Funding Cuts

Jacksonville’s Nonprofit Organizations

Companies have laid off employees, gave pay cuts and even put holds on projects due to the budget crisis. Many people have used the budget crisis to their advantage by buying distressed real-estate. It’s disturbing to know that the businesses that took advantage of unknowledgeable real-estate buyers are now having troubles, and they are the ones receiving help. Nonprofit organizations have also taken the heat from the budget crisis.

Demand for services are increasing as the economic conditions are deteriorating, and this is bringing intense pressure for all nonprofit organizations. Almost all nonprofit organizations have increased enrollment in one way or another, whether it is people looking for a place to stay, medical care or even a meal for the family. Nonprofits in Jacksonville are experiencing funding cuts from the federal government, the State of Florida, the City of Jacksonville and the Duval County School Board.

Duval County’s nonprofits are expecting to see a drop in government funding at the end of this year. The expected loss is averaged at $25 million. The majority of funding loss is a result of state funding cuts, and this is where $16 million of the $25 million loss comes from. The other $9 million loss is divided between federal funding cuts and local funding cuts. To make up for the estimated reduction of funding to these nonprofit organizations, they would have to experience a 39.9% increase in income from contributions and gifts than they did in 2007.

Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement reductions, Head Start and related USDA funding, State of Florida Pre-K funding, the anticipated loss of Mayor’s Literacy Program funds and other city grants to nonprofits are experiencing reductions which has driven the funding cuts. It’s very difficult for the nonprofit organizations to replace the loss of government funding. In fact, the only way for these nonprofits to make up for the losses would be to raise fees and charges, or generate more private contributions. Since neither option has high potential for large sums of money, and because the economy is the reason for the initial funding cuts, it is difficult to rely on other resources.

Michigan’s Nonprofit Organizations

With our nation’s automakers having difficulties, it has triggered a financial concern for some charities in Michigan. GM, Ford and Chrysler provided an average of 40% of the overall giving last year through workplace fundraising pledges to the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. This years funding goal has been set at 35% due to the troubles automakers are experiencing.

This year, United Way’s local 211 has received five times the volume of calls than the previous year, needing assistance for housing aid. In conjunction with Michigan, the United Way in Central Ohio had an increase of 14% for demand of groceries at local food banks.

According to USA Today, the Catholic Charities USA reports that January-to October contributions fell to $7.6 million, down 4% or $300,000 from the same period last year. The Meals on Wheels Association of America says roughly two-thirds of its members surveyed recently reported drops in both corporate and individual donations. Programs in Texas, Minnesota and California were forced to close this year. The Salvation Army reports its western territory suffered a 9% drop in overall fundraising since August alone. Data for the organization's other territories weren't available. Goodwill Industries International says public support from cash donations, bequests and special events fell 2.3% for the first eight months of 2008 in comparison with the same period last year.

In closing remarks…Almost everyone is experiencing rough times in this economy. As our great ancestors held together in years past, we too must keep strong for the upcoming generations.

Steve Andrews WFLA

Steve Andrews, Senior Investigative Reporter with WFLA, spoke with our class about his experiences with investigative reporting. Andrews has worked on multiple stories and told our class about a few of his most interesting stories.

Andrews started off by saying, “the game has changed.” He was referring to the media world. At WFLA, they are not just TV news, but they are TV, print and online. Although WFLA still takes part in the print world of news, Andrews said, “the newspaper is gone…it’s a dinosaur.”

One of Andrews’s investigative reports was about a bay area reservoir. The reservoir had multiple cracks along the edges, and through his investigation, he realized the cracks expanded throughout the entire reservoir. When Andrews first asked about public documents to begin research on the reservoir, he was given a run around. Andrews persisted and received a stack of paperwork to discourage his investigation. Andrews looked at the paperwork as a gold mine. He took the papers and read every bit of detail, realizing they gave him the wrong documents. Andrews again went back to gain the proper documents, and was once more handed an enormous amount of documents. He went through each and every paper, founding very interesting clues to his investigation.

I was discouraged to partake in investigative reporting at the beginning of Andrews’s testimony. If I were to receive a large some of documents that were something completely different than what I requested, I wouldn’t have wanted to pursue the story. After seeing the excitement and the accomplishment Andrews expressed about his investigation, it made me realize how rewarding in-depth reporting could be.

Becoming a reporter requires investigation and request of public records. If I learned one thing from Andrews it would be that, “if you get a public record, make sure you sit down and read it! Each story is it’s own animal, and it could take 18 months for a story to change.”

I now have a greater appreciation of investigative reporting, and the reporters who take on the responsibility.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/sep/05/report-says-reservoir-safe/

Trial

Choosing a trial to attend wasn’t an easy choice. I couldn’t figure out what type of trial I would like to experience. I decided to attend a sex offender trial, and I couldn’t have prepared myself enough. I was informed that the content I was going to be exposed to could be very disturbing, and I chose to attend anyway. The defendant had four convictions: Lewd/Lascivious-Child, Possession of Photo/Picture Showing Sexual Performance by a Child, Sex Battery/Coerce Child by Adult, and Abuse of Child, Engaging Sexual Performance.

The attorneys for the case gave explanation of the defendant’s history to paint a picture of why this man shouldn’t be released from the housing center. He had been forced to live at a housing center after he served his jail time, because a psychologist didn’t see him fit to be released. He had sexually been involved with 10 boys ranging from 7 to 10 years of age.

During the entire trial, the defendant was able to give his testimony. He had a smirk on his face that I could never forget. He constantly expressed that he didn’t feel he was molesting the boys. On one account, he said that he was replacing the father figure in a young boy’s life. This was completely disturbing, and the defendant said that he didn’t think he was wrong for anything he had done. In all of the cases presented, the defendant said that each boy had the choice to be with him. My main concern was that he didn’t see how a boy, at such a young age, can be confused and not know what is right or wrong.

The defendant went on to give extra information saying that he enjoyed boys with blond hair and blue eyes the best. He even said that one of the boys that he had been with had dark hair, and that was why he didn’t have sexual relations with him as long as most of the other boys. He also said that he would give some of the boys money, and his excuse for doing this was because he was the boys’ father figure. One boy in particular, he would buy food for the whole family and take it to their house. He said that the mother knew about his relationship with her son.

This experience was a complete eye opener. There wasn’t a verdict at the end of the trial. The trial was to resume at a later date. If I were the judge/jury, I would never let him out of a halfway house. He had mental problems, and there was no way that the man would ever see his wrong doing. He would continue his same ways outside of the house today as he did many years ago.

Citizen's Advisory Committee Meeting

I attended the Citizen’s Advisory Committee meeting on October 24th. The meeting began with an explanation of what the Citizen’s Advisory Committee does and what their purpose is. The Citizen’s Advisory Committee has a total of 14 members, all of whom are Hillsborough County citizens, and they are responsible for reviewing the Hillsborough County issues brought up by the County Commissioners or County Administrators.

The Committee then explained that the public would have two opportunities to speak about the meeting. Before moving forward, the Committee gave everyone their first opportunity to make comments. After giving a few seconds for someone to make a move to the podium, the Committee continued the meeting by proceeding to ask Valmarie Turner, Contracts Unit Manager for the Affordable Housing Office for Hillsborough County, to speak.

Turner started off by talking about the Affordable Housing Office, and she said that they are who provide opportunities for low income families that live in Hillsborough County. Not only do they provide the opportunity to buy an affordable home for the families, but they also provide community development opportunities; they also give three different federal and state grants.
With the economic problems within our Country, Turner began speaking about the housing foreclosures. A new program called the Neighborhood Stabilization Program will be a part of Hillsborough County. The new program has $3.92 billion to buy foreclosures, and Hillsborough County will be provided $19.1 million for their foreclosures. The new program is part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act which was enacted in July of this year. The idea of the new program is to provide a more stabilized community.

“Even though $19.1 million sounds like a lot of money, with the amount of foreclosures in our county, we had no choice but to designate target areas in order to make a difference,” Turner said.

Various partnerships would be formed thorough the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, and they would purchase foreclosed and abandoned properties in our county. The newly formed partnerships would go into targeted neighborhoods, which would be the neighborhoods that have the most foreclosed homes. The reason for this is to keep the neighborhoods in tack and in good condition. To my surprise, our county has already seen more than 15,000 foreclosures filed since January of this year.

Elba Garcia, “I am very excited about the new program, and my neighborhood is one of the target areas so I hope they come soon to give the neighborhood a facelift. Garcia was an audience member, and so was Elizabeth Barrett. Barrett was also excited about the new program, “I feel horrible for everyone that has had their homes foreclosed on them, but it has made it hard on the whole neighborhood too.” She said this because she and other neighbors have had to clean up surrounding properties.

Overall, I really enjoyed this meeting more than all other public meetings I have attended thus far. I think that this program can benefit our community in many ways! I’m excited about the improvements that Hillsborough Community is moving toward.