Statistics Affecting Alpha G.E.N.T.S. program

Participants in the Alpha G.E.N.T.S. program are faced daily with health, economical and social issues which are evident by the following statistics:

 80% of Black high school students graduate (U.S. Bureau of the Census, June 2004 - The proportion of blacks rose by 10 percentage points from 1993 to 2003).

 17% of Black Americans are college graduates (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002).

 4.6 million Black children (35%) live below the poverty level (The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), 2006).

 40% of black men die prematurely from cardiovascular diseases as compared to 21% of white men (Black American Men’s Health – November 2006).

 Black men are 5 times more likely to die of HIV/AIDS (Men’s Health Magazine, Black American Men’s Health – November 2006).

 Blacks experience disproportionately higher death rates in all leading causes of death (Black American Men’s Health – November 2006).

 Some 54% of white students use the internet at home, compared with 26% of Hispanic and 27% of black youngsters (USA Today, 2006).

 In 2005, homicide victimization rates for blacks were 6 times higher than the rates for whites (US Department of Justice, 2006).