Page 158 - Demo

Pag* Fourteen, PHOENIXAgencies Seek Funds for SurvivalContinued from Page 3Brooklyn Multi Purpose Self HelpCouncil on Bergen St., and NeighV v A r K r t A ^ C n r t t i o o C S I l t S f S I l k ?Cobble Hill%u2019s at 215 Smith St. andLa Casa at Columbia St. near Kaneprovide information and referralsfor housing, employment, legalservices, medicaid and welfare. Inaddition, La Casa, the center forthe Puerto Rican waterfrontcommunity, provides tutoring,adult education and informationabout the public school system. LaCasa%u2019s special housing service hasexpanded neighborhood awarenessof housing codes and tenantsrights.Although the OEO was expectedto begin its phasing out of community programs in 1974, theadditional time gained would haveallowed some of the programs tobecome self-sustaining, Ms.Martin feels. However, she ishopeful that some parts of thecorporation will be picked up undersome new funding plan. With thewithdrawal of federal funding,$20,000,000 (roughly 50 per cent ofthe community anti-povertyprogram) will be lost to the city,she says. Pessim istic aboutrevenue sharing, she believes thatmoney, already designated forother programs will be spentbefore getting to the povertyprogram, and if not, will nevertheless be in a far more confusedstate in the hands of localpoliticians.The President is faced, Ms.Martin says, with built-in expenditure increases whichtraditionally outrun federal income. He promised the country noincome tax increase and he is alsopledged to curb inflation. Persuaded to keep the value of thedollar and to keep the federaloutlay roughly compatible withfederal income, he has adopted theprinciple of the %u201cfull employment%u201dbudget, she feels. %u201cThe president%u2019sinterest in additional revenuesharing programs in consistentwith the statement of %u201cgetting thefederal government off your backand out of your pocket,%u201d she says,and adds, %u201cit would be fascinatingto observe how acceptable this is toCongress which is reluctant to giveup the power to decide where thefederal dollars are allocated %u201dWilliam K. Banks, executivedirector of the Colony-SouthBrooklyn Houses, will chair theeA nr>atm n n a n e l a t th is w %u00ab %u00bb tp n d %u2019 s%u201cNew Alliances%u201d conference at theYWCA. Believing that the new daycare cuts were designed toultimately get women out of theirjobs and back into the home, thedirector of the 67-year-cld agencywhich offered visiting nurse services and English as a secondlanguage during its early days,wonders why the feministmovement which calls foruniversal day care is not bandingin protest against day care%u2019salmost total dissolution.Rumors about impending daycare cuts were heard earlier thisyear, Banks says, but then after aprotest trip to Albany the statepromised to maintain the presenteligibility structure until June.However, Nixon, who Banks feels,confused the people about therecipients of early childhood care,leading them to believe that thecountry was supporting welfaremothers, came up with the newfederal guidelines to allay middleclass concerns about where theirtaxes go. With $5400 for a family offour, the new day care ceiling, onlyabout 7 per cent of the peopleenrolled in present centers will beeligible to continue, Banksbelieves. Thus the workingmothers who have been able togain employment because of the 8-6 daily hours of the centers and thequality care their children receive,will be forced to take their childrenout and give up their jobs. Underthis new version of Catch 22, theworking mother will have to giveup her income and remove herchild from the place designed toprovide a haven for the youngsterso that the mother could go towork. When die mother is no longeremployed she can then reapply,but must find work (at a salarybelow the maximum) within sixweeks. However, if on welfare, shecan be enlisted in a trainingprogram which may place her as aparaprofessional in the day carecenter to replace the professionalstaff which was forced to leavebecause of the interim lack ofchildren. The paraprofessionalmother, of course, will be employed at minimum salary to workoff the welfare subsidy. Thesituation is demeaning Banks says,and in addition will become morecostly. Running of a day carecenter currently costs about $2000.per child per year and ends up lesswith the average income tax of$200. per family, he says. However,welfare subsidies amounting toHouse o f Food a n d Thoughtabout $3400. per year per mother, of the Healthwill have the federal governmentspending extra money on the deal.Nevertheless as Banks points out,Nixon in his move to push thewomen out of work, can replacethem with men. With women in thehome not counted on the unemployment rolls, it will then seem asthough employment figures haverisen.Francois Domain* PhotoEducation andWelfare Dept, does not come underthe same guidelines, but as Bankssays, is sure to have its programcut, if the other anti-day carestructures go through.The agency Banks heads, SouthBrooklyn Colony Houses, is amulti-funded settlement with itscentral staff paid by its own fundraising. Its five South Brooklynday care centers however, will beaffected by the new guidelines. TheLow Memorial Center which runstwo programs at the UnitarianChurch on Monroe Place will beable to retain only six of the 87children it now cares for, Banksadvises. The Pedro Nino AfterSchool Center on Wyckoff St., TheColony House Day Care Center inthe Gowanus Housing Project andthe Granada Hotel Day CareCenter (which was just begun toassist families placed at the hotelafter fires in their homes) will allbe affected by the federal move.The Headstart Center at ColonyHouse which is now under the aegisThe agency, which left its earlyhome at the Low family building anJoralemon St. three years ago,runs various programs in the SouthBrooklyn area. A legal secretarytraining program is housed at theYWCA on 30 Third Ave., a weldingtraining center is maintained at 620DeGraw St., with 125 welderscoming out every three months,and a senior citizens center hasbeen started at the building onAtlantic Ave. and Nevins St.shared by the Nevins Day CareFacility. The three communitycenters; run by Colony Houses;one each in the Gowanus, Wycoffand Marcy housing projects, willlose staff because of the federalcutbacks, and the district%u2019s schoolprograms under Title One are alsojeopardized, Banks says.The situation is alarming, thedirector warns. And to preventapathy, disillusion, or perhapsviolence, S. Brooklyn mustdiscover other funding immediately, he adds. %u201cThere will bemoney someplace, %u201cBanks says,%u201cbut it will be under the guise ofsomething else %u2014 like the Fish andWildlife division.%u201dDebbie Allan, assistant directorof the Farragut Day Care Center,one of the pre school groups included in the March 21 meeting atGold St., feels that it may benecessary to train mothers tosupply the learning experiencesand socializing arrangementspreviously obtained by theirchildren at the day care facilities.Advising that the centers havealready received the neweligibility forms, denying all applicants but children in a $5400maximum income family, childrenof parents who have been onwelfare within the previous 60days, children of welfarerecipients who will be getting jobswith pay below the maximumsalary, children of families in%u201c extenuating circum stances%u2019%u2019(parents in mental hospitals).All parents will be reviewed inApril, Ms. Allan says, and mostwill be told that they are ineligible.The day care centers, she explains,are under the Agency for ChildDevelopment, and receive 75 percent of their funding from thefederal government, 12Vfe per centfrom the city, and another 12^ percent from the state. There are 380group centers (centers withstructures built for day carepurposes caring for pre schoolchildren from 3-6, and after school,for children aged 6-12), 90 per centof which are in New York, shesays. Along with the parents andchildren who will be forced out ofthe program, most of the teacherswill kise their job , Ms Allanadds.The funding crisis describedherein has also affected the newState -Schermerhom housingslated to go up in the Boerum Hillarea, so that the expected subsidies for low income familiessupposed to be included in theproject, will, at best, be reduced toa minimum. Brooklyn PublicLibrary outreach programsjeopardized include four community coordinators (one in RedHook-Cobble Hill), a %u201cSidewalkService%u201d autovan, and a programfor pre-school children presentedin day care centers, churches,housing projects, communitycenters and schools. The libraryprograms have been funded underHEW%u2019s Library Services andConstruction Act since 1964, and 10 years later have been cut out ofNixon%u2019s budget.4^ Jtlidniq -4AMC U A 7 / M 1 W / 'SS 9 studio7 P.M. - 18DANE. VAZQUE2 858-3086M SDon't Miss aSingle IssueSubscribe Today76 Clark St. COMPLETE M A 4-1646CLEANING \COLD STORAGE*LAUNDRY SERVICEBIRGER SERVICEAbsam French Dry Cleaners, Inc.f1IiIReturn This Coupon*T H E F^ H O EN IX3 2 C S n to n 8 t B rooklyi 11201Etaese Ewtor My SvfetcipHen.iiiaVN A M E .ADDRESS.C ITY. , Z I P .IIIIIIIIsI%u25a0! ONE Y E A R -O N LY $4.}