Financial problems have forced the South Everett Youth and Community Center, which served 500 low-income and minority youths last year, to at least temporarily shut its doors.
The center has been serving the community since 1929.
"We’re the oldest youth and community center in the city," said Jim Brauch, the organization’s board president. "Unfortunately, that won’t do us any good if we don’t keep the doors open.
"These kids that we serve … they will have no place else to go," Brauch added. "That’s the biggest heartbreaker of this whole thing."
Pam Bracy, the youth center’s executive director and last paid staff member, was let go Friday because of the organization’s financial woes, Brauch said.
Bracy said financial problems were triggered when the organization didn’t get some major funding in the past year, including a $40,000 request from the city of Everett.
Only two activities led by volunteers, youth boxing and karate lessons, are still being held at the center, Brauch said.
The center’s boxing classes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings and the Saturday morning karate classes will continue with volunteer teachers, Brauch said. Both classes will continue to accept new students, he added.
Brauch said last year’s budget was about $200,000, "but that’s no where close to what we took in (in revenue) in 2003."
He said he isn’t yet sure of the organization’s total debt. Board members are looking through records to determine the amount.
"It’s worse than what I thought it would be," Brauch said. Nevertheless "we’re going to pay our bills, one way or the other."
The organization is so strapped for cash that Brauch called the company that owns a leased copier in the building and asked them to pick it up.
The community center is housed in a wood-frame building at 7628 Cascade Drive. It was constructed by volunteers for neighborhood recreation and social events in 1929.
In 1959, it formally began operations as a nonprofit agency to serve the needs of youths.
It served more than 500 youths last year in programs that ranged from recreational activities, such as basketball and pool, to training students in computers and Internet skills.
The last few months, it had reduced staffing and hours, basically operating as an after-school drop-in center for up to 30 youths, Bracy said.
Prior to the closure, Bracy said the group had a staff of 15 in early 2003. By mid-year it was cut to about seven.
It applied to Everett for $40,000 for youth employment and training activities "and we didn’t get anything," she said.
Everett’s human-needs-funding review committee did reject a $40,700 grant request for a job-training program, said Dave Koenig, Everett’s manager of long-range planning and community development.
"It was a change in direction from what the committee had funded in the past," Koenig said, explaining why the center’s request was rejected.
Bracy said she understood why the city might not grant funding for a new program the center wanted to try.
"There are other organizations that do this and do this well, and it’s feasible and logical to give a grant to someone who has been doing this a number of years," she said.
The committee did fund a job training program of the Center for Career Alternatives, which has long done job training. But it was for a lot less money: The center asked for $14,500; the city granted $11,000.
The city has been giving money to the center for years, Koenig said.
This fiscal year, it is receiving $16,300 in federal Community Development Block Grant money — the entire amount the center requested — for building renovations, he said.
Also, during the previous financial year, the city allocated $13,000 in federal money for the group’s recreation activities. And last year the center also received $5,000 in city money for recreation.
In the days before the center shut down, Brauch said he’s had kids come to the door and ask when it would reopen.
"I have to tell them, I don’t know," he said.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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