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Youth Funding Shift Angers Agencies, CB7

By HEATHER HADDON

In a blow to local decision making and possibly to programs for kids, the city has begun revamping the process by which agencies are selected to receive Community Share funding for youth delinquency-prevention programs. The shift has caused alarm at several local agencies, and is seen by Community Board 7 (CB7) as a roadblock to community input. 

"This is a flagrant abuse of community input," said Don Bluestone, chair of CB7's Youth Committee and executive director of the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC), at a recent Board meeting. 

Where this leaves youth programs at local agencies -- including Tolentine-Zeiser (see article on p. 4), MMCC, the COVE and the EARS violence prevention program -- is a big question mark. Current funding recipients will collect monies through December, according to Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) spokesperson Michael Ognibene. But agencies are concerned that 2005 could bring bad news.

"You always worry about your funding when they centralize things," said Marcy May, director of EARS. "Bigger programs tend to get funded and smaller ones, like EARS, don't."

For the past 25 years, community boards have had a hand in reviewing requests for proposals (RFPs) from local agencies for Share funds. The boards also give the city a list of top criteria for combating youth delinquency. CB priorities in 2003 included dropout prevention, unemployment and recreation.

The local district had been receiving over $350,000 in Share funds, though it used to be about a third less, according to Bluestone. "It took years to get it up to that amount," he said. 

The city issued its 2004 RFP last April, but agencies and boards received letters just before Christmas stating that the funding would be folded into the mayor's new Out-of-School Time (OST) project. Last October, the city decided to revise the solicitation process for most of its youth programming, according to Ognibene in an e-mailed  statement.

The changes are "to ensure a coherent system for delivering OST services that better meet the needs of New York City youth and parents," he stated. Whether the funds will be distributed by district, or citywide, was still being decided. 

The Community Share controversy is another example of the increasing rift between the boards and the Bloomberg administration. "Community boards do not have discretion or control over distribution of YDDP [Youth Development and Delinquency Prevention] funds," Ognibene said. But in a CB7 motion, the Youth Committee stated, "Community Share funding is at the sole discretion of the community board."

The move prioritizes efficiency over community, Bluestone charges. "Everything with this mayor is done by a business plan," he said. 

Bluestone and other CB7 members draw parallels among the Community Share overhaul, the advent of 311 and proposed changes to the Meals on Wheels program. Many boards see 311 as an attack on their power to track and advocate for community complaints. As for Meals on Wheels, the city is seeking to consolidate the number of providers -- many of which are local nonprofits -- from 18 to three.

"[The mayor] thinks we agencies know nothing," Bluestone said. "In every aspect, big is the only way to do things."

Sister Margaret McDermott, director of the Tolentine-Zeiser Community Life Center, agreed. The funding overhaul "is just trying to knock down the small agencies," she said. 

The city insists that community members will have a role in reshaping the OST procurement process, but exactly how remains unclear. Meetings to discuss the changes in each borough are being scheduled for this month, but Ognibene did not know the exact dates or locations. The city will form committees to guide the revision process, but who will sit on them is still being determined. 

"Borough president offices have been encouraged to put forth suggestions," Ognibene said. 

With all the changes implemented by the Bloomberg administration, the Community Share issue has drawn little attention. Bluestone said that other boards were giving DYCD some "heat" on the matter, and CB7 passed a resolution against OST at their last meeting. They are also investigating if the move violates board rights granted by the City Charter.

But beyond the boards, the centralization goes against the entire principle of community-based problem solving, according to May. "The Board had set up [Community Share] so that each night of the week, young people had somewhere to go after school," she said. "That kind of thought process would not happen under a centralized system."

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