State Budget Cuts Force Trinity Institution to Close Family and Neighborhood Resource Center

PRESS RELEASE

State Budget Cuts Force Trinity Institution to Close Family and Neighborhood Resource Center Doors

ALBANY, NY - Announced cuts to the Community Optional Preventive Services (COPS) Office of Children and Family Services funding stream in the New York State budget will force Trinity Institution – Homer Perkins Center, Inc. and its affiliate, the Arbor Hill Community Center, Inc. to shutter all operations of the agency’s Family and Neighborhood Resource Center (FNRC) as of March 31st. The FNRC was opened to much fanfare and an audience of state, county and city officials on January 11, 2005 and has been hailed as a giant leap forward in providing a best practice, outcomes driven service delivery system consistent with national family preservation and community health and wellness trends.

CEO Harris Oberlander called the impending loss, “Devastating to the people of the South End and Arbor Hill. The front line FNRC preventive array of services and resources is without parallel within Albany’s most challenged neighborhoods.”

Among many identified needs, Albany’s South End and Arbor Hill neighborhoods are home to the highest levels of economic poverty in the region, high social service assistance rates, elevated rates of child abuse and neglect, high school drop out levels and unemployment rates, and the presence of youth and adult gangs and drug trafficking and activity.

Against this backdrop, Trinity’s FNRC has funneled family members to discrete needed family intervention services and provided a primary front line prevention and health and wellness function for youth, families and individuals through its community center programming. Over 1000 people annually come through the doors of the FNRC seeking assistance.

Elimination of funding for the FNRC will result in the loss of $168,000. Two full time staff members who serve the community will be lost. It will also cause a near total cut in all agency volunteer opportunities for community members and those mandated by the courts to fulfill sentencing requirements. The greatest proportion of the program funds are used to directly infuse critical services into the community.

While tens of thousands of additional leveraged and matched dollars provided by other sources are put in jeopardy, service operations and collaborations with over 15 other entities that will be withdrawn from the community as of March 31st, 2009 include:

- Family intakes and service assessments - Family services - Service coordination and case management - Domestic violence care responders - Prison reentry support group - Family support services for families in which a loved one is incarcerated - Kinship Care support group for relatives raising children whose parents are not available - Family team conferencing intervention program - Youth violence intervention restorative conferencing - Parenting classes - GED prep course - Computer course - Respite services for children - Anger management classes - Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program - South End Partnership for Safe Families street outreach cookouts - Credit repair service assistance - Jobs club and employment assistance - Health care screenings - Nutrition instruction - Acting workshop - Community phone access - 192.1 Mile Walking Club - Saturday golf instruction for youth - Dancing With Our Elders - Sewing, Knitting, Crocheting Circle for seniors - Community social events - Distribution of Coats For Kids - Community gardening program - Neighborhood volunteer support and training program - Bicycle repair workshop - Friday evening movie nights

All programs are made available to the community free of charge. Collaborations that will cease or be curtailed include those with Catholic Charities, Troy Bicycle Rescue, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Albany Public Schools, Mediation Matters, Prison Families of New York, Reentry Opportunities and Orientation Toward Success, GED and computer instructors, Tai Chi instructor, Jewish Family Services, Double Precision Consulting, St. Catherine’s Center for Children, agency golf pro volunteers, Legal Aid Project, Project Equality, the Albany County Health Department, Sigma Gamma Rho, the United Way of the Greater Capital Region, Toys for Tots, Coats for Kids. In addition, through the FNRC, the agency provides a venue for the Albany County District Attorney’s Community Accountability Board, Sigma Gamma Rho Annual Youth Symposium, and co-sponsors the Annual Giffen Elementary School holiday concert.

The agency’s ability to attract other state, federal and privately funded programs and services will also be severely hampered due to the fact that these funding sources require matching funds, collaborations and comprehensive service delivery models to meet the needs of their intended client base. FNRC and agency participation in the Arbor Hill Implementation Team, South End Action Committee, South End Partnership for Safe Families, Arbor Hill Neighborhood Association, South End Neighborhood Association, Albany Community After-School Network, Inner City Coalition for Youth and Families will either end or be severely curtailed. Through the FNRC the agency was present and a key player in the critical discussions required to address solutions to the most pressing conditions plaguing these neighborhoods. The agency was among the original drafters of both the South End Neighborhood Association and Arbor Hill Neighborhood Association by-laws.

For more information, please contact Harris Oberlander, Trinity CEO, at 449-5155, extension 116.

You can help save the Family and Neighborhood Resource Center by making the following calls:

Call The Following Elected Officials & Tell Them To Restore The Funding For

Community Optional Preventive Services (COPS) To Fund Trinity’s F.N.R.C.

Governor David Patterson at 474-8390 Ron Canestrari at 455-4474 Neil Breslin at 455-2225 John McEneney at 455-4178