Fearing the city will eliminate the Parsons Beacon program in Flushing, youngsters, their parents and elected officials came out on a rainy Thursday night to protest the potential closing.
Organized by Councilman Jim Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), the rally was held early enough so that kids from the after-school program could participate before going home. Several parents and community leaders also joined in.
Due to budget constraints, the mayor’s FY 2013 budget calls for eliminating an estimated seven Beacons in the city. Queens has 20 such programs, and elected officials indicated that eight of them could be among those chosen for closure, including the Parsons one.
Each Beacon program costs about $330,000 a year, and the city estimates it could save $2.46 million if seven of them are shut down.
Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows), who participated in Thursday’s event, noted that the Parsons Beacon serves more than 1,000 people a year.
Lancman wrote in a letter to the Department of Youth and Community Development commissioner that the Beacon helps students in the fourth through eighth grades get homework help and recreation time. High school students volunteer and develop leadership skills through internships. Lancman urged the commissioner to protect the program.
The Parsons Beacon is located at R.F. Kennedy Community Middle School and the Queens School of Inquiry, both located at 158-40 76 Road. Participating youngsters held up homemade signs asking the city to keep the program open. Gabby, a sixth grader, called the program fun. “I get homework help and people take care of me,” she said.
Sylvia Wilson, whose son, Collin, 11, has been attending the program since September, says he looks forward to it. “He takes part in basketball, football, does his homework and gets help if he needs it,” Wilson said.
She added that Collin stays until 6:30 p.m. almost every schoolday. “He loves everything about the Beacon,” she said. “It means a lot to the kids.”
Gennaro called the rally, “the first salvo,” saying, “We have to tell the good story of the Beacons and they will be saved.” “There is an effort to cut back, but we are pushing back.”
Lancman, who got involved with youth issues when he served on Community Board 8, called the program “a terrific organization that is well run.”
State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) noted that the program is like a “beacon of light that attracts older and younger people.” Although as a state legislator, she has no direct control over cityspending, Stavisky said “we speak out on issues all the time. The Beacons provide resources that are essential to working-class people.”
Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz (D-Flushing) said that even though these are hard economic times, there is fat in the city budget that can be eliminated, although he did not elaborate. “The Beacon programs are not fat,” Simanowitz said. “They are essential. We have to stop the mayor from using kids and seniors as bargaining chips.”
A total of 16 Beacon programs were to be eliminated this year, but money was found to extend them to the end of this fiscal year.
Marva Dudley, chairwoman of the Parsons Beacon Advisory Board, asked where the youngsters would go if the program was eliminated, especially for those whose parents work and count on the program for watching their children. “I hope our voices are heard,” Dudley added.
Ken Cohen, president of the Flushing Suburban Civic Association, said that if the Beacon is closed, “it would be an atrocity.”
Officials at the rally said that the city has refused to release the names of the Beacons on the chopping block, which makes it difficult to organize protests. But Gennaro said: “No one wants to lose a Beacon.”
Deepmalya posted at 10:49 am on Sat, Feb 25, 2012.
The great tragedy of the city’s proposed cutbacks to Beacon programs is the damage it will do to the children, families and communities that rely on them. Afterschool programs keep kids safe in the afternoon, inspire student learning, and help working families.
Beacon Programs are at the foundation of the communities that they serve and they are the best model of after-school programming that the city offers. They extend services and access late into the evenings, often staying open until 9 or 10 at night; and they are open on the weekends and in the summers. They allow community-based organizations, like the one that I work for, to extend needed services beyond just the children and families that are part of the school, but also to the broader community by serving youth of all ages, along with parents, neighborhood adults and seniors.
The city’s stated objective of preserving funding for afterschool programs in the neediest communities is cold comfort to needy families who happen to live in a zip code that doesn’t happen to make the cut. Trust me, plenty of families who rely on Beacon afterschool programs will be hurt and hurt badly if these cuts are enacted.
The truth is that Beacons are a terrific investment — in our kids, our communities, and our future. We should be doubling down on afterschool programs, not paring them back.
Deepmalya Ghosh
The author is Director of Youth Development Programs at The Child Center of NY, Inc.