Non-Profits Role Grows as Government Dollars Shrink

On the last Saturday of every month, the Friends of the Studio City Branch Library host a book sale that raises money for new materials, furniture, and sometimes even landscaping. Cutbacks in the city budget makes the money the Friends group gives more needed than ever, an example of how not for profits throughout the San Fernando Valley will be asked to do more to provide services residents have become accustomed to. Police stations, firehouses, courthouses, and parks are among the government-run facilities at which not for profits are already present. Other charity groups are contracted out to serve seniors and children. At the city’s libraries, the Friends groups may be expanding their roles beyond just supplementing the budget. “It is the beginning stages of what this is going to mean to us,” said April Howard, president of the Studio City Friends group. Budget proposals now before city and state lawmakers show that this new model of providing services won’t be vanishing soon and will likely continue to grow in the future. With the city facing a $485 million shortfall for the fiscal year starting July 1, the City Council approved more than 700 layoffs, including child-care positions and at the libraries. Programs for the poor and for children would be cut if the revised state budget introduced on May 14 gets approved in Sacramento. Lawmakers need to fill in a $19.1 billion deficit and the budget proposes to do that by eliminating day care programs, mental health programs, and the CalWorks welfare-to-work program. Helping out With the city and state lacking the funding and the staff to provide services not for profits are being asked to step in to help. In the current situation, their phones should be ringing off the hook, said Al Abrams, owner of a Tarzana marketing and public relations firm. He also serves as vice president of the city’s Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. Los Angeles is not going to be the same city as before the recession, with practically every city service touched by cuts in money and staffing, Abrams said. With the state and federal governments unable to help, that leaves it up to the network of volunteer organizations to be present for seniors and children, at the libraries and parks and schools, he said. “The clarion call has gone out across the city,” Abrams added. The Valley Interfaith Council operates three multipurpose centers, four adult day centers, and 11 senior nutrition sites throughout the Valley. The council receives money through the city Department of Aging but cuts this year will result in about 33 percent less than what has been given in the past. The organization will apply for grants to make up that loss although council President Sandy Bishop has heard speculation there might be money available in the city’s nutrition program. In the meantime, the council continues serving the senior population with hot meals and a place to socialize. “Not for profits are taking some of the burden for the programs that they deserve and need and really want,” Bishop said. Mirroring schools The situation now facing these city and state departments and agencies is one long faced by public school districts. Limited in property tax dollars by Proposition 13, school districts relied on non profit booster groups to raise money particularly for sports and arts programs. Los Angeles Unified School District cuts in adult education programs has resulted in an increase in attendance in English as a Second Language and computer courses offered by MEND – Meet Each Need with Dignity, based in Pacoima. While health care has been a main component in the services MEND provides, there have not been a lot of children treated although that could change depending on the final state budget, said President and CEO Marianne Haver Hill. “That is a question mark,” Haver Hill said. “We are bracing ourselves for that.” Adult clients of Tierra del Sol are a familiar sight at the city and county facilities at which they volunteer. At police stations they will wash cars; at the Van Nuys Courthouse they file records and do housekeeping; at a Fire Station No. 77 they provide basic assistance. Working with city The organization teaches job skills and independent living skills to adults with developmental disabilities and does this by placing them with 90 municipal departments and other not for profits. Tierra del Sol Executive Director Steve Miller expects to have that number up to 100 by early 2011. The organization has no problem with finding spots to fill with its volunteer corps. With each behind the scenes position taken by one of its adults, those are dollars that do not need to be spent on performing repetitive tasks. “We are probably getting more requests than we can fill,” Miller said. While the city is going to be different once it emerges from its fiscal troubles, Abrams also describes it as an amazing city for how the community keeps up its end of the social contract by funding and volunteering for the not for profits whose help is now sorely needed. “They never shirk their responsibility,” Abrams said. “You won’t see thousands of seniors sitting on the sidewalk asking for a meal.”