This is slowly getting disproved -- http://freakonomics.com/podcast/when-helping-hurts/
The take away is that intervening in at-risk kids life can lead to both negative and positive outcomes and that it's important to further study which interventions are successful and which are hurtful.
This says nothing about children not at-risk. Furthermore it suggests there is the potential for really powerful intervention programs for at-risk youth.
Basically, if you want to volunteer to help the children please make sure you carefully select which program you help with.