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Dasie Bridgewater Hope Center, Inc. — Dasie Hope Tutorial Program — Children's Advisory Committeetludian River County B. PROGRAM NEED STATEMENT (Entire Section B not to exceed one page. 1 , a) What is the unacceptable condition requiring change? b) Who has the need? c) Where do they live? d) Provide local, state, or national trend data, with reference source, that corroborates that this is an area of need. Research shows youth without structured, supervised activities in the after-school hours, are at greater risk of being victims of crime, or participating in anti-social behaviors. In fact, juveniles are at the highest risk of being a victim of violence between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. And the peak hour for juvenile crime is from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., the fust hour that most students are dismissed from school (After-School Programs : Keeping Children Safe and Smart 2004). The total number of persons living below the poverty level in Indian River County is comprise of over 11 .2% ( 12,650 individuals) of the of the county' s total population. A total of 20.3% of Indian River County youth live below the poverty level. A higher portion ( 11 .5%) of those persons living below the poverty level live within the Wabasso community. Many of the households include youth who also fall below the poverty level. Additionally, a lack of publictransportation is a major issue for the Wabasso community. Access to locations that provide services are unavailable to Wabasso residents due to a lack of transportation. Community services are lacking with in the Wabasso community. The vision of the Dasie Hope Center is to provide a sense of community pride by providing the youth a safe place to live and learn. The Dasie Hope Center will address, meet and hopefully revitalize the needs of the Wabasso community by providing localized community services. US Census Bureau Statistics 2004* for Indian River County are as follows : Population: 124, 114 (Over 27% increase) Persons under 18 : 19.2% High School Grads: 51 ,000 (About 50%) College Grads : ' 23 . 1 % Households w/ persons under 18 : 24.3% Persons below poverty level: 11 .2% Children below poverty level: 20.3 % *Takenfrom quickfacts. census.gov 2. a) Identify similar Programs that are currently serving the needs of your targeted population ; b) Explain how these existing programs are under-serving the targeted population of your program. Similar programs are: •Gifford Youth Activity Center •The Boys and Girls Club of Sebastian Many of the youth who live in the Wabasso community do not have the necessary transportation to travel to Sebastian or Gifford after school. Thus the youth are unable to acquire services from the above mentioned programs. Majority of the youth who utilize Dasie Hope Center' s services are latchkey kids. These youth are forced to return to an unsupervised, empty home after school if not for Dasie Hope Center. Our Center is within walking distance for most residents of f Wabasso and has become an official school bus stop in the Wabasso community. 4