El Toro Youth Center, a refuge for hundreds of low-income
children and families, is forced to close its doors today after a
fruitless attempt to secure steady funding.
Morgan Hill – El Toro Youth Center, a refuge for hundreds of low-income children and families, is forced to close its doors today after a fruitless attempt to secure steady funding. The result: anger and mistrust as to how Community Solutions ran the program.
As parents scratch their heads, wondering how the Crest Avenue center could be closing after nearly 20 years, Community Solutions directors say the did all they could to save the program but couldn’t come up with grants in an era of government cutbacks.
While phones and DSL service is scheduled to be cut off today at the center, which is leased by the city to Community Solutions for $1 per year, a vigilant effort is under way to save the doomed program.
An ad hoc group is meeting to discuss ways to keep the center open on a limited basis this summer, but labor laws could prevent that from happening, said Community Solutions CEO Erin O’Brien.Â
Meanwhile, Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate and others are helping organize a pledge drive to raise $100,000 while El Toro attempts to join Catholic Charities, said Lori Escobar, the youth center’s director for nearly 20 years – who was told three weeks ago she’d be out of a job.
“I am very disappointed in the short notice, but also optimistic we can keep it open,” Escobar said, adding she was notified three weeks ago that the program would be cut at the end of the month.
El Toro Youth Center has operated in Morgan Hill for nearly 20 years. The center addresses the needs of low-income families and youth through computer literacy classes, homework assistance and tutoring, recreational activities, ‘survival’ workshops, anti-drug and alcohol education and first aide classes.
For the last five and half years, the program has existed under the auspices of Morgan Hill-based Community Solutions, a non-profit social services agency which runs about 20 different programs. The agency relies on grants for each program and uses 15 percent of its total budget for administrative overhead, such as payroll and outreach services. More than 80 percent of its $150,000 annual budget comes from government sources, said resources director Lisa De Silva.
Despite some finger-pointing by parents and El Toro Youth Center staff members, De Silva denies financial misdoings played a part in the program’s demise. Instead, she blamed the county’s shrinking pool of social services dollars on El Toro’s failure to gain steady financial footing.Â
Since the center joined Community Solutions in 2002, she said, directors have scrambled to find grants to meet the program’s yearly budget.
Each Community Solutions program must secure its own outside funding. Grants are a common source, but often the earmarked funds cannot be shared without running afoul of the law.
With money running out last year, Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage helped secure a $150,000 grant from the county to give managers a chance to look for additional funding without worrying about month-to-month bills.
After a failed attempt to partner with the Morgan Hill Unified School District as a Proposition 49-funded after-school program, Community Solutions approached the YMCA for assistance. While there was interest in forming a partnership, there was no money, De Silva said, and in the spring those plans were abandoned.
“We had no choice,” De Silva said of the decision to drop El Toro as a program. “A decision had to be made based on lack of funding … and it’s not for of lack of (moral) support or because it’s not a good program.”
The news came as a shock to parents who rely on the youth center to provide a safe place for their children to do homework and hang out with positive role models.
“They’re closing the doors on the kids,” said Morgan Hill resident Ruby Amaya, who said her daughter found the help she needed at the center when she was struggling in high school. “They helped me help my children … by giving them a good place to go when I had to work.”
Marina Lores said the center sponsored her son’s participation in youth baseball and helps him with his studies.
“Next year he is going to junior high, and he might not have a place to go” after school, Lores said, adding her husband works full-time and while she attends San Jose State to launch a career. “They should have given the parents more time to look for a way to keep the center open.”
Escobar said she is prepared to volunteer for up to three months to keep the center running. After that, she said she may need to look for work if the center cannot find steady funding under another umbrella organization.
If El Toro Youth Center joins another social services organization, the city would transfer the lease for the building to that umbrella agency.
