Boys & Girls Club to Close?

Courtesy Boys & Girls Clubs Of Central Mississippi

Children at the Boys & Girls Club on Raymond Road may lose their after-school supervision due to funding shortfalls.

by Ward Schaefer
March 11, 2009

More than 1,000 Jackson schoolchildren could be left unsupervised after school if a local community organization does not receive donations soon. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi plans to close three of its six Jackson-area facilities at the end of the school year if it does not raise $500,000 by April 1. The group’s board of directors picked the Walker, Magnolia and Bolton units, which together serve roughly 1,200 children, for potential closure after a long and difficult process, Executive Director Billy Redd said.

“We’ve been cutting back for several years,” Redd said. “We got to this point where there are no more cuts.”

The organization’s dire financial situation is partly the consequence of the global economic recession, which has made grant money scarce even as demand for community services grows. The organization has also operated with a budget short on donations and long on grants for several years, according to Andre Conway, vice president of development.

“I think the community has gotten a little complacent in saying: ‘The Boys and Girls Clubs have always been here. They’ll always be taken care of.’” Redd said. “That’s true as long as the community steps up to support it. The other complacency is probably us as an organization. We need to do a better job telling our story.”

That story, Redd believes, includes the greater social benefits that come with helping and supervising Jackson youth—fewer high school dropouts, less juvenile crime and long-term economic development.

Dorothy Blackman, director of the Walker Unit Boys & Girls Club on Raymond Road, has already warned parents and children about the possibility of closure.

“The children are heartbroken; so are some of the parents,” Blackman said. “A lot of parents can’t afford after-school care for their children. That means if this club is nonexistent, then these children are going home to baby-sit themselves.”

Between 90 and 95 percent of the children at the Boys & Girls Clubs receive free or reduced-price lunch at school, Redd said. Parents pay only $25 of the $500 it costs the organization per year to take care of a child, saddling the organization with what Redd calls “a significant fundraising burden.”

“I’ve had people say, ‘Well, why don’t you raise your rates?” Redd said. “If we raise our rates, we dump more kids out on the street because the parents can’t afford it.”

Instead of raising fees, Redd first shortened club hours last year, closing centers at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. It was a difficult decision, he says, given evidence that teenagers are far less likely to commit crimes if supervised through the evening. More recently, the organization cut staff hours at all its facilities.

The Boys & Girls Clubs are not alone in their financial hardship. With private donors losing their investments and foundation money drying up, the entire nonprofit sector is suffering along with other businesses, according to Mississippi Center for Nonprofits Director Mark McCrary.

“Donations are down,” McCrary said. “Even the traditional givers, the people they have a relationship with, are cutting 25 to 50 percent of the contribution they gave last year or the last couple years.”

Stewpot Community Services, which provides clothing and shelter to homeless people in Jackson, is also feeling the effects of the downturn on private giving and grant money. Stewpot Executive Director Frank Spencer said that in January, Stewpot collected only $25,000 of the roughly $85,000 it needs to raise every month.

Stewpot will close the Flowers Shelter for Women and Children this weekend, Spencer said, because it never received essential grant money.

“The wiser thing to do is to close it down until we can be sure of funding it this year,” Spencer said of the Livingston Street facility, which serves roughly 30 women and children per month.

The federal stimulus package will provide some additional sources for grant money, whether through state or federal agencies. Organizations like Stewpot and the Boys & Girls Clubs will need to be aggressive in applying for federal money, though, and federal funds cannot arrive quickly enough to save the three Boys & Girls Clubs in jeopardy.

Conway says that private donors have supplied roughly $100,000 already, but that the full $500,000 is necessary to keep those centers open through 2009.

Bernard Williams, a pastor and father of two girls who attend the Walker Unit, sees danger for the entire community if the club closes.

“It would be a terrible loss,” Williams said. “Where will they go? Will we lose them to drugs? Will we lose them to the streets?”

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