Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2004, $395,791)
Teen Edge aims to expand Brooklyn Public Library's services for youth with a project that supports adolescents during after-school hours. Each day, between 3,500 and 4,000 Brooklyn teens gather in neighborhood libraries and BPL hopes to enrich their visits and decrease the incidence of troublesome behavior. Activities will include a menu of regular developmental, educational, career oriented, and technological programs. Special programs will be organized to address topics of particular interest to teens, such as choosing a high school or college. Project short- term outcomes will include establishing a more inviting library environment for teens in which they gain knowledge and skills, and BPL experiences a decrease in security problems and better attendance by adolescents. Intermediate outcomes will include more participation by teens in BPL programs, and a continued gain in facing present and future tasks with improved skills. The current consensus in the field is that after-school activities help decrease juvenile delinquency. Because BPL's program is a complex undertaking, and OJJDP acknowledges that it is difficult to demonstrate long-term outcomes for a program of one or two years' duration, the progress of Teen Edge is measured on an activity-by-activity basis.NCA/NCF