El Toro Youth Center will stay open for the summer after fearing
insufficient funds would force it to close Friday.
Morgan Hill – El Toro Youth Center will stay open for the summer after fearing insufficient funds would force it to close Friday.
“It’s a huge relief,” said Lori Escobar, director of the youth center for nearly 20 years, who had started to pack up her things on Wednesday. “I had been letting go emotionally, but at the same time the kids were asking me if we were going swimming next week and when we’d be having our overnight party. That was the emotional tug … looking into their little faces and feeling I had let them down.”
The center’s parent organization, non-profit Community Solutions, announced late Thursday night it would free up $18,000 in reserve funds – and also increase its fundraising target by that amount for the next year – to keep the Crest Avenue program financially afloat for an additional two to three months. During that time, the center’s staff and community supporters hope to raise up to $100,000 in pledges while they attempt to join another parent organization.
The center, a refuge for hundreds of low-income children and families of Morgan Hill, offers free recreational and educational programs after school and during the summer. It’s a clean and colorful sanctuary for a number of children who come from single-parent homes, and have no one to look after them while their parents work. The center also offers computer literacy classes for adults and anti-gang workshops for children and teens.
Three weeks ago, Community Solutions confirmed long-simmering fears that it would indeed be dropping the beloved program for lack of steady funds. During the past year the social services agency kept the center alive with a one-time county grant while looking for future money sources, including Proposition 49 funds through the Morgan Hill Unified School District earmarked for after-school programs. But nothing panned out.
“The decision to close El Toro was not one anyone wanted to make,” said Lisa De Silva, resources director for Community Solutions. “But we had to make it because we ran out of money.”
But after an outpouring of emotion from parents who rely on the center for child support, Community Solutions directors decided to dip into reserves to give El Toro’s supporters more time to organize a pledge drive to save the program.
On Friday, a group of children ranging from elementary school students to teenagers who were hanging out at the center said they had no better place to spend their days.
“It means a lot to have the center open,” said 16-year-old Elvira Angeles. “You get to meet new people and you can be yourself around them.”
Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate, in his capacity as a concerned citizen, is helping to put the pledge drive together. The money would make it easier for other interested parent organizations, such as Catholic Charities, who have already set their fiscal year 2007-08 budgets, to take over the program.
Escobar, who started working at the center in the 1980s when she said it was a graffiti hang-out for troublemakers, takes pride in turning the program around with the help of other community leaders such as Lori Barke, Dave Cook and Bob Gomez. She said she thinks of the program her “child,” and handing it to another parent organization would require careful thought. But she said she’s hopeful a solution will be reached.
Meanwhile, the uncertain future won’t be a distraction for the children, who are excited to be going on a trip to the Morgan Hill Aquatics Center on Monday.
“We’re very focussed on our work,” she said. “We won’t miss a beat.”
