Corporate Partners:
Afterschool and Youth Development
- Today in Pennsylvania there are almost 110,000 young people ages 16-24 who have dropped out of high school, and nearly 35,000 of students enrolled in ninth grade in 2006-07 failed to graduate from high school four years later (2010).
- Seventy percent of the jobs in the Commonwealth require workers with education beyond high school, yet only about half of the workforce currently has any postsecondary education.
- Pennsylvania is the sixth most expensive state in the nation to attend college and our college graduates are saddled with the seventh-highest average student load debt – more than $27,000.
- Twenty-six percent of Pennsylvania’s K-12 children are responsible for taking care of themselves after school and spend an average of seven hours per week unsupervised after school.
Pennsylvania is home to nearly 1.8 million young people between the ages of 12 and 21, and youth represent one in every seven Pennsylvanians.
All young people in the Commonwealth should have the education and support they need today to build productive and successful lives for themselves and their families of the future.
To be successful in a 21st century economy, young people need to graduate from high school prepared to transition without hurdles to postsecondary education or the workforce. A high school diploma is not enough anymore. Jobs of the new economy require education past high school and all students need the academic background to succeed.
While it’s important to address the needs of students during the school day, it is equally important to address the needs of youth afterschool, for it is the hours of 3 to 6 p.m. when older children and youth are least likely to be supervised and most likely to get into trouble.
For more information, please contact Bill Bartle at bbartle@papartnerships.org
