Caught In Red Tape, An Afterschool 'Lifeline' Is In Danger
Trapped in bureaucratic red tape, a Washington D.C. nonprofit is in financial trouble through no fault of its own. What's at stake? A safe place to go after school for some of the District's neediest children. It's a story of broken promises and bureaucratic inertia, and it needs to be solved.
City Gate, a nonprofit, faith-based organization, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary of bringing aid to some of the District's neediest citizens. But what they're not celebrating is a $60,000 payment promised to them from city money -- that has still not been paid to them.
This summer, City Gate was promised $60,000 in funds from D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to run a summer day camp at the Merrick Center, a new community center with a sparkling gym and computer lab located near public housing in Ward 8, a low-income ward in D.C.'s southeast quadrant. City Gate's summer day camp fed kids breakfast, lunch and dinner. The funds were to be filtered through a large grant OSSE gave to another nonprofit called Youth Engaged for Success (YES).
But at the end of the summer, founder Rev. Lynn Bergfalk got some terrible news, he told D.C.'s The Fight Back radio program recently.
The funding for the program, promised from the city, had fallen through. YES hadn't met the requirements to receive the grant, so the city superintendent's office was going to withhold the promised grant money, he was told. City Gate was out of luck.
In order to pay their employees, City Gate bled out their resources, borrowed money internally and borrowed on their corporate credit card, Bergfalk said. He didn't stop there. "I went to the bank and took something off my home equity line to make darn sure that every single one of our employees got paid at the end of the summer."
For the D.C. children who live in public housing east of the Anacostia River, summer can be scary. Many kids aren't able to eat filling, nutritious meals at home, and many don't have safe places to go, or things to do, during the summer months. City Gate also runs countless other programs in D.C.'s low-income neighborhoods -- literacy classes, food banks, clothing closets, tutoring -- the list goes on.
For City Gate, the lack of $60,000 will result in a fewer number of kids getting the classes, food and mentoring they so desperately need. "These programs in many ways are a lifeline," Bergfalk said. "For these kids it provides a safe place, a positive environment. These are bright, wonderful, beautiful kids. These programs are absolutely critical."
Even though OSSE is working with City Gate to make sure that the afterschool program at the Merrick Center can continue now and in the future, there are no plans to pay City Gate the $60,000 they're owed for the summer. OSSE says they're not responsible since they didn't give a grant directly to City Gate. But City Gate ran the program successfully. This debt, Bergfalk says, is taking a toll.
It's time to take action for the children of Ward 8. City Gate shouldn't have to pay for the financial screw-ups of another nonprofit. Leaders at D.C.'s OSSE should ensure that City Gate is paid for the afterschool programs they provided. Send a letter to D.C. leaders telling them not to punish City Gate for giving children a safe place to go after school.
Photo credit: tslane888 via Flickr
Carol Scott
is the Education Editor for Change.org.
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