, and the Members of Council particularly 167 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. that are here right now, have said, Think about what we need and be serious about what we need. We're going into the year 2,000. We should be ready in a way that we should take on that which seems right for the City to take on. And it seems to me that this is a particular piece that the City in setting up a fund that can receive or where it can been a part of both the new federal dollars and state dollars, as well as join with private philanthropy. This is a real opportunity, and we should be ready to do it.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for spending time here testifying today.

Thank you. (Applause.)

The next panel. I think it's at seven people: Maria Delaney, President - Board of Directors of New Frankford Community Y; Vivian Hansbury, President - Wynnefield Neighbors; Is Vivian here? Francis Walker, Parents Against Drugs; Jennifer Clement, Curriculum Specialist - 168 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Foundations, Inc.; Benjamin Brown, Allegheny West Task Force; and Julio Paz Y Mino, Director of Philadelphia Child Care Resources. (Panel comes forward.)

Is there anyone else here to testify on this resolution whose name hasn't been called?

I guess we should start in the order in which you were called. And the hour is late, and just want to remember the time because some people, you know, have to leave.

They may have to be at an after-school program, right?

Okay, Marie Delaney is first.

Good afternoon, Members of Council. My name is Maria Delaney.

Pull the mike way up, please.

Hello. Okay, my name is Marie Delaney, and I'm the President of the New Frankford Community Y in Frankford of Philadelphia. The New Frankford Community Y is a 169 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. community center with the heart and spirit of the community as its mission. We are the only organization in the Frankford Center that offers our community a swimming pool, a basketball court and programs that work with the whole family. One of the programs we are presently operating at the Y is our after-school program, with 55 children at present, and many more on the waiting list. We believe that all children are at risk when there is no place where the children have recreation, socialization and education. They need a chance to relax at the end of the school day in a safe environment, to be with friends, and maybe try something new to eat for a snack. As the caretakers, we're always looking to design programs in response to the needs of the school-age children, such as structuring daily routines, selecting activities, determining the needs of children, using available space and creating a spirit of community; also with understanding and addressing the normal needs of our children, which can be complicated by 170 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. individual circumstances of their lives. Our caregivers are often challenged with the anger, the irritability and sometimes sadness among our school-aged children. As I mentioned in the beginning, we have 55 children. What wasn't said was that the price we charge per child is $35 per week. Some people find that high in some areas, but it's what we charge. And the average time for a child is 11 hours a week, which comes out to $2.33 an hour. 12 That's with snacks included. 13 I say that, to conclude, that it's 14 obvious that the New Frankford Community Y is 15 subsidized in the after-school program. The problem is that the Y is not able to fund the needs for vital and necessary program without the help of much needed funding that would enable to us develop caretakers and open our doors to the waiting list of children before they're not home alone, but with the drugs, alcohol, porno films or whatever else lack of care and guidance has in store for our available children.

Okay, thank you. Vivian Hansbury. Oh, she's not here? 171 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. Frances Walker.

Good afternoon, or should I say "evening"? I'd like to thank Council for having these hearings. And it's most important that we do deal with our issues of our children. That's the most important commodity that we have in our society. Parents Against Drugs started ten years ago because of the impact of drugs it had started having on our neighbors, and it was created to combat and also to confront the drug dealers in our communities. In doing that, we realized that we had our children using the drug dealers and the other criminal elements in our community as role models, so we knew immediately that we had to provide some kind of alternative program for our young people. And we started a youth development program in West Philadelphia. From that, we became a social service agency, and I can tell you why. We started with the after-school tutorial program, a baseball team and a basketball team, but there were so many 172 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. problems within the families that we ended up having to start an emergency food program, an HIV AIDS risk reduction prevention program for our young people, a male advocacy program to support our young fathers; also a "ROC" program, "Raising Other's Children," because a lot of the children that we were working with were children that were being raised adults other than their parents. We have now -- we have at least 45 children daily in our after-school tutorial program, which is housed at the Lee Cultural Center. And Lee Cultural Center is a small facility, but we're very grateful to Mike DiBerardinis for allowing us to use the facility and also supporting what we are doing. Our program has been run strictly with volunteers. Our after-school tutorial program, thanks to Miss Pat Fultz, who sits besides me. She's been with us ten years, and, from time to time, we have been able to give her a stipend, but she's retired, but most of the time, we haven't been able to pay her. We now have been able to, through the Department of Recreation, they do pay a person to 173 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. work with her, but we have been utilizing volunteers from within our communities, parents, and we have some young adults that have supported us and which, I may add, are some of our success stories. The coach of Drexel's basketball team is one of our former tutors in Parents Against Drugs, and we take great pride in that. So one of things like that I would like to emphasize here is that we do need support in community, in our communities. We realize there are a lot of agency and philanthropists and other institutions and organizations that provide a lot of big dollars to big, quasi organizations. But the community-based organizations that are actually doing the services and doing the work in the community are not being recognized and not receiving the benefit of the dollars that would help us to be as successful as we could be. So I would like to urge you to support the Youth Development Bill or introduce it, the fund, 'cause we desperately need it in our community, and that it would be distributed equitably according to what services are being provided inside of the community. 174 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. I also chair the West Philadelphia Empowerment Zone Education Committee, and I would like to ask for support in community schools. That's another way of working with young people and keeping schools open after school. We are working on opening two communities schools in West Philadelphia: one in Councilman Nutter's District, Shoemaker Middle School and Sulzberger Middle School, they're two community schools. But we have money from the Empowerment Zone for one year. We need to think about sustainability on all of these projects and all the things that we're doing. We cannot do it just for one year; we have to think in advance on how to secure funding so that we can continue these efforts in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Pat, do you want to -- okay, state your name.

Pat Fultz. I'm with Parents Against Drugs. This is a new age, and the way we were 175 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. taught, that's not the way they're teaching, so they need after-school programs for their children. We have the University of Pennsylvania tutoring project that comes two days a week, to do one-on-one tutoring with these children. My answer is correct, but that's not the way that they're teaching nowadays. And nobody realized that we also have a lot of young single parents that have dropped out of school and have families after 7th and 8th grade. They cannot help these children with their homework, and they are in need of coming someplace where they can. And the reason why I find that nowadays -- this is 1997. We play bingo. You know why we play bingo? It's not for the game; it's for listening skills discipline, how to be your brother's keeper. That's the reason play bingo. And guess what? The kids get a big kick out of that, and it helps them in decision-making. We play soccer. Why? To learn how to win a game and how to lose without fighting because you win and coming back tomorrow. That's 176 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. the -- guess what? We're going backwards. We're bringing back into our program a lot of what they took out of schools -- life skills. The kids go home with me, they cook a whole meal, the boys bake the cakes, the girls fry the chicken, and they get a thrill. Right now I have more boys that's interested in learning how to make an apron. They're learning how to sew hems, put buttons on, how to be responsible, how to do their decisions. I think we need to go backwards to go forward. And we think that all of these higher things the kids like. That's not it. They get a kick out of seeing me dance from 50 years ago. And, guess what, I have to close my doors because I don't have enough financial stability in order to service children. And thank you very much.

Thank you. (Applause.)

Jennifer Clement.

Good evening. My name is Jennifer Clement, and I am the Curriculum Specialist for Foundations Enrichment Before- and 177 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. After-school Program. We focus on children in need and at risk around this area, and we just opened up in Baltimore. We've been existing for five years, and I wanted to spend a little time explaining about our program and also talking about how important partnerships are in an after-school program. We offer year-round support for students, families and communities. We recognize the child's needs and attributes. We promote cultural sensitivity and awareness, we encourage participation and cooperation, we strengthen academic skills, we encourage creative expression, we hope to bring the arts that is missing in the schools now back into children's lives, develop self-esteem and social skills. We offer specialty things, speakers, field trips, traveling trunks. We are partners in the Hundred Book Challenge, we are partners in Imaginitis Learning System, and with Astral Artists. But the most important thing out of all of this, that separates us from a day-care setting 178 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. and that offers the enrichment that the children need is that we have a published curriculum that we give to our staff that fosters, encourages, explores, develops and teaches throughout all contents areas, not only from mental development, but for physical development too. In every school, we have a technology commitment where we promise five multimedia computers to the schools for our children during the non-school hours and for the schools during the school time. We also offer teacher-training from our staff to the District staff, and software from the technology. In a week, we have a day of language arts, a day of math and science, a day of technology, and a day of creative expression or of the arts. And then Friday is our Club Day, which is student-selected activities: story-telling, cooking, arts and crafts, things of that nature. We strongly, strongly support professional development. We hire teachers within the schools, train them for our program and then take what they have to train our staff. We have Temple social worker interns 179 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. that are with us in our schools. We have Drexel co-ops that also work with us, not only administratively, but also with our students. And the most important part of that is that we keep our ratios at to 1, 10 students 7 for 1 adult. And in most of our schools, it's 8 actually lower than that in the classroom. 9 We have volunteers of all ages -- well, 10 from the high school up. And we focus on the volunteers especially that have been in our programs as students, then come in also as volunteers to help with our kids. We are partners with Temple University, and we have an Evaluation Committee of their staff an us, to look at our programs, analyze it is. In June of this year, we'll be coming out with a five-year study on the progress Foundations has made. We have a partnership with Drexel University that is a part of the charter movement and the technical assistance team. We have community partnerships where we look at beautification, and how to improve the neighborhoods in which students our are students 180 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. in I. Think that's something that we stand by at Foundations, that we spend a lot of time looking out in the world around us and we deny the communities that we're in. And not only do we need to look out in the world around us, but we need to have children proud of where they're from, and sometimes that means getting a little dirty and cleaning it up, and we're all out there together. And that's also something that we stand by is that we want to be in the schools. We not only can form a partnership with the principals and the teachers where they support our program and we can support them, but it's a place where parents can feel safe to come.

They though where it is, they know that their children are not traveling after 3 o'clock to another site where they have to pick them up. They're in the same site all day long. Plus, parents, we offer our homework hour. We do promise that homework starts; we don't promise that it's completed. We offer it from 5 to 6, and we offer if then because we also 181 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. offer our parenting tutoring service there. If you want to come in and you don't understand what your child's working on, we will help you. We will teach you, we will tutor you but we'll also show your student it's kind of that reading. A teacher cannot ask her students to sit and do silent sustained reading if you're not doing reading also. So parents cannot insist that their kids are doing homework unless they put in the work too. So we work all around with parents and communities. We are offering -- and one thing is the professional development with schools and with the Martin Luther King Cluster, a conference on non-school hours focussing on alternative solutions and blending funding sources. We would like to make an example of the school we've opened in Baltimore that we spend about 130,000 to just start a school, and we have no support from outside. And what Baltimore has done is have their Empowerment Zone And, the Anna Casey Foundation has offered us money, and this is where partnerships can help us open more schools. 182 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. We will not have more than 75 kids because we will not sacrifice the quality of our program. And so Foundations not only reaches out to everyone here, but all around Philadelphia, to help us open more schools through partnerships. Thank you very much.

Thank you. The next witness will be Benjamin Brown from the Allegheny West Task Force.

Thank you. My name is Benjamin Brown, and I'm from the Allengheny West Task Force. I would like to open by a statement. Most juvenile delinquent efforts have been unsuccessful because of the negative approach, attempting to keep juveniles from misbehaving. A positive approach that emphasizes healthy social, physical and mental development has a greater likely road of success. Another weakness of past prevention delinquency effort is the narrow scope of only focussing two of society's institutions that have responsibility for social development of children. Most programs have targeted either the 183 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. school arena or family. Communities are often the neglected area. Successful prevention strategies must be positive in their orientation and comprehensive in scope. Allegheny West has dedicated itself to provide in our community an organizational structure whereby more than one community organization can look at the nature of problems within the community and come together to try and solve those problems. One of the thins that I've sat here this afternoon and continually listened to is the idea that basketball in the African-American community is a way out. It is not. Sports is not a way out for most African-American children living in our communities. What we're finding today is there is a technological racism in existence. What I mean by that is when I worked in the Northeast at a school, at a substance-abuse program, every child in there had access to computers. Within the North Philadelphia community, you can walk into to elementary schools. Walk up to a kid, take him to a computer and ask him to turn it on. He will 184 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. " How can that be in the age of technology? One of the areas that I feel is most important that we must begin to look at is programs that are effective in our communities, not paper programs that are funded by the City, because they can produce 44 pages of a program and the design that looks good on paper. However, with the implementation of those programs, we find that it is inefficient because the methodology that they're using as well as the lack of comprehension in the program allows for kids that are in the most need to fall through. What we must begin to do is evaluate programs not based on the fact that they can hire technical writers that can produce great proposals, and those methods that they use to produce those proposals to get funding, that is their livelihood, but to come into the community and to begin to examine both the content of the program and the people that are participating in the program. When we look at recreation centers -- 185 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. when you walk into the average recreation center, you will not see all of the kids sitting around playing basketball or playing checkers; you will find a lot of them standing outside, smoking blunts, doing nothing. We must begin to examine where our commitments are to our children. We must also begin to look at what I consider to be programs that do not allow for growth and development of the children. There are programs within the communities that start that children grow out of. Their level of skills, the things that they are participating in make them move forward; and yet the program is still stagnant because of their mission statement. We must develop ways to provide communities with more information and access to funding. One of the things that happens is that the larger institution has always received the lion's share of the money because they can produce the kind of documentation that looks good on some Councilwoman's our Councilperson's desk, that they can read to someone else and say, This is a viable 186 Spec. Comm. A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. program based on paper. But when they walk into the program, paper is not killing our children, children are.

I feel that it is necessary for me to be here today to say to City Council thank you for having this discussion, and I want to thank my personal representative for inviting me because she knows how adamantly I feel about the problem of our children in our area. Last, I live in this area. When you look at the map, when you see one of these red signals, that's the area I live at. I respect the gentleman that said he hasn't had a death in Boston in two months -- or two years. Two months ago, I had a death laying in my back alley, where they had to drag a teenager out of the alley, to bury him. That alley's now closed, but he was 18 years old.

Haven't you had ten since September?

Yes. And what I'm saying is that this kid that was 18 also was a member -- had a probation record. And one of the things that I will 187 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. submit to the Probation Department is that we need to be more active in monitoring within the community, not outside of the community. They talked about police roving the teens. If you want to know what teenagers are doing in their community, ask the community members. I have grandmothers on my block. The block that I live on is near a high school. After a certain hour, they called me to say that there are still teenagers roaming our block. Why? Because they see them, they know who they are, they don't need police to tell them who are the kids causing the problems. They know. And what trying to do is provide access to more activities within the community so that our children can be safe and secure. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Julio Paz Y Mino.

Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Julio Paz Y Mino. I am the Director of Philadelphia Child Care Resources for South Philadelphia and Center City. I'm here to, I guess, to remind you 188 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. that subsidized day care is one of the resources that you have in fitting together this patchwork of funding you're going to need to put together to make the after-school programs work. There is about $30 million of federal and state child care money that our five agencies administer in the City. We can pay for after-school care for parents who are working. And we will be working very closely with the Department of -- with the County Board of Assistance in this coming year, to help families who will be coming off of (unintelligible) and need child care while they're working. We will also be publicizing child-care information availability and providing it to anyone who calls throughout the City, or subsidy information, subsidy day care money for after-school care. By for 1-888-461-KIDS, anyone in the City can get this information, and it's available if you select the South Philadelphia option 23 hours a day. You can get information, recorded 24 information. So I want you to know that we're ready 189 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. to work with you as you solve this program. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Levy Joynes, Youth Coordinator, Strawberry Mansion.

Good evening.

Good evening.

To Councilwoman and the Committee and the people that are present here today. I come here as the Youth Coordinator for the Strawberry Mansion Unified Organization. We have our office at 2035 West Susquehannah Avenue, Second Floor, Philadelphia, PA. Right now, we're in the process of running a day-care -- excuse me, not a day care, an after-school program, that is working with children in computer skills, homework tutoring, mentoring, classes in heritage, and also economics. Basically, I want to say this first: There's a lack of pushing after-school programs in the communities of Philadelphia. You see pushing advertisements of everything else, but you do not 190 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. see the advertisement of after-school programs. It's like you'll see flyers, but you won't see it pushed on television, you won't even hear it on radio. That's the lack of pushing it. Second is participation from the people in the community and the schools also. One problem that I encountered, being part of the Strawberry Mansion Unified Organization was that when we went to the school known as "Strawberry Mansion High School," we set up the program there, but later we were thrown out. And I wonder why we were thrown out because the President of my organization went to the Principal and asked for the funding that he knew was there. None of that came through. Before we could even get any funding, we were pushed out. And I'm not just saying that for Strawberry Mansion Unified; I'm saying that for whole bunch of organizations in the community that work. This is the second time that I've been working with Strawberry Mansion Unified, and each class that we have, the children always come out learning something new. We need after-school 191 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. programs, we need them. 1. After-school programs give children a chance to learn beyond what's in their immediate scope. 2. It gives them a chance to learn economical trades and economic skills so they can also learn how to get a job and start their own businesses. Through after-school programs, we can bring different officials in to children who own businesses and have them get exposed to that and learn about it, and even get a chance to work with them, thus creating employment in the community so, therefore, we don't have to get into the whole situation of children standing on the corner, selling drugs, because that would be an actual interference between the drug trade and that which is already happening. We could bring that employment in through the after-school programs, and we can make some changes there. You know, I've been hearing about the numbers of people that have been dying. We have to get to the reason why they're dying. It's the economics, it's the lack of skills, and basic 192 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. confusion. If you don't have the skills to move in the society that you belong to, what else are you going to do? That's when chaos starts to come about, and these after-school programs are needed. And we as individuals in the community, we have to have the school involved, 'cause the school shouldn't be open from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock to 2 o'clock and then shut down while the children run wild through the streets. It shouldn't be that way because school is an institution for learning. We must get the parents involved. And myself, I have been pushing Strawberry Mansion Unified and also after-school programs for three years, and I am on the streets constantly patroling, giving out flyers. We must start to advertise after-school programs. You know, stop wasting funds. I notice in this City, I see lights hanging all over the place downtown. Why are those lights not hanging in the urban communities? We're wasting money. We must get together and unify. 193 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs.

Okay, thank you. Are you finished?

Oh, no, I'm not finished. Can I finish?

Go ahead.

There's one more point that I want to make. We have to get community programs because in the next five years, things will be much worse than they are now. They're already escalating. We need them. The way that we can push this, the way that we can get community programs to start is not just by the government funding, but also by the people in the community also helping out and putting their foot inward. That's the way to get this really moving. 'Cause, okay, what if you get the funding and no one shows up for the program? No 20 one knows about it. So it's got to be on both ends. So myself, I'd like the opportunity, I want to work with you all. Just -- I want to push this community program thing further so that we can start to combat the negative things that are 194 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. happening in our community. That's why you see the numbers escalating this way.

Thank you, Mr. Joynes. We want to work with you too. And thank you for coming in to testify. Does anyone have any questions? (No questions.)

Madam Chair, in closing, I'd like to do a special thanks to two of my staff: Beth Moy Jang and Linda Blanchette who have spent a lot of time and did a lot of background work in helping develop this agenda today, so I wanted to personally thank them.

Okay. This concludes the public hearing of the Special Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs and the Committee on Public Health and Human Services. (Harriet Jaffe comes forward.)

Excuse me. They told me that I could speak at the end. I'm sorry to be the last one, but that's what they told me.

Who is that?

My name is Harriet Jaffe, 195 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. and I'd like to make a statement, and they told me I could come up after everyone.

Okay, well, come on up.

Thank you.

We called earlier for anyone else to come up but, evidently, you were not here at that time.

Well, you can't really hear everything accurately; you're not really sure what they're saying.

Okay.

Sorry. I would have raised my hand and said something.

Okay.

First of all, I wanted to respond to one thing the gentleman said. I agree with some of his issues he's bringing out, and I understand and I read and observed that in some places, they are working with the Afro-American community with computers and jobs and social skills and so forth, and, yeah, I think it's important and I agree with it. Most of you know me by sight and know 196 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. my situation and so forth and so on. But I was glad to see that the U.S. Attorney's Office was here, that the federal government is now beginning to take seriously the idea of children also and their needs and the people in our communities. Despite the fact that I had difficulty with the City, State and federal -- it was federal totally, they picked up on some issues. I am a single, non-parent female. My title since the investigation has been titled -- they have dubbed me and I'm going to be wearing it very proudly -- "Legal Jew, Legal White, Legal U.S. Citizen" because nothing is my fault. One of the problems I did have is the fact that I did not have children, and I was trying to be very nice to them. By the way, I am Jewish, and the children mostly that I tried to deal were non-Jewish children, both in East Oak Lane and in Kensington. And there were numbers and numbers of problems with them. I did go to the schools and did go to the government and I did go to a lot of places because I was interested in the children. 197 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. I felt it important to do it at that time because I don't have children, and I understand. A lot of things that I heard today were really, really excellent. You always think as the non-child person, the childless person as the problem, and the people who have the children as the ones who are most interested in their care. And, this obviously, is not the case, as is being brought out. And as far as drugs are concerned, I hear a lot of talk about it, and I wanted to see if they were really going to do something about enforcing a number of these issues and laws on drugs. The library is supposed to be considered a safe haven.

Excuse me. What is your name again?

Harriet Jaffe. And I went to the library and I went to a program, and they were talking about drug-addicted crimes, and people were discussing things that were involved. And I had problems with the drug trade as well as 198 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. my other issues involved. And they were sitting there like this. There's drugs in the library. They don't want us to talk about it. Well, that's not the library's prerogative. If there's drugs at the library, there's something wrong with the law enforcement, which is what I had. They should have been cleaned out. They don't have any right to pass judgment on it. So when you're talking about safe havens, you're talking about crimes, you're talking about drugs, and you have to consider that people are involved. And, like the gentleman said, you don't need the three R's, the retribution and all the other things that he mentioned. There is another thing: that the activities of safe haven and introducing children to other benefits besides the family or other people in the community or outside of the community. And I'm glad that the resolution has been introduced because I feel that it is only one way to prevent crimes, but the effects of places 199 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. for children of all ages can give the problem-solving skills, the constructive areas of their lives so they develop and use these to grow. I agree with a lot of things that were said. It also aids in critical thinking so that peer pressure can be eliminated and other pressures so that they know what to do and where to do. This can be important in resolving another area of concern, and there should be intervention to aid these children from the peer pressure from these things as they're going on, as well as adults too and their families. They're feeling that they don't have to resolve these issues by themselves and are making them feel isolated. I was glad to hear the gentleman speak about working with the schools and the (unintelligible) because, as I said, I have been there in the churches and the other areas and here, the government, all levels. Some of these children may feel alienated, and their behaviors may be showing it. 200 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. And there may be some individuals who may want to reach out to them, and they need the support and skills of these groups and people on a sensitive basis. And that was in connection to the gentleman who spoke about the homeless.

Miss Jaffe, are you saying that you're here to support the need for after-school programs?

I'm definitely for them.

Okay. I want to thank you for your testimony because I have another meeting now, and that's why everybody else is gone; they have meetings too.

I did want to say about one other situation --

Well, what you can do is put it in writing and send it in.

Because I was promised office space, and I haven't gotten it. I don't really make that many copies. I have my own copy here. But I would like to say something before I go. I realize I'm not -- I know 201 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. somebody is very upset over there. I heard her say, "She wants to speak for herself. She doesn't like it." And I think that's a little bit discriminatory.

Who.

I'm sorry, you know, that you gave that gentleman an extra amount of time. I will mention certain other things here because I skimmed over my notes.

Please wrap up.

You know, and so forth and so forth. At this time, even though I am homeless, I do take art classes, I do utilize other areas, I do volunteer work, helping to feed seniors, and I do other kinds of activities. And it has help me cope with the situation. I also do not identify with these people who do commit the crimes or the homeless. And I read recently a case manager's report where there were several people. Once they were told not to do this, their reports show they went on to do better things. And the reason I tell you this is because of times, we get misinformation or 202 Spec. Comm. Parks, Rec., C.A. & Pub. H. and H. Svcs. disinformation and things are going to be done, and it's not done. And when it comes to the funding, that's the thing I keep hearing about. Like the gentleman said, "The funding, the funding, the funding." Some of the ways you're coming up with the funding, it seems to be money-oriented. And I just want to --

Miss Jaffe, thank you for coming and providing testimony today. (Adjourned at 5:15 p.m.) - - - 203 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Tuesday, December 9, 1997 were reported and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: PUBLIC HEARING OF JOINT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES AND THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON PARKS, RECREATION AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS. ___________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, RPR