Sunday, January 13, 2008
West End Center's benefits unsung
Shanna Flowers
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The West End Center has no more rabbits to pull out of its hat.
The scrappy little agency that always has managed somehow to find the dollars to keep its doors open after school to some of Roanoke's most disadvantaged youngsters said Friday it has no more money mojo.
Executive Director Kaye Hale, board Chairman Joe Christenbury, and board members Frankie Robbins and Judith Jackson said that without an infusion of cash by March, the center is looking at reducing an already bare-bones staff, merging with another organization or, in the worst case, closing.
"We're just at the point where the community has to decide whether it wants this program," Hale said.
I reminded Hale that in recent years, money always has been an issue for the West End Center. She agreed, but added that in previous years the agency had been able to cut here and there and borrow to keep the program running.
But this year, she said, donations in December and January -- the center's two largest fundraising months -- are down drastically.
On top of that, there's no more room for cuts without radically altering the structure of the program. There's no more money to borrow because the buildings are mortgaged to the hilt and the $100,000 line of credit is completely used up.
Whether Roanokers want to admit it or not, the city needs places such as West End Center. Every day, school buses from all over the city deposit children at the center at 13th Street and Patterson Avenue Southwest.
Without the center, these kids would become latchkey children without adult supervision. Studies have shown that young people are more likely to get into trouble in the hours after school when they are unsupervised.
As a community, we can't afford that.
Established in 1979 by West End Presbyterian and West End Methodist churches and neighborhood organizations, the center now consists of three buildings.
More than 100 elementary, middle and high school students pour through the doors after school for a variety of services ranging from tutoring, individual mental health counseling and mentoring to just plain fun and games.
Hale said that 60 percent of the families the agency serves live at or below the federal poverty guidelines.
She added that West End Center is one of only a few places in the city that serves kids over age 12. Most after-school centers, she said, are geared toward elementary students.
Like most nonprofits, West End Center has seen its donations dwindle in recent years. The agency has a $600,000 annual budget. Less than 10 percent -- about $43,000 -- is public dollars, supplied by Community Development Block Grant funds funneled through the city as well as a grant from Roanoke's Department of Human and Social Services.
The remainder comes from private dollars, with about half of it from individuals.
"People just aren't making as much money," Robbins said, adding that donors have to stretch their dollars further to cover basic living expenses.
Hale, who has worked at the center for 24 years, said the money crunch started six years ago after 9/11.
Since then, the West End Center has struggled for dollars. When the economy turned down, the agency stopped receiving stock gifts. Corporations have become more selective and dole out fewer philanthropic dollars.
This summer, for the first time, the West End Center began charging families $15 a week for each child. That's still a bargain for after-school care.
Hale said the jolt came this month when the agency tallied gifts that came in over the holidays. Normally, the center receives about $200,000 collectively in December and January.
Last month, donors sent in $88,000; Hale and the board expect no more than $30,000 in January. That's a shortfall of $82,000.
Unless the center makes up the shortfall through revenue in the next few months, Hale said, the program at the least will have to undergo staff cuts. The center already has cut three staff members since last summer, lowering the number to 11.
Staff cuts would mean a huge restructuring of the center. The program would have to serve fewer students because state licensing requires low staff-to-student ratios.
Another alternative, Hale said, is to merge with another group. She said the board has identified three organizations, but she would not name them. The last option is closing.
"Even though we've faced the possibility of closing before," Jackson said, "it's not slapped us in the face like this."
As a community, we either don't understand or are oblivious to the value of places such as the West End Center.
We need to look beyond the three nondescript, concrete buildings outside, and the stained and mismatched furniture inside to appreciate what the center can produce.
Roanoke native Brittany Phanelson came into the center just as I wrapped up my conversation with Hale and the board members. The 21-year-old senior at Old Dominion University volunteers at the center when she's at home on break.
Phanelson started going to the West End Center when she was 5. This spring, she will receive her bachelor's degree in nursing and begins graduate work in the fall.
Raised by her grandmother, Phanelson said she benefited most from the center's tutoring program.
In high school, she took advanced placement courses and noted that the tutors helped with homework that her grandmother would not have been able to help her with. Her tutors became her role models.
"I looked up to them," said Phanelson, who works at a Norfolk hospital.
On Jan. 21, the 18-member West End board of directors will meet to get fundraising assignments from the finance committee.
Hale said that board members will be responsible for approaching different segments of the community, such as government, businesses, churches and individuals.
That will be a tough assignment in a community where many donors are committed to other projects.
But with alums such as Phanelson, the West End Center shows it's equally worthy of donor support.
