PBHA Rallies for More Funds

Yesterday afternoon, the Phillips Brooks House Association rallied alongside community organizers and other advocacy groups at the Massachusetts State House in response to the state’s budget proposal, which may result in cutbacks to funding for the association’s youth programs.

The new budget plan, issued by the Boston House Ways and Means Committee, calls for reductions in funding for many state government programs, including support for the University of Massachusetts, mental health services, and youth funding—the last of which has several implications for PBHA’s programs.

At the rally, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone of Somerville captured the sentiment of the crowd of approximately 300 when he expressed his displeasure with the measures.

“You cannot cut your way out of this economic problem, you cannot layoff your way out of this problem. We need leadership and will make the sacrifices on the municipal level,” he said.

According to Maria Dominguez Gray, Deputy Director of PBHA, cuts to the Boston Youth Fund (BYF) will have a large impact on the association’s employment of high school students in the Summer Urban Program (SUP). The program consists of 12 student-run camps that provide classroom experience and field trips to Boston and Cambridge Youth.

SUP usually hires 90-100 high school students to serve as junior counselors in its camps. BYF funds about $56,000 in salary for these counselors, according to Gray, and losing that funding would possibly force the program to drop roughly half of its junior counselor staff.

Under the proposed budget plan, the reduction in counselors could also result in an up to 50 percent reduction in the total size of the SUP program.

Aside from the BYF, which would be cut from $9 million to zero under the new budget proposal, other youth-oriented programs may be trimmed as well. The Department of Public Health Youth Violence Prevention Program would be reduced from $3.5 million dollars to zero, and the Shannon Anti-gang Violence Program would be cut from $13 million to zero. Collectively, the cutbacks to youth programs would total about $25.5 million.

These cuts will have a direct impact on PBHA’s funding. The association is slated to lose a $4000 grant from the Department of Public Health Youth Violence Prevention Program. It would also receive a reduced grant from the After-School and Out-of-School programs. The grant’s value would fall from $52,000 to $42,000.

Many of the grants not only fund the SUP program, but also term-time jobs worked by Boston youths at the camps.

Dominguez said that PBHA worries also about the potential rise in youth violence, that may be brought on by these job cuts.

“By cutting the funds, we’re really not saving money in the long run,” she said. “We end up having to pay more in taxes for prisons and the crimes affecting our communities—way more,” she said.