Recession Proof Youth Services

The sound of kids playing nearby in Henry M. Jackson Playground along Henry Street is all too common . Not far away, children accompanied by their parents can be seen entering Henry Street’s Youth Services, services which focus on educating, encouraging, and enriching the lives of the individual youth. In spite of the economic downturn, not much has changed.

“Luckily, we have been recession proof,” said Gregory Rideout, Deputy Program Officer for Youth and Workforce Development. “I mean we have reductions here and there but not really as a result of the recession. Youth Services is doing well.”

Close to 3,500 young people participate in Henry Street’s Youth Services every year. Rideout, who has worked for Youth Services at the Henry Street Settlement for four years, said the program is broken down into three departments: Day Care, Out of School Time, and Adolescent services.

“We are a settlement house, so one of the nice things about us is that you can walk through our very inviting doors,” said Rideout. “Centrally located to the neighborhood, you can get youth services but also gain access to everything else that Henry Street has to offer. Every kid that comes in gets that access. That really puts us in a good place.”

Day Care, which contains 98 kids from the community who are income eligible by city standards is offered for those that are in crisis, perhaps as a result of there mothers leaving or a domestic violence situation.

Out of School Time services is inclusive of after school, school holidays, and summer day camp. After school programs are run at three local elementary schools, P.S. 20, 134, and 110 in the area.

Adolescent services, which is a conglomeration of individual programs, includes a peer to peer health education program which offers a variety of workshops and community outreach events in an attempt to get kids to practice safer sex. In addition, there is a college prep program, where they try to get kids into college by primarily tutoring at the younger high school grades and helping them with college and financial aid applications.

“This is a big thing in the community,” said Rideout. “Most of these kids don’t know about going to college. Their families don’t know much about the college process either.”

Youth Services also has three youth employment programs: summer, disengaged youth, and in school.

The summer youth employment program serves kids from all over the city, an estimated 2,500 kids this summer. It is based on borough specificity, where the kid needs to be enrolled in the borough in which they live before choosing to work in another borough. According to Rideout, it is arguably one of the first programs in the city that will see the stimulus money coming through from the government.

“We’re going up,” said Rideout. “The stimulus money is allowing us to serve and place 1,000 more kids in summer youth employment. Last year, we served about 1 out of every 3 kids that applied.”

The disengaged youth program, which is exclusively funded for Community District 3 through the Mayor Bloomberg’s Center for Economic Opportunity, serves 16 to 24 year olds who are not working and not in school. They go through a 14 week intensive program in which the first three weeks are training and the final 11 weeks are a paid internship.

“My hope is that they are getting engaged with positive adult role models and keeping off the streets,” said Rideout. “We’re really trying to push academic success. I mean, we are only with them for a certain amount of time, a few hours where they can make good or bad decisions. Hopefully, they will be busier and staying out of trouble.”

School youth employment is a 10 week, once a week career lab for sophomores, juniors and seniors during the school year. They receive work readiness training and are placed in a paid internship for three to six months where they get a stipend by successfully completing the career lab. According to Rideout, it makes kids feel as if they have a part-time job.

Given the economic downturn, one would assume that there would be a change in the amount of students taking part in youth services. However, Rideout says Youth Services has seen a steady enrollment.

“For the most part, I don’t struggle with enrollment, well I struggle with over-enrollment” jokes Rideout. “I’ve got waiting lists in every single grade level of day care, after school program, and I can serve as many more kids as I get money for in youth employment and college prep.”

One student, Alexis Reyes lives in Coney Island and commutes for one hour twice a week. He expressed the importance of the community service program in his life.

“I’ve been going to day camp since I was 9,” said the 17-year-old Reyes. “The programs that they’ve had here helped me through high school. SAT preparation, tutoring, and helping with me financial aid helped a lot.”

Meanwhile, Asuanana Etuk, who moved to the Lower East Side from Nigeria three years ago, comes practically every day after school, Monday through Friday.

“I’m able to get my homework done here,” said the 17-year-old Etuk. “During exams and regents, I meet with the staff that helps a lot. They are helping me prepare for college.”

The one economic issue that Rideout points out is that camp is a one hundred percent fee based program which isn’t subsidized. This is a financial struggle for parents to commit to who are used to getting services for free.

“Ever since the mid 90’s and the reform of the welfare system, there has been this trend that even with the stimulus money coming into the city it’s going to fund very specific things,” said Rideout. “There is going to be a level of responsibility by parents to at least partially support the activities that their kids are taking part in. It’s a learning curve for parents.”

Rideout felt the only major concern was that after school has been kind of left out of the mix. There is a very heavy emphasis from Washington on down with the new president on Early Childhood Education and expanding universal pre-K. There also is an emphasis on older youth to work so youth employment programs are flushed.

“Anyone and everyone will get behind our college prep,” said Rideout. “They are the first in their families to be going college, coming from an inner city neighborhood, and going to a New York City public school that has the notorious statistics that it does. A lot of people get behind that.”

Meanwhile, he pointed out that the other two departments are looking very solid. In fact, Day care can’t grow because there’s no more space.

“There are literally regulations on how many square feet you need per child,” said Rideout. “They are not in jeopardy. Adolescent services will be bigger. After school, we’ll have to wait and see after the spring.”