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Bob Hennessy
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RETURN ON INVESTMENT OF GIVING

White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth - December 23, 2002
An unacceptably large number of American youth fail each year to develop the academic, social, and citizenship skills necessary to succeed in our country. For example, 60 percent of fourth graders from low-income families cannot read at grade level, more than 2.6 million teens use illicit substances each month, and 400,000 teens commit violent crimes each year. Many of these young people grow up in economic and social environments that place them at a significant disadvantage.

The Federal Government has spent billions of dollars over the last 30 years in a variety of programs to address these issues. A 1998 analysis by the General Accounting Office has pointed out that there were 117 Federal programs administered by 15 departments aimed at disadvantaged youth. Some of these programs have been very successful. However, overall, the Federal Government's efforts and programs to assist disadvantaged young people have been fragmented and not as successful as hoped.

Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General
School-based programs have benefits other than prevention of violent crime, including higher educational achievement for all students. In a later analysis, Greenwood et al. (1998) found that school-based prevention programs that targeted disadvantaged youths specifically and included incentives (such as cash) for graduating from high school were almost 10 times as cost-effective as the three-strikes approach.

In general, Greenwood’s findings suggest that interventions targeting problem youths—either children who act out or delinquent youths—are more cost-effective than interventions that target general populations of youths. In addition, they confirm that prevention is truly more cost-effective in the long run than incarceration.