The YMCA of Honolulu and the Boys & Girls Club of Hawai‘i have partnered to establish the state’s largest after-school program for middle school students, which will bring services to small, underserved communities on O‘ahu and the Neighbor Islands. The two agencies will split financing and responsibilities tied to a two-year, $6 million federal juvenile crime prevention grant secured by U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.

The purpose of the Rural Youth Crime Prevention program is for staff to go out to the communities, on the streets and at schools to create a relationship between trained adults and kids just hanging out.  There are about 35,000 middle school students on O‘ahu and few after-school programs for them other than athletics. This gives the YMCA of Honolulu an opportunity to apply proven ways to intervene.

The crime prevention program will target youths ages 10 to 14 because research over the past 15 years shows that unsupervised youths who do not participate in activities in the hours after school lets out, 3 to 6 p.m., are more likely to experiment with alcohol, drugs and sex, and perform poorly in school.