School of Medicine

Enrichment activities are known to enhance youth development, and are especially beneficial for at-risk youth who have not consistently had the social capital to receive such enrichment throughout the critical periods of their development. The National Institute of Justice has published many studies demonstrating the benefit of enrichment activities for disadvantaged youth. Enrichment activities promote self-esteem and sense of discipline and well-being, which impacts mental health and risk taking behaviors such as substance abuse. With the goal of achieving the aforementioned impact, juvenile detention centers offer enrichment programs as part of the rehabilitation process. My goal for this project was to further investigate the availability, equity and impact of such programs on mental health outcomes for at risk youth, I completed a needs assessment. The following needs assessment report summarizes my findings.