Youth Development survey data from New York State shows that New York City 7th-12th graders, compared to other students statewide, are more likely to experience: lower attachments to their schools and neighborhoods; higher community disorganization; with a higher likelihood of academic failure, interactions with anti-social peers, and rebelliousness.
This data also shows us however, that both, school-based, and out-of-school activities represent opportunities for inner-city teenage involvement in pro-social activities with peers, and are areas of greater resiliency among urban teens (compared to students statewide), and where they consistently show their willingness to partner with us in their development.
A Great Discrepancy
Take a look at how the creative use of mapping technologies graphically reveals the clustering and overlap in urban communities, like Broooklyn, NY of serious social issues like: race; single parent households; needs based programs like welfare, medicaid and food stamps; high prevalence of at-risk youth populations with a high prevalence of criminal justice involvement.
There is great discrepancy in the logic of a model of human services that fails to reach those who are most in need of them.
Read on to find out more about about NYC’s Million Dollar Blocks, part of a research and development project in Justice Mapping by the Spatial Information Design Lab of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia. This study takes a look how the criminal justice system has become the predominant government institution in communities like Brooklyn, NY.