The youth of Illinois need our help. We need your assistance in getting them the help that they so desperately need.
In a world that is ever-increasing it’s level of fear and apathy, it is no surprise that the youth are losing their direction and their will to succeed.
Had2 hopes to instill a message that we strive to be the best versions of ourselves, not for glory, or fame, or wealth, but because we had to.
The founder of Had2, Ron Watson, created the “Had2 Graduate/Had2 Stop the Violence” commission because the statistics are sad and startling:
- High school dropouts are 72 percent more likely than graduates to be unemployed.
- Dropouts make up about half of the heads of households on welfare.
- 75 percent of prison inmates never earned a high school diploma.
-
-77 percent of state prison inmates who do not complete high school or earn a general
equivalency diploma return to prison.
A new report that finds increasing graduation rates by 10 percentage points would prevent 150 murders and more than 8,000 aggravated assaults in Illinois each year. In Chicago, only 51 percent of students graduate in four years, and in nearby Joliet only 48 percent graduate in four years.
In order to most effectively reduce crime and safeguard our communities, it is necessary to take steps to prevent kids from ever becoming involved in crime in the first place. A good education is not only critical to a young person’s success in life, it is also one of the most fundamental crime prevention tools available. Kids who stay in school and graduate are more likely to become productive citizens, and less likely to turn to crime.
Illinois’ dropout crisis not only threatens public safety, it also damages Illinois’ economy. Dropouts earn less, pay fewer taxes, and are more likely to collect welfare and turn to crime. Alternatively, increasing graduation rates will help individuals and the overall economy. Based on the findings of Lochner and Moretti, increasing male high school graduation rates in Illinois by ten percent would produce $526 million in annual crime-related savings and $231 million in additional annual earnings, for a total benefit to Illinois of approximately $757 million every year.
Had2’s goal is to walk hand-in-hand with the community and its companies, such as yours, in creating awareness and proactively work towards increasing the graduate percentage of Illinois’ youth, and thereby, decreasing the crime rate in our cities and our state.
