Local initiatives show promise in helping Utah children succeed

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah already invests heavily in its youth, but many youth service programs are isolated from other departments. A new report suggests the funds could be more effective if they were coordinated with local initiatives.

Kem C. Gardner reports public-private initiatives like Promise South Salt Lake and the Roy Cone Project can lead to better graduation rates, improved academics and lower youth crime. Lead author of the study Andrea Thomas Brandley said these initiatives can be very effective because they can bring many different groups and people together.

“If we all have similar goals to try to improve these educational economic outcomes for kids, there’s lots of players that are trying to do that,” Brandley said. “How can we all get on the same page and try to work together to elevate the impact beyond what one person could do by themselves?”

Local initiatives can also focus solely on the needs and resources within their own community.

“Rather than trying to solve all of the problems all at once, they can take it down to a smaller level and see, ‘What are the main needs that are happening here, what resources do we have?'” she said.

While the policy institute does not make recommendations, they do have points to consider. She said it’s important to consider how to make something sustainable when thinking about funding.

“So that they’re able to continue things year after year and not start to see results, and then have to end because they run out of funding,” she said.

Utah already invests heavily in its children. The report says 40% of the state budget is spent on education and youth-focused programs, but the report suggests these investments could be better coordinated.

Brandley said policymakers can evaluate if these programs or similar ones would be effective in other areas of the state and discuss how to extend them to other communities.

---

Contributing: Jacob Freeman