Testimony of Katherine Eckstein, Director of Public Policy, The Children’s Aid Society

Testimony of Katherine Eckstein, Director of Public Policy, The Children’s Aid Society; Prepared for the Joint Hearing on the Mayor’s FY 2011 Preliminary Budget Youth Services and Community Development Committees, New York City Council

Good morning. My name is Katherine Eckstein and I am the Director of Public Policy at The Children’s Aid Society (CAS). I’d like to thank Chairman Fidler and the Youth Services Committee and Chairman Vann and the Community Development Committee for the opportunity to testify regarding the Mayor’s Fiscal Year 2011 Preliminary Budget.

Founded in 1853, The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) provides comprehensive support for children in need, from birth to young adulthood, and their families to fill the gaps between what they have and what they need to thrive. As one of the nation’s largest and oldest community-based organizations, CAS serves more than 150,000 children and their families at 45 sites with a network of comprehensive and integrated services that includes community schools, neighborhood centers, adoption and foster care services, after-school, weekend and summer programs, early childhood programs, teen pregnancy prevention, comprehensive health services, and programs for disconnected youth, including programs for young people who have been incarcerated or are at high risk of incarceration.

We understand keenly the challenges of this year’s budget given our current economic reality. We see the impacts everyday on the children and families that we serve. Families that are already struggling face additional and compounding challenges in housing, employment, health, education and other vital services. Demand for our programs and services has increased over the past year. Now, more than ever, children and families depend on us for after-school programs, health services, preventive and child welfare services, summer jobs and direct assistance. Some of our after-school programs have waitlists of more than 100 children. And in the last months alone, we have seen a rise in eviction cases and subprime displacement with our families, which has caused us to go from helping two or three per month to over 30 families per month. We are concerned that the proposed budget will disproportionately impact low-income youth and their families.

As a member of the New York City Youth Alliance, a confederation of New York City organizations working on youth development, youth employment and disconnected youth issues, we know we are not alone – the experience of The Children’s Aid Society reflects that of organizations all over New York. The demand for our collective services is increasing just as public and private funding is decreasing. My testimony today will focus on Out-of-School Time (OST) programs and Summer Youth Employment.

Out-of-School Time Programs
After-school and summer programs play an essential role in keeping children safe and engaged during non-school hours in addition to being a critical support for working families. New York City’s OST Initiative has been a model of what an afterschool system can and should look like to serve children and families with high-quality programs. The Initiative’s shared emphasis on academic skills enhancement, cultural enrichment, sports, recreation, community engagement, and leadership development offer children the best of both the youth development and education worlds. The demand and need for after-school programs remain and are increasing. The proposed cuts would dismantle key aspects of this system.

The City’s 644 OST programs currently serve approximately 80,000 young people1. We urge the Council to restore $15.5 million in proposed cuts to Out-of-School Time programs, which could represent a loss of nearly 17,000 after-school slots:

• A $7.5 million cut would eliminate 33 school-year-only OST programs in Elementary and Middle Schools (4,110 slots), and summer service at 30 Middle Schools (1,940 slots)
• A $6 million restoration of OST Option II (10,750 after-school slots) would save non-school based programs and/or smaller community based organizations that reach underserved populations. **This program received ARRA funds in FY 2010.
• Restore $1.98 million in current FY2010 budget changes.

The Children’s Aid Society recently received letters announcing the elimination of all of our OST middle school summer programs. This means, beginning this summer, we will have to eliminate 400 summer slots for middle school youth in seven of our programs across New York City. This means that 400 young people and their families, who had been counting on a safe, engaging place to be this summer, are left in a lurch. If we know that the middle school years are often challenging years for young people and we know the important role summer programs play in reducing summer learning loss and promoting positive youth development, what message are we sending to children and families if we eliminate these programs? What will children do this summer? Not only does this affect children, but it represents a loss of 80 part-time jobs as well. Our Saturday Program for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children, funded by OST Option II, is the only free city-wide program for deaf and hard of hearing young people outside of school. If the money is not restored, we will face very difficult decisions about the continuation of the program.

Summer Youth Employment Program
We are also deeply concerned about cuts to the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), which provided 52,255 jobs to young people last summer. The Mayor’s FY 2011 Preliminary Budget only includes $25 million to support 17,200 SYEP jobs. This is a significant reduction from the FY10 budget, when $67.5 million was available to support 52,255 jobs. The reduction is attributed to $20.7 million in federal summer jobs stimulus funding that was only available for FY 10; a proposed cut of $19.5 million in state SYEP funding; and a proposed cut of $1 million from the Mayor’s Preliminary Budget.

The Children’s Aid Society served 735 youth last summer from all five boroughs through SYEP. Of the youth that participated in SYEP with us, 478 were in high school. Youth worked in 60 worksites across New York City – 40 of these sites were in day camps and early childhood settings. There is nothing more powerful or transformative than youth having the opportunity to work with other youth. We know the difference that early work experience has in future employability. We know how many programs depend on summer youth workers to help them provide high quality services. And we know how many young people depend on summer youth employment to gain skills and help their families during these difficult times. While we understand that the majority of the cuts are coming from the federal and state levels, this will deeply affect New York City’s young people and families, and therefore oppose any cut at the city level.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. The Children’s Aid Society is your partner in working to preserve critical programs and services for the children and families who need them the most. When the economy has improved – and it will – it would be a tragedy if we looked back and realized that we cut programs so much that we lost another generation of young people and dismantled key systems that would have actually helped us to be a stronger and more productive country.

1http://www.nyc.gov/html/dycd/html/afterschool/ost_facts_figures.shtml