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Youth Providers Nervously Await Funding Revamp

By HEATHER HADDON

Youth organizations are anxiously waiting to see if some of their largest and oldest programs will continue under a massive city reorganization of after-school initiatives. The revamp, consolidating three distinct programming areas for kids, sent area providers scrambling to fulfill its new mandates.

“This is a major upheaval,” said Don Bluestone, executive director of the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC), a large provider of youth programs in Norwood.

Last December, the city unveiled Out of School Time (OST), the Bloomberg administration’s latest streamlining of social services. The proposal merges youth programming managed by the city Department for Youth and Community Development (DYCD), day care for school-aged children run by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), and some initiatives through the After-School Corporation, a public-private partnership. At least 10 nonprofits in Community District 7 receive funding via these streams, potentially affecting everything from drop-in centers to teen leadership initiatives.

DYCD will oversee the resulting conglomerate, which prioritizes neighborhoods with concentrations of young people, low-income families, and poorly performing schools. Resources as a whole will be spread out more thinly, as OST’s proposed budget operates with $15 million less than the original three programs combined.

Many programs will also expand to serve entire school regions, a far larger scope for neighborhood providers. “The breakdown by school region was to better align OST with the … mayor’s education reform initiative,” said Michael Ognibene, a DYCD spokesperson. Region 1, which includes the entire west Bronx, is slated to receive the third largest portion of the total funding pie.

OST is further tied to the Department of Education (DOE) by encouraging providers to locate their programs in public schools, sweetening the deal with free snacks, space, and security.

Tolentine Zeiser Community Life Center, which operates after-school programs in University Heights, is applying for OST, but chose not to take DOE’s bait. “We don’t want to get into the schools,” said Sister Margaret McDermott, Tolentine Zeiser’s executive director. “We do good work with a center-based approach.”

OST is heavily oriented toward younger kids. Those serving elementary and middle school students receive at least $2,000 per participant for a maximum of 15 hours of weekly programming, but high school kids are only allocated $540 for three hours a week.

“There’s not a lot you can do with that,” said Marcy May, director of the Norwood-based EARS violence prevention program, which works with high school students. “The intent [of OST] is child care, which is good, but it ends up hurting the youth organizations.”

Ognibene agreed that OST targets younger children. “High school youth desire more flexible schedules and less frequent programming,” he stated.

The overhaul is no picnic for child care providers either. Day care organizations, many which employ unionized staff with certifications, are currently allocated at least $5,000 per participant. Under OST, providers will receive a maximum of $2,800.

“If you could take [OST] and double the money for it, you’d be in better shape,” said Janet Kelley, executive director of the Partnership for After School Education, a city advocacy group. The mayor’s proposed 2006 budget did add some funding to OST, but Kelley thinks it still comes up too short.

At 174 pages long, the proposal daunted many local providers. “It’s a lot of bureaucratic nonsense for the small amount of funds you do get,” said Shepard McDaniel, executive director of the COVE, a Knox-Gates community group.

Some small organizations couldn’t handle the paperwork. “The [request for proposals] is so intense, it’s very difficult to get any city assistance,” said David Laguer, who runs a youth cadet program out of MS 206.

Ognibene denied that the city was moving away from smaller providers, and said that agencies were encouraged to form partnerships in responding to the proposal.

Advocates worry that OST is another move by the Bloomberg administration away from neighborhood-based services, echoing the controversial consolidation of the Bronx’ Meals on Wheel program last year. With the push to bigger organizations, “you don’t get the added value of community providers,” said Mary Dailey, executive director of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, whose Sistas and Brothas youth group receives DYCD funding. “Particularly in the youth service field, community providers do many things they don’t get paid for.”

Dailey, however, did think OST has its merits, and offers a more updated approach to youth services. Kelley also liked the emphasis on academics. “It’s more of a full-service approach,” she said.

But how local groups will fare under OST is uncertain. Proposals were due two months ago, and while most of the larger organizations applied, some of the smaller ones, like the COVE, had not.

Funding will be announced during the summer, and programs will begin in September for a three-year stint. Providers will be rigorously evaluated for their effectiveness.

In the meantime, the City Council is also examining OST. “It’s a scandal,” said Council Member Oliver Koppell, who was an ardent critic of the Meals overhaul and is also skeptical of OST. “It’s certainly something we have to look into as part of the overall budget.”

The city has been planning OST for over a year, and nervous local providers are crossing their fingers. “If we get it, I’ll think it’s great,” McDermott said about the funding. “If we don’t, I will be crying.”

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