News and Resources

 It was all about heart in the second edition of the Citi Field Kids program, which took place prior to the finale between the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds on Thursday afternoon. On hand to speak at the program was future Hall of FamerJohn Franco and Master of Ceremonies SNY anchor and reporter Michelle Yu.

Citi Field Kids, which is an educational and motivational community-based initiative for New York City school students in developed by Citi in collaboration with the Jackie Robinson Foundation. In the first edition of the program, Jake Ballard and Kari Miller spoke about overcoming obstacles.

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Children’s classrooms will remain unaffected in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 11th executive budget — but kids may have nowhere to go after the final bell rings.

The $68.7 million balanced budget includes no tax increases, but presents deep cuts to after-school programs, day care and fire companies while retaining more than 2,500 teacher positions the mayor proposed eliminating in his preliminary plan.

United Neighborhood Houses (UNH) called Bloomberg’s “lack of commitment” to children “nothing short of disgraceful.” 

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  70 West 36^th Street, 5^th Floor, New York, NY 10018-8007
 Phone: (212) 967-0322   Fax: (212) 967-0792   www.unhny.org

For Immediate Release: May 3, 2012
Contact: Annetta Seecharran, Director of Policy and Advocacy, (212) 967-0322 x329

United Neighborhood Houses Responds to the Mayor’s Failure to Restore Funding for Child Care and After-School in his Executive Budget

“United Neighborhood Houses (UNH) is outraged by the lack of commitment to children, working families, and older adults that is revealed in the Mayor’s Executive Budget this year.

The Mayor’s complete failure to restore funds to child care and after-school programs, including Out-of-School Time (OST), is nothing short of disgraceful. It is a hit to not only the 47,000 children who will lose the critical educational and social support they are provided through these programs, but to their parents, who will be forced to quit their jobs to take care of their children or leave them alone after the school day ends.  Thousands of jobs will be lost at non-profit agencies with the shuttering of these programs. In the UNH agency network alone, over 50% of OST programs, which service approximately 6,000 children, are already slated for closure.

This budget devastates the infrastructure that keeps hard-working parents in their jobs, provides children and youth with productive educational opportunities, and strengthens the current and future generations of New Yorkers. The fact that services supporting low-income communities including after-school and child care programs have failed to rise to the top of the Mayor’s priority list is shameful.”

United Neighborhood Houses (UNH) is the membership organization of New York City settlement houses and community centers. Rooted in the history and values of the settlement house movement, UNH promotes and strengthens the neighborhood-based, multi-service approach to improving the lives of New Yorkers in need and the communities in which they live. UNH’s membership comprises one of the largest human service systems in new York City, with 37 agencies working at more than 400 sites to provide high quality services and activities to a half million New Yorkers each year. UNH supports its members through policy development, advocacy, and capacity building activities.

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Download statement here. 

  STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 14-year-old’s world ought to revolve around school, friends and family, most would agree.

But Sara Cavasos had a pressing concern of a different sort, one she shared yesterday with 300-plus people at a rally at Temple Emanu-El in Port Richmond.

She spoke about how proposed cuts to the federal budget would shred the safety net for her and her mother, which includes quarters in a family shelter.

“It’s really hard,” she quavered through tears, as her mother stood beside her. “I don’t know what to do, one day to the next. And if you cut the programs, what will people like us do?”

The rally kicked off a campaign to fight the proposed cuts to the Community Service Block Grant Program that would cost the city $31 million. Staten Island services like immigrant assistance, healthy families, after-school programs and housing assistance would lose $750,000, said Suzanne Lynn, deputy commissioner for the Department of Youth and Community Development.

Kevin Douglas of United Neighborhood Houses, part of a coalition of citywide organizations leading the charge against the cuts, urged Islanders to fight back via petitions, letters, meetings and online efforts. The same cuts were proposed last year, Douglas noted, but an all-out community effort rolled them back. “This money is important to you,” Douglas said. “If it is eliminated, we are all going to suffer.” 

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"People are describing the OST awards as a bloodbath," said Wackstein. "When the EarlyLearn awards are announced, it's going to be just as serious." 

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The Campaign for Children sent a letter to Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris, signed by 200 Board members of non-profit organizations across the City, urging her attention toward the proposed cuts to child care and after-school. See the letter below: 

May 1st, 2012

Hon. Patricia Harris, First Deputy Mayor
City of New York
City Hall
New York, N.Y. 10007

Dear Deputy Mayor Harris:

We are Board members of New York City nonprofit organizations that provide and advocate for social service and educational programs for thousands of children and youth throughout the five boroughs. We write to you, as philanthropists and concerned citizens, about the Mayor’s plan to dramatically reduce City funding for child care and afterschool programming.

As Board members, each of us supports organizations that either directly provide quality services to families and children or promote polices that allow these services to be delivered. We devote our time and our dollars to these organizations because we strongly believe in their mission of helping
people in need.

 Our donations certainly are important in supplementing and enhancing the impact of City funding for essential services for families and children, but they CANNOT replace it. Public funding for child care and afterschool programs is core funding for nonprofit organizations, and without it many programs will be forced to close.

 We are sure you want to see private charitable dollars used in the most efficient and innovative way. It is not feasible for private donors to replace core government support for essential services; nor does it represent a good use of our donations.

We urge you to consider the impact of these proposed cuts on the children, youth and families who will be hurt. Working families rely on these programs, and they provide children with the educational support that will lead to school success. In fact, without these programs, the quality of life for thousands of children will be diminished, therefore having a negative impact on the quality of life for all of us.

We also ask you to consider the impact on the ability of the City’s network of nonprofit organizations, on whose Boards we serve, to continue to help the most vulnerable New Yorkers.

Thank you for considering our views.

Download the letter to see all 200 Board member signatures. 

Before the 2012 NFL Draft got underway and before the New York Mets defeated Jose Reyes and the Miami Marlins in a ninth-inning nail-biter yesterday, some modern-day heroes took over Citi Field to share their experience, strength and hope with children from TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program For Survivors), theWheelchair Sports Federation(WSF) and the United Neighborhood Houses (UNH) in the first Citi Field Kids event of the 2012 season.

Jake Ballard, tight end for the New York Giants, Kari Miller, 2008 Paralympic Games silver medalist in Women's Sitting Volleyball and SNY Anchor and Master Of Ceremonies for Citi Field Kids, Michelle Yu, were on hand to lead by example. 

Read the full article about the Citi Field Kids fourth season opening event! 

 City budgetary cuts may produce thousands of “latch key” Queens children if funds to day care and after-school programs remain slashed.

Allocations to the Administration for Children’s Services is down more than $30 million in the city’s preliminary budget for the 2013 Fiscal Year.

“Thousands of families won’t be able to have access to affordable child care,” said Gregory Brender, policy advisor for United Neighborhood Houses. “They’ll face a horrible choice of leaving their kids at home or not going to work. We can’t have these children become latch key kids.”

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