Modeling Strategic Interventions to Increase Attendance at Youth Community Centers

Community centers play a crucial role in urban environments, providing physical and educational services to their surrounding communities, particularly for students. Among the many benefits for students are enhanced academic outcomes, improvement of behavioral problems, and increased school attendan...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inSmart cities (Basel) Vol. 7; no. 4; pp. 1878 - 1887
Main Authors Moro-Araujo, Alejandro, Alonso Pastor, Luis, Larson, Kent
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2024
Subjects
Accessibility
agent-based modeling
attendance prediction
Community centers
Cost analysis
Datasets
Education
gravitational Huff models
gravitational models
human mobility models
Impact analysis
Infrastructure
Mobility
Population
Probability
Public transportation
Students
Urban environments
urban planning
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Community centers play a crucial role in urban environments, providing physical and educational services to their surrounding communities, particularly for students. Among the many benefits for students are enhanced academic outcomes, improvement of behavioral problems, and increased school attendance. Such centers are also particularly vital for low-income and racial minority students as they are pivotal in giving them outside-of-school learning opportunities. However, determinants influencing attendance at community centers remain largely unexplored. The novelty of our research comes from using census data, Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) attendance data, and specific center attributes, to develop human mobility gravitational models that have been used, for the first time, to predict attendance across the BCYF network. Using those models, we simulated the potential effects on general and student attendance by changing center attributes, such as facilities and operating hours. We also researched the impact of changing the walking accessibility to those centers on their respective attendance patterns. After the analysis, we found that the most cost-effective policy to increase BCYF attendance is changing each center’s educational and recreational offerings far beyond any accessibility interventions. Our results provide insights into potential policy changes that could optimize the attendance and reach of BCYF Community Centers to under-served populations.
ISSN:2624-6511
2624-6511
DOI:10.3390/smartcities7040073