Essential After-School Program in Park Slope May Lose Funding

 

Photo by Park Slope Lens

Park Slope has lost garbage pick-up on 7th Ave because of funding cuts, and now we may be losing a time-tested after-school program that has helped low-income families for over 17 years. The Imani House, operating out of Primary School/Middle School 282, has an uncertain future because its contract with the city council is about to expire.

The program offers tutoring, various recreational activities, leadership training and conflict resolution programs to students from all five boroughs for virtually no cost to qualifying families. If the program is terminated, it could mean drastic measures for families who need the after-school care while parents are at work. According to the program's founder, Bisi Ideraabdullah, parents will need to either cut down on work hours or take another part time job to afford after-school programs or tutors that charge. 

Ideraabdullah goes on to say:

There should be after-school care for any parent that requests it. The government is being unrealistic; we know that parents have to work now. This isn’t a country where the woman can stay at home. The government should be supporting programs like this so people can work. It needs to be in every school.

Ideraabdullah also thinks that the program's funding was cut because of it's location in Park Slope. Although Imani House draws in students from the neediest zip codes in Brooklyn,  she fears the city thinks gentrified, high-income families are now the norm:

We are within walking distance of two housing projects, Gowanus and Wyckoff… Park Slope is not all it’s made out to be in terms of affluence. This used to be a hugely Hispanic area, a low income Hispanic area. There’s still a huge pocket of poverty.

Previously the program, which costs approximately $300,000 annually to run, had more than 75% of that funding covered by a city grant. Over the years that funding was gradually reduced and now it may be cut completely. Some families paid a small fee for their kids to attend, although most students were offered free spots because of financial need. 

Without the program in the slope, some parents are scrambling to figure out what they'll do with their children after school. A parent who has three children in the program had this to say:

I was thinking of working something out with my boss. I hope it won’t come to that, but it’s going to be tough — especially during the holidays when school is closed, but you have to work. Then, by the time summer comes around, you’re out of sick days and don’t know what to do.

[Via The Brooklyn Ink]