Supporting the Goals and Ideals of "Lights on Afterschool!"
SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF ``LIGHTS ON AFTERSCHOOL!'' -- (House of Representatives - September 27, 2006)
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume to close for our side.
Again, I want to commend the gentlewoman from New York for her introduction of this resolution. I rise in support of H. Con. Res. 478, a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Lights on Afterschool!, a national celebration of after-school programs.
Lights on Afterschool! is a project of the Afterschool Alliance. As many of you may know, the Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of after-school programs for all children. The Alliance was created to conduct this public awareness and advocacy work and to serve as a national voice for after-school programs.
Consistent with the work of the Alliance, they have created the Lights on Afterschool! projects that will host nationwide celebrations this October. These celebrations are a way of highlighting and bringing attention to the importance of after-school programs.
I think every single Member of Congress here can speak to the importance of these programs. I myself have seen the important and necessary role that after-school plays, especially in the everyday lives of working families. Nationwide, 14.3 million children take care of themselves after the school day ends. Of these, 6.5 million children are in after-school programs.
We all know that these programs provide not only a place for young people to be after school but also provide a tremendous benefit. Some of us have probably even visited after-school programs in our district. We appreciate the role that they have played and will continue to play in providing a safe place for our youth to be after school and provide them with the opportunity to grow and to learn.
Every statistic that you can look at and find generally depicts the fact that when young people get in trouble the most it is when they are without supervision, have nothing meaningful to do and are left to their own environs.
As a matter of fact, my parents used to say it differently. They used to say that an idle mind is the devil's workshop. I guess what they really meant was that if young people did not have something created for them to do, that we would create our own things, and oftentimes those things would not be in the best interests not only of our individual development but not in the best interests of the communities where we were.
So when the gentlewoman from New York introduces such a resolution, she is really doing all of America a great favor by helping us to remember that if we do not provide positive things for young people to do, oftentimes they will create the negative. So I thank Mrs. Lowey for her introduction of this resolution and strongly support it.
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