In Today's Richmond Times Dispatch, VPOST Advocates for Virginia Youth

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Subject: In Today's Richmond Times Dispatch, VPOST Advocates for Virginia Youth

VPOST Executive Director, Blaire Denson, and VPOST Board Member and Mayor of Harrisonburg Deanna Reed have authored an article in the Richmond Times Dispatch today, making the case for investment and afterschool programs.

Use social media settlement dollars to help Virginia kids touch grass | Guest column

Source: Richmond Times Dispatch: https://richmond.com/opinion/column/article_30ac11a5-e4e8-4edc-b3e4-d32f36f0f93b.html

Can $17 billion undo years of intentional harm inflicted on our youth through social media? No, but it gives us a chance to correct course and protect our children moving forward. In one of the largest consumer-protection settlements in history, a social media company is finally being held financially accountable for harm to young people. In addition to implementing required reforms and safety features, Meta Platforms, Inc. was ordered to pay $17 billion to Virginia and 47 other states.

Now comes the important question: What will Virginia do with that money?

The debate around kids and social media has focused largely on what to take away: phones during class, unrestricted screen time, harmful content and features designed to keep young people scrolling. Those conversations matter, but we need more than restrictions.

We must offer our youth appealing alternatives. They need far more opportunities to connect, create, move, learn, and build relationships in real life. The $353 million guaranteed to Virginia through this settlement allows us to do just that.

So how does that translate to a kid's everyday life? It looks like sports, arts, recreation, and outdoor experiences. It takes place in libraries, youth centers, and safe places where young people can gather. It looks like youth jobs, service opportunities, and leadership programs. These are not extras; this is the infrastructure of a healthy childhood.

The easiest and most meaningful way to create these opportunities is through accessible after-school and summer programs. Unfortunately, these programs are stretched thin in Virginia and across the country. The national Fund IRL ("in real life") coalition calls on states to invest in these programs.

For too many young people in Virginia, those opportunities remain out of reach. A teenager may want to join a team, take an art class, get a summer job or spend time at a community center, but run into a fee, a waitlist, no transportation or no local programs. A parent may know their child needs help but can't fund counseling, mentoring, tutoring or a safe place to go afterschool. For others, there simply aren't available spots. In Virginia, we have a severe shortage of these programs across all regions. Eighty percent of Virginia youth are missing out on attending an afterschool program: 745,000 versus 145,486 enrolled in programming. That means for every child enrolled in an afterschool program in Virginia, four or more are on a waiting list.

The dollars from this settlement can help close those gaps, but only if policymakers make deliberate choices about where they go. We must ensure these funds directly help and protect the consumers who were wronged: Virginia's children.

We are calling on our leaders to establish a clear plan before spending settlement dollars intended to address youth harms.

First, funds should directly support programs that prevent, mitigate and remediate harms associated with social media while promoting young people's well-being and healthy development.

Second, settlement dollars should fund additional investments, not replace existing funding, in education, mental health, recreation and youth development.

Third, investments should reach communities where young people have the fewest options, including rural areas, neighborhoods without safe gathering spaces and places with shortages of youth mental health providers.

It's not enough to get young people off their phones. We must give them something meaningful to step into when they put those phones down.

Harrisonburg offers a strong example of what is possible when communities invest in young people beyond the school day. Mayor Deanna Reed, a longtime educator and youth advocate, co-founded On the Road Collaborative, which now serves more than 300 young people annually through afterschool and summer programming focused on mentoring, academic enrichment, career exploration and workforce preparation. This work is strengthened by organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, JMU's Gus Bus, and Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation. The City of Harrisonburg has also demonstrated its commitment through annual community contributions included in its budget, providing financial support to numerous local programs. These partnerships show what communities can accomplish, but they also reveal the need for greater investment across Virginia.

Children need and deserve friendship, purpose, creativity, physical activity, independence, belonging and places where they know they matter. Research assembled by Fund IRL points to the role positive youth development programs can play in strengthening connection, well-being, school engagement, self-esteem and other protective factors.

Now is the time to take corporate accountability and turn it into a real-life opportunity. Money intended to repair harm to young people should reach those very same young people. Before those dollars are spent, state leaders should commit to a transparent, youth-informed plan for investing them in the programs, places, relationships and supports young people need to thrive.

This is what real repair can look like.

Deanna Reed is Mayor of Harrisonburg and Director of Alumni Engagement and Community Connections at Eastern Mennonite University. She can be reached at deanna.reed@harrisonburgva.gov.

Blaire Denson is Executive Director of the Virginia Partnership for Out-of-School Time and Virginia Coordinator for Fund IRL, a national coalition working to invest social media litigation funds in programs that help young people thrive. She can be reached at blaire@v-post.org

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Subject: In Today's Richmond Times Dispatch, VPOST Advocates for Virginia Youth