I volunteer at a drop-in center for kids at a local public housing project. For what it's worth, we've started springing for music, dance, martial-arts lessons

I volunteer at a drop-in center for kids at a local public housing project. For what it's worth, we've started springing for music, dance, martial-arts lessons for our teens. These are the kids who can't afford the fees for school sports, and who don't have reliable ways to get around (parents with cars). It's making a big difference. We're facepalming for not starting to use our budget for this purpose sooner. These young are getting more engaged with school. We explicitly avoid taking surveys about substance type stuff, so it's hard to know for sure how much a difference it makes. Plus the program is too young. (We don't take surveys because "n" is too small to ensure anonymity and the kids know it. We have a "no judgement ethic to uphold.) But the kind of stuff suggested in this article seems to work so far. My purpose in working with these kids is convincing some of them "do your math homework, and you'll get a good job. It's your ticket out of housing."