Research compiled by the National Institute for Out-of-School Time shows that children are most vulnerable during the after school hours:

• Violent juvenile crime triples during the hours of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. (Fox & Newman, 1997). Two hundred eighty children are arrested for violent crimes every day (Children's Defense Fund, 1998).
• Children are most likely to be victims of a violent crime by a non-family member between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. (Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention, 1996).
• Children without adult supervision are at significantly greater risk of truancy from school, stress, receiving poor grades, risk-taking behavior, and substance use. Children who spend more hours on their own and begin self-care at younger ages are at increased risk (Dwyer et al, 1990; Pettit, 1997).
• Children spend more of their discretionary time watching television than any other activity. Television viewing accounted for 25 percent of children's discretionary time in 1997, or 14 hours per week on average (Hofferth & Sandberg, 1998). The total amount of time children spend watching TV has declined since 1981, due in part to the fact that children are spending substantially more time in school now than they were in the past.

Research also indicates that low-income children are at a severe disadvantage in reading:

• The typical middle-class child enters first grade with 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading, where as a child from a low-income family averages just 25 hours. (Marilyn Jager Adams. 1990. Beginning to read: thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.)
• Children from families on welfare have a cumulative vocabulary of 525 words by age three compared to children from professional families who have a cumulative vocabulary of 1,116 words by age three. (Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley. Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co., 1995.)

The Harlem Children's Zone believes that to be an effective alternative to violence and drugs and to help children prepare for their futures, we must be able to offer young people enriching activities with which they can fill their out-of-school time. We also must provide their parents with programs that enrich and empower them so that the parents can better ensure the safety of their children and keep families intact. Therefore, Beacon programs incorporate a wide spectrum of activities and services that include academic, recreational, social and cultural themes and preventive services.