In the dog days of summer the sun beats down harder and the nights grow longer. With the school year over, there’s an elevated risk of youth violence and arrests.
And as July and August drag on, tough-on-crime types return to the same tired playbook. The New York Post warns of child gunslingers and demands a rollback of Raise the Age. The Trump administration wails about a youth crime spree, calling for the prosecution of 12-year-olds as adults and threatening to flood D.C. with National Guard troops.
The racist “superpredator” caricature is invoked by those who have little connection to the communities they demonize. For those of us who work with urban youth, we know the root cause of summer trouble is a lack of opportunity.
When school closes for the summer, so do many of the structures that help young people succeed. Classrooms, counselors, coaches, mentors, after-school programs, and daily routines disappear overnight. For families with means, the gap is filled with camps, travel, sports, and enrichment programs. For many low-income families, those opportunities are scarce or unaffordable.
That disparity has consequences.
Summer programming is often treated as a luxury. But more than that, it helps young people stay engaged, connected, and on a positive path.
At The Children’s Village, we see this every day. Through our Drew Hamilton Community Center in Harlem, young people spend their summers participating in camps, leadership activities, academic enrichment, recreation, and mentoring instead of navigating long days without structure.
Across New York City, our activities connect thousands of children and teenagers with trusted adults who help them build confidence, strengthen decision-making skills, and develop healthy relationships. Our Teen Choice program reaches students in more than 30 schools with evidence-based education and peer leadership programs, helping them make informed choices and set positive examples for their classmates.
These aren’t simply activities to keep kids busy. They cultivate stable adult relationships, positive peer networks, social-emotional skills, and a sense of belonging. These activities make young people less likely to pursue risky behaviors. Those supports are investments in safer communities, investments in a safe future.
And when a young person does make a mistake, the answer should still be more opportunity, not less.
Our Second Chances team engages youth ages 13 to 20 who have entered the justice system by offering an alternative to detention. Through 10 sessions focused on emotional regulation, conflict resolution, healthy relationships, and responsible decision-making, counselors help participants understand the choices that brought them to court while connecting them with educational opportunities, workforce development, mental health care, and other long-term supports.
Our goal is to ensure that the court’s orders are followed and that the young person never returns to court again. Since 2015, 628 young people have successfully completed the Second Chances program and had their court cases closed. Only six have later been rearrested. Last year alone, 155 youth completed the program, and not one was rearrested.
Those outcomes should reshape how we think about public safety. Yes, accountability matters. But accountability without opportunity cannot change the trajectory of a young person’s life. Opportunity is what transforms a mistake or a bad decision into a lesson rather than a lifelong pattern.
The dog days of summer are perilous. Heat, boredom, and unstructured time take their toll, and can lead young people down the wrong path. But the solution isn’t regressive, lock-’em-up posturing. If we truly want safer neighborhoods, we have to start investing in the educational, extracurricular, and diversion programs that address the root cause of the problem.
Kohomban is the president and CEO of The Children’s Village.