Cost of Youth Development: What Should Be Spent

Table 1: Cost of Youth Development Programs
Organization Annual Cost/Youth Hours/Youth Unit Cost (Cost/Hour) Per Youth
Big Brothers/Big Sisters (mentoring) $1,000 260 $3.85
Teen Outreach Program (TOP) (prevention) $572 60 $9.53
The After-School Corporation (after-school) $1,000 540 $1.85
Boys & Girls Clubs (recreation) $139 n/a n/a
Girl Scouts of America (recreation & service) $135 n/a n/a

Since there is no "system" like education for youth during the time that is unaccounted for, we cannot easily calculate the associated costs. Instead, we look at the costs of some programs that can fill the unaccounted hours with positive supports and opportunities. These programs are either based on youth development in purpose and design, or are preventive, but operate with youth development principles and practices. These programs include Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Teen Outreach Program, The After-School Corporation in New York, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Girl Scouts of America. Programs like these and others, both national and local in nature, help fill the time not accounted for.
Table 2: Cost of Youth Deveopment per Youth for 1,200 Unsupervised/Unstructured Hours
Allocation of Time Hours/Yr Cost/Hr Cost per Year
After-School (3pm-7pm) 720 $1.85 $1,332
Mentoring 260 $3.85 $1,001
Prevention 60 $9.53 $572
Recreation, Scouts, Service, etc. 160 Annual $155
Total 1,200 $2.55 avg. $3,060

Table 3: Potential National Cost of Youth Development
Number of U.S. School-Age Youth (6-17 yrs. old) Total Cost of Youth Development for 1,200 hours per year
47,107,102 $144,147,732,120

Table 1 provides some insight about the costs of such programs, and can help us make an estimation about the cost of youth development during those times that are unaccounted for. Using the information in Table 1, we are able to calculate in Table 2 and Table 3 that the estimated cost of ensuring the availability of 1,200 hours of youth development for all school-age youth in the United States is $144 billion per year.