Promise 2: Safe Places
A safe place with constructive activities gives youth an alternative to street corners, gangs and other harmful environments. A safe place nurtures young people’s skills and interests, enriches their academic performance and gives them opportunities to contribute to their communities.
Safe Places
Safe places with structured activities during non-school hours
Young people need structure, and they need to be physically and emotionally safe. Providing safe places and structured activities has many benefits to both young people and society. This promise can:
- Connect youth to principled and caring adults.
- Nurture young people's skills and capacities, including social skills, vocational interests and civic responsibility.
- Protect youth from violence and other dangerous or negative influences.
- Create a peer group in which youth exert a positive influence on each other.
- Provide opportunities for children and youth to contribute to their community and society.
- Enrich young people's academic performance and educational commitment.
Research consistently affirms the value of these opportunities. Yet far too few children and adolescents have ongoing access to this critical support.
“It is just common sense that if we don’t provide young people with some kind of sanctuary – I call them ‘safe places’ – and give kids something constructive to do once the last bell rings, they are going to be easy marks for drug dealers, gang recruiters and other predators.”
Founding Chairman General Colin L. Powell