Mayor Bloomberg’s FY2011 Executive Budget – a proposal packed primarily with program cuts – featured one pleasant and rather unusual surprise yesterday.   Funding for 30 Out of School Time middle school summer programs previously eliminated in the Mayor’s Preliminary Financial Plan has been restored – with more than half of the $1.3 million total coming from a network of private grantmakers led by the New York Community Trust.

The City’s original proposal to axe the summer programs raised concerns among the NYC Youth Funders Network, a group of foundations and other grantmakers involved in local youth-related programming.   The group had already been focusing on the issue of “summer learning loss”, that erosion in academic skills which happens for children over the course of their summer vacation.   “The cut created a lot of buzz,” says Roderick Jenkins, Program Officer for Children, Youth and Families at the New York Community Trust.  “These programs serve 2,000 middle school children.  Those programs really mean a lot to those kids.”

Before long, Jenkins and other members of the network were in conversations with the Department of Youth and Community Development about the possibilities of jointly funding a restoration of the programs.  “We sort of got there together,” says Jenkins.  The final agreement called for the City to restore $600,000 in funding with private grantmakers putting up $700,000.  The programs themselves were modified from eight weeks to six in length to reduce the total cost. 

NYCT has committed $100,000 to the effort.  The Helena Rubinstein Foundation is in for $50,000.  “We are glad to be part of this public private partnership to help preserve the Out of School Time infrastructure for underserved communities,” says Senior Program Officer Leslie Park.   Several other members of the network are in the process of finalizing similar contributions.  “I have proposals out to about 20 grantmakers,” says Jenkins. 

“On behalf of working families throughout the five boroughs, I would like to thank the New York Community Trust for supporting the City’s Out-of-School Time program,” said Jeanne B. Mullgrav, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development. “Together, the City and the Trust are restoring funding for 30 high-quality summer day camps that will serve at least 1,940 middle school students.  Public-private partnerships such as this one are central to our efforts to preserve crucial services and ensure that New York City remains a great place to grow up.”

The announcement of the agreement in yesterday’s Executive Budget documents may have set a new precedent.  While New York City routinely partners with private grantmakers in the development of new program initiatives, it is unclear whether private fundraising had ever previously been used to reverse a planned budget cut.

Comments

B

i

u

Quote

Code

List

List item

URL

Name *
Email (For verification & Replies)
URL
Code   
ChronoComments by Joomla Professional Solutions

Submit Comment