Recreation Worcester youth program jeopardized from state cuts to funding
WORCESTER — In the depths of a four-hour hearing on the city's proposed fiscal 2025 budget Tuesday, several councilors said they feared youth programming was not adequately funded after a state Youthworks budget cut at a time when violence involving teens and young adults had increased in the city.
While discussing the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services, councilors homed in on a loss of funding for Recreation Worcester, a free out-of-school time program run by the city.
The annual city budget is reviewed by the Standing Committee on Finance, which is made up of the entire City Council.
Councilor-at-Large Khrystian King referred to the loss of allocations for Recreation Worcester as "unacceptable." King, who is a social worker in the city, challenged the administration to move $500,000 in the budget toward youth programming and to commit to $2 million over the next four fiscal years.
"This ... is about life and death. We have challenges in our school budget, we have challenges all over the place," King said.
Recreation Worcester is projected to not have state grant funding in fiscal 2025. In the current fiscal year, the program received $450,000 in state grant funding. The program is projected to keep the same level of summer program donation funding from this fiscal year, $120,000.
Youth programming temporary staff funding is projected to be down from $897,403 this fiscal year to $447,403 for fiscal 2025. As temporary staff, the city's Youth Council is projected to receive $35,011 that it was not previously allocated.
King said he appreciated immediate efforts to respond to violence by the city and police, but added the city cannot simply increase the police response and called for the city to take a comprehensive approach.
"Research shows the economic conditions, jobs, housing, access to mental health services, youth programming, diversion programming ... and community policing, all of it together is what moved the dial, and it's about the method that you're working in," King said.
Councilor-at-Large Kathleen Toomey, who chairs the Standing Committee on Public Safety, has said the city's rise in youth violence is a crisis that could get worse in the summer and called for expanded youth programming.
"It's an untenable situation that we've found ourselves in during this safety crisis where we should be expanding what we were doing," Toomey said. "We need more support out in the community for our youth, we're not reaching the youth that we really need to."
Young children afraid
Toomey said young children are afraid to come out in the city and many families do not know about available programs and resources. She said the City Council and administration need to come together for a "common ask" to community stakeholders and the state to restore the temporary staffing funding and expand youth outreach.
District 2 City Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson said Recreation Worcester is important for councilors, saying she previously spoke to the administration to bring Recreation Worcester to her district. She said the program needs to be in all five districts and hours should not be cut.
"I think what some of us are trying to say, and it's our job to say it, is how important this program is to us," Mero-Carlson said. "When I hear tonight that there is a possibility of that not being in every district, that's really scary for us as a city."
District 4 City Councilor Luis Ojeda also said now is the time for youths to have programming that could get them summer jobs to keep them occupied and improve their self-worth. He also contrasted the reduction in temporary staffing funding to increase the salaries of city administration cabinet heads and executive management.
Ojeda asked if the budget as a whole would be deemed "conservative."
Dr. Matilde Castiel, Worcester's commissioner of health and human services, said the department could use more funding but her team works extremely hard and has already made an incredible impact. She said the team works with the community to leverage ways to have greater impact.
City Manager Eric D. Batista said he told department heads that money coming to the city is getting thinner while the city has numerous priorities. He asked for departments to look at trends in budget areas that may have been funded higher than necessary where money could go back to the general fund.
In response to concerns about youth programming, and questions councilors had posed about cabinet level, executive management and other staff salary increases, Batista said he "could see where the conversation was going."
The manager repeatedly said the funding of salary increases and youth budgeting is like comparing "apples and oranges" and repeatedly warned against thinking of putting funding between two goals against each other. Batista said youth agencies across the city are facing difficult finances.
"What's happening in our youth, it's not just our youth department," Batista said. "This is recent news that I'm sharing right now publicly to all of you. What's happening to our youth office is something that's happened across the board to all of our youth agencies in the city. That's why we're establishing an emergency meeting to figure out how do we put forward an effort to address this right away."
Batista said he made the decision to move almost $2 million in police funding to the Division of Youth Opportunities because he understands the importance of youth services and has an intimate knowledge of the city's youth initiatives.
Committed to finding ways to fund programs
The manager said he is committed to finding ways to fund and support the city's youth programming now and moving forward.
The salary increases are an effort to address pay equity, as there are cabinet and executive management positions that are not matching salaries found in other cities in Massachusetts.
District 3 City Councilor George Russell said perception of increases in salaries while other programs may face cuts is enough for the council to need to take a look at the whole budget. He motioned for Batista to come back to committee with "creative changes."
Earlier in the hearing, Batista said he met with the city Youth Council when he first became manager and the idea of creating a youth agenda for the city came from that meeting. The agenda would give the city direction on what it needs to do to support youth.
Batista said the city administration was "very intentional" in increasing the Youth Council stipend in the fiscal 2025 budget to elevate their work.
In stating his issue with the youth program funding, King pointed to the $500,000 the city has allocated to fund Discover Central Massachusetts. The tourism marketing initiative was funded through federal American Rescue Plan Act funding over the last few years and has been moved back to regular city funding for fiscal 2025. DCM was launched by the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and has since developed into a separate entity.
King said that funding was a commitment to funding a branch of the chamber that he did not believe was effective.
An attempt by Russell to ask Batista to consider removing the DCM funding failed a standing committee vote May 14 with only Russell in support. King was not present for that vote.
Cities across the country have used summer programming as a means to deter violence at a time of the year when violence has traditionally risen. In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu announced the city's annual summer safety plan on Tuesday. The plan includes engaging young Bostonians through mental health resources, youth activities and workforce programs.
7 homicides so far in city
So far there have been seven homicides this year in Worcester. Last year, there were six in total. Youths or young adults were involved in several of the homicides as either victims or suspected perpetrators.
On April 30, 19-year-old Eathan Renteria was fatally shot in the head and slammed a sport utility vehicle into a house on Paine Street moments later. A 16-year-old male has been arrested in connection with the shooting.
On April 26, 14-year-old Stering Baptiste Jr. was found with a fatal gunshot wound inside of a Rodney Street apartment. Two 16-year-old males have been arrested in connection with the shooting.
On April 13, 24-year-old Bob Nuah was shot to death on Allendale Street. Lino Menjivar, 30, is wanted in connection with the killing. He is considered armed and dangerous.
On March 5, 27-year-old Chasity Nuñez and her 11-year-old daughter, Zella, were shot dead in a car parked on Englewood Avenue. Police have arrested two men in connection with the double fatal shooting.
On Feb. 14, 24-year-old Vesline Garnier was stabbed to death in an apartment on Douglas Street. Her domestic partner is charged in the case.
On Feb. 12, a 17-year-old male was gunned down at 14 Shannon St. A 21-year-old man was arrested in connection with the shooting, and the alleged shooter’s 18-year-old girlfriend was arrested as an accessory after the fact.
To address gun violence in the city, the Police Department launched the Crime Gun Intelligence Unit to target what Interim Chief Paul B. Saucier has said is a small population of "trigger pullers" in the city.
A May 10 statement from Batista, Petty and the City Council said the city acknowledged a rise in youth violence and is working on both "acute and long-term sustainable solutions" to reduce violence.
The statement also announced that Summer Impact, an annual program to deter summer violence, would start two weeks earlier beginning May 10.
While the city has seen a rise in homicides this year, a police spreadsheet released in April shows a more mixed assessment of violent crime for the first leg of 2024. Total reported gunshots were down considerably for the first quarter compared to the same period in 2023, by over 38% and down slightly relative to the five-year average for this same period, by over 4%.
Nonfatal shooting incidents and victims as well as stabbings and slashings were also down in the first quarter relative to 2023 and the five-year average.
Aggravated assaults were above the five-year average by 11% but fell relative to the first quarter of 2023 by over 14%.
Robberies rose slightly by over 2% compared to 2023 but are still down from the five-year average by over 18%.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Recreation Worcester faces cuts from state funding
