WEST HARLEM — Hundreds of children may lose out on a free after school and summer daycare program because the organizers botched their application for a million dollars of state funding.
Our Children’s Foundation, at 527 W. 125th St., which has provided free tutoring services, computer, art and dance classes to children for 47 years, was denied future funding by the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) in April.
The money is set to run out in December 2015, according to Our Children's Foundation.
The organization's founder, Samuel Brown, 78, admitted to messing up the form, and now must ask the state Comptroller to review the application and the decision, according to OASAS.
Brown’s application, which came with endorsement letters from Congressman Charles Rangel, Councilwoman Inez Dickens and State Assemblyman Keith Wright, scored a 50 out of 100 — 20 points under the lowest passing score.
Our Children's Foundation lost most of their points in a section titled "Program Effectiveness." In that portion of the application they were asked to outline a process for gathering data to measure success and analyzing the information to improve their services, according to a debriefing report shared with DNAinfo.
Brown said he is not sure if the section was missing or simply not filled out properly. Either way, they scored a 0 out of 20 points.
He could not provide a clear reason why the section flunked with the state.
They also missed points in other sections for not using the prescribed formula and not being specific enough in their responses, according to the report.
This is the first year that OASAS introduced its point-based application, the state agency said.
Despite the missing information, Brown says the foundation's history speaks for itself.
“This is an organization that has been funded for 47 years,” he said. “OASAS does audits and on-site visits every year. If we were doing something wrong we would’ve lost funding years ago.”
The center’s walls are lined with photographs of Brown, with Muhammad Ali, Rev. Al Sharpton and First Lady Michelle Obama.
Some parents were frustrated that the foundation would be so haphazard with something so crucial to their survival.
“We are talking about the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of families,” said Luiz Sanchez, who went there as a kid and sends his daughters there now. “To me it is very weird to find that (OASAS) would ask for something like that and you would not submit everything. You are not going to submit the package incomplete because that is going to hurt you.”
If they had filled out the application correctly, Sanchez is confident they would've received a passing score based on all of the services they offer local children, he added.
The foundation is a safe place where kids, whose parents can't afford private child care, can avoid the streets and improve their lives, Sanchez said. It provides personalized tutoring for about 300 students who are struggling academically, they go on field trips to colleges, and get free computer, art, etiquette and dance classes, he said.
Brown, who hand-delivered the application to the state agency in Albany, said that if he could do it over and had enough money he would hire a professional grant writer.
He plans to follow through with the state comptroller this week, he said.
