Correspondence - #52 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

➢ Positive Impacts of Youth Programming and Centers: Research shows that community -based positive youth development ("PYD") programs are associated with "reduced poverty in adulthood" and better educational outcomes. 4 Youth centers and programming can also improve health outcomes. According to the CDC, PYD programs can reduce rates of substance use, unintended pregnancies, and STDs among young people.' City Responsibility to Provide Youth Spaces: Establishing a youth center is a responsibility of the city council. While 35% of the Proposed FY 2023-24 City Budget has been allocated for the Santa Ana Police Department ("SAPD"), only 7% has been allocated for community services such as Parks & Recreation, Community Development Agency, and Public Libraries.' Various city council members have made the argument that the Santa Ana Unified School District ("SAUSD") should be fully or partially responsible for providing youth spaces. This argument deflects the city's responsibility to ensure youth have safe spaces, especially given that 77% of SAUSD's budget goes to school employee salaries and benefits.' SAUSD's budget ensures that students have smaller class sizes and are adequately supported in school, while the City' current proportion of funds �-oiw to SAPD only serves to further criminalize young people from Santa Ana. According to a 2017 report by OC Resilience titled "The Status of Youth Investment in Santa Ana," "Santa Ana City spends $143 per youth on positive youth development, while it spends $12,722 each to arrest 1,537 youth."' Quick Facts 25% of Santa Ana residents are less than 18 years old9 26.6% of Santa Ana youth ages 0-17 years old live below the federal poverty threshold10 42.2% of Santa Ana youth ages 0-17 years old come from low-income families' 67.3% of Santa Ana youth ages 0-17 years old live in crowded households' 78.3% of Santa Ana youth ages 0-17 years old have immigrant parents$ ' https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/sl2889-022-13016-z s https://www.cdc.gov/heaIthyyouth/safe-supportive-environments/positive-youth-development. htm#::text= Positive%20youth%20development%20programs%20have,other%20STDs%2C%20and%20unintended% 20pregnancy. 6 https://www.santa-ana.org/fy-23-24-budget-documents/ ' https://www.sausd.us/cros/lib/CA01000471/Centricity/Domain/22/2022-23%2OAdopted%2OBudget.pdf 8 https://resilienceoc.org/the-status-of-youth-investment-in-santa-ana/ 9 https://data.census.gov/table?t=Age+and+Sex&g=l60XX000S0669000&tid=ACSST5Y2021.SO101 10 https://www.google.com/u rl?q=https://www. kidsdata.org/exportlpdf?loc%3D997&sa=D&source=docs&ust =1684810456148474&usg=AOvVaw2ewyx9tDdgvlguSDeKZcGT