The Boys & Girls Club Changed My Life
Read how an after-school program transformed Shavar Jeffries' life.
I experienced the life-changing power of effective after-school programs. When I was 10, my mother was killed. Shortly thereafter, my father abandoned my family. My grandmother took me in and put me in after-school programs run by the Boys & Girls Club of Newark, where I received academic, social and emotional support that she could not provide by herself.
These programs helped change my life and put me on a path where, as a taxpayer, law teacher, elected official and former senior executive in the state Attorney General’s Office, I am blessed to contribute to the vitality of our state. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to recognize that helping children do better in school and to avoid the pitfalls of pregnancy, drugs and alcohol, and helping their parents work longer at increasingly skilled jobs, is good for all of us. Finding a way to provide a structured environment, educational enrichment and meaningful mentoring in the after-school hours should be one of our top priorities — even in these tough economic times. I know it works. It worked for me.
Shavar Jeffries is an associate law professor at Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice and has served as chair of the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board. Join the conversation at njvoices.com.
