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Saturday, May 18, 2013
City's youth development office gutted by cuts
by Kathleen Haley, published on August 22, 2010 at 10:24 AM
Storyline: City Services
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The city’s youth development programs are diminishing after a slew of budget cuts.
The Office of Youth Development was one of many city programs that suffered from cuts when the city resolved a $43 million budget gap in June.
The office, which launched in 2007, was gutted. It is no longer an office — its programs are now part of the Parks and Recreation Department.
An Aug. 8 document on the city’s website said the Office of Youth Development is not looking for new funding. And the position of director and two neighborhood youth resource coordinator jobs were chopped, leaving only one remaining staffer from the office.
“It’s not going to be the proactive group that it was,” Lori Harder, administrative manager for the Parks and Recreation Department, said. “And we did eliminate nearly the entire office.”
The city maintained the position of youth resource analyst. “With this multitude of grants, there’s a significant amount of accounting and fiscal work,” Harder said, explaining why the city held onto the analyst job.
Lyn Corbett, the former director of the office, resigned from the City of Sacramento, Harder said.
The office’s purpose was to address a range of youth issues including gang violence, positive adult role models, education, essential needs and positive family life, according to the city’s website.
Harder repeatedly praised the office’s work.
“It’s not to say we don’t think youth are important, it’s just general fund reductions are so severe,” she said.
If the Parks and Recreation Department decides to apply for any new funding for youth development programs, it would not make the effort that the Office of Youth Development did, Harder said. That’s because Parks and Recreation does not have the capacity to reapply for youth development funds and maintain all of the youth services.
While future fundraising efforts for youth development programs at the city look dim, Parks and Recreation is continuing to administer those that already have grant money, Harder said.
But when the grant funding ends, the city will talk to the outside agencies and groups it works with and ask them if they would like to take over the programs, Harder said.
Vincene Jones, head of the neighborhood services division of Parks and Recreation, said the Youth Commission will continue under her division.
David Schenirer, the chair of the Youth Commission last year, expressed disappointment over the cuts to the office.
Schenirer, who is now a first-year student at American University, said he was sad about the cuts because the city had taken a “major step forward” with its prior work with the Office of Youth Development.
Photo of the Youth Commission courtesy of the city of Sacramento.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
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If we are going to loose youth programs and the mayor finds, develops positions and hired folks I want to know the details of what they are hired to do, how it will help the city, (not just the mayor). Heck, getting rid of a paid assistant or two and getting rid of his personal police bodyguard could keep youth programs a float. The youth are drowning as it is without a life jacket as our mayor sits on a yacht as a captain saving and building his personal crew. The Mayor isn’t privileged he needs to sacrifice too. In fact he should have been the first to sacrifice a paid assistant or two. Heck, he wouldn’t need so many if he’d focus on the job he was hired to do and not look for additional tasks-- such as schools…..
While the City has no funds, the Mayor does have the "bully pulpit" as he has stated. The Council needs to do a much better job working with non-profits and initiating public private partnerships to employ youth.
Sacramento should do as other forward thinking cities like San Francisco and pass an ordinance the requires all people doing work with and for the City do targeted employment of youth.- after all they can pass an ordinance making sure that Arizona companies cant do business with the City at the blink of an eye, they should do the same and put youth to work - its a heck of a lot better than having them crawl in your window or breaking into your car - and it doesn't cost the City ONE EXTRA DIME - thats a far cry from what it costs to incarcerate them.
The council does not have strategist, public relations, media releases reporting all that they are doing as Mayor Johnson does. They're doing far more than he is working with non-profits and attempting to develop partnerships to employ, work with the youth. But I do agree they as a whole could and should devote more time and attention on this matter.
Thank you for the information on the ordinance requiring people doing work with and for the city to target employment of youth. I absolutely agree, and as LA's Father Boyle states, 'Nothing stops a bullet like a job!" A job saves lives and gives the hopeless hope and a will to live and know freedom. Again, thank you!
But seriously as I watch the mayor advocate for arts, arena, raise funding to keep Xmas, New Years ball or parade downtown, assign task force for downtown development surely he could put the youth on his things to do list and perhaps assign other matters to one of his many assistants, volunteers....
I'm trying to figure out why you're playing naive writing, " if he alone currently has the power to cut such a program, then maybe the SMI shouldn't be passed." Heck, lol, why didn't you just come out and write “he currently doesn't have the power to cut the program. We need the SMI passed so he could have the power to keep programs".- LOL Perhaps you didn't put it like that because you knew it would add insult to injury-- with or without the SMI I think this program would be gone it’s not a priority of Johnson. Youth take a backseat…… It's cute the way you wrote it, huh, perhaps safe since it’s not currently on the table and folks tend to forget…..I wonder why you wrote it--(without informing us you're being sarcastic) LoL But seriously, I’m not being sarcastic, I do agree the SMI shouldn't be passed--LOL
It is hard to find specifics on what the Youth Development actually did. The only activities listed on the website is an opportunity for City Employees to be compensated for mentoring youth, and a chance for youth to attend city council meetings. Certainly both of these are admirable activities, but I question whether they have much impact on youth.
And the link in the article identifies just two specific functions that will cease due to the budget cuts.
• No longer facilitating Youth and Gang Violence Stakeholders meetings (after Aug)
• No longer outreaching new community networks
The stakeholder meeting sounds interesting if it really pulls together stakeholders from the police, schools, parent's groups, the DA office, gang experts etc. I would be interested to hear if this was actually happening. The second bullet isnt very specific though (outreaching new community networks).
Usually when an organization is facing cuts the administrator will highlight specifically what will be lost. In this case I am surprised that nobody mentioned to the reporter the dollar value of grants that the city will lose, or identify specific success stories from the Office.
My suspicion is that the office hadn't been very effective in bringing in grant dollars or in creating documented success for the Youth of Sacramento. It doesn't mean they are bad people or even that the Office was a bad idea. It could be that the city never funded and staffed the department in the first place. In any event, it looks like the city is now trying to quietly sunset it's Youth Development experiment to save a few bucks.
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/youth-development/
Knowing he is busy and not seeing much effort to address the issue. I've spent the last few weeks, every chance I have, doing research on perhaps a way to address this, thinking outside the box and not going into the pockets of tax payers. I will attempt to schedule a meeting with Mayor Johnson.
We may lose the Youth development office; heck we've lost it but it ain't over til the fat lady sings and well this fat gal can't carry a tune so I won't be singing for a while--lol. Thanks again for your interest and information on a subject very near and dear to the hearts and pain of many. Blessings.
Youth violence & gang activity is a pretty tough nut to crack, especially at the city department level.
The big factors to address the problem is stable families with the presence of a father or father figure, the presence of positive role models who have broken out of the gang cycle, access to jobs, and a culture that values jobs and education. I hate to be negative, but these seem like difficult things to address at the city level.
I am interested in your ideas, maybe on how other cities actually have had success in reducing gang violence (other than incarceration!).
I lay awake at night when I hear gunshots, sirens, helicopters and I cry. I cry at night when I long to see and hold my own son. I've prayed so long and so hard til sometimes I wonder how I can stand. The changes in perception that I see today is different than I saw when I first began this journey. Prayers are answered. We've addressed youth violence in the Spirit of anger, frustration, hatred, greed, prejudice..... all things bad. God is good. I seek to address it in the Spirit of Love and empowerment.
We don't expect Johnson to prevent youth violence. We do expect him to address it. GOD will do as God has done and that is reduced the violence- it wasn't law enforcement, it wasn't sentencing laws.... It was the Grace of God that has come into the heart of the people. But too often we don't want to give credit where credit is due.
But I see the changes, struggles, pain in my community and I know it is God lifting the people. I will go where my heart takes me, call out whoever my heart tells me too. I don't know what I am doing, I am walking in pain, through the fire, a living hell, walking by faith and not by sight.
I pray day and night. I cry day and night. I see joy day and night and I see change coming. You are not being negative you are seeing what so many are seeing. Since living this hell I've learned to not look at the seen but to look for the unseen. And listen when I pray on something and move afterwards. Cracking youth violence is tough but no where near as tough as cracking the walls that surround it where many will profit and many more seek personal gain verses truth and understanding into the people affected and exposed to the pain brought on by decades of violence.
I will share more of the ideas that I have but first I have to know in my heart it's the idea I am met to believe in. Blessings and great respect. Thank you