40,000 low-income middle school kids with no place to go this summer

From The Door, University Settlement House and Broome Street Academy:

The Mayor has broken his promise to 40,000 low-income middle school kids, and we think that’s just plain wrong.

Until last week 40,000 low-income middle school kids were guaranteed a safe, enriching place to go this summer. Then the Mayor pulled the funding.

That’s right. Despite a promise made earlier this year, funding for middle-school summer camp was TOTALLY REMOVED from the Mayor’s budget. That’s unacceptable.

Summer camp can be saved, but only if we ACT NOW, as the City budget is being finalized, to demand summer camp funding is RESTORED.

Here’s how you can help:

Call 311 and leave a short message insisting that funding be restored for summer camp. This is the fastest way to take action given the short timeframe. You can use our suggested script, available on our website.
Text 311 at 311-692 with the following message: Mayor and speaker – save summer programs before it’s too late! Thousands of children won’t have safe & enriching programs and hundreds of staff will be out of work. We’re counting on you.
Sign this online petition. University Settlement alone will lose the opportunity to provide more than 600 children with a safe, nurturing summer camp experience. For low-income families, this is a crisis, not a luxury problem.
Share the following messages on social media:

@NYCMayorsOffice @NYCCouncil 40,000 kids are relying on free summer camp –
#savesummercamp by signing the petition www.cccnewyork.org/SaveSummerCamp

40,000 kids are at risk of losing access to free summer camp, despite a promise from
the Mayor and City Council earlier this year for funding. With 6 weeks left before
school ends, we need to act now to #savesummercamp by signing the petition
www.cccnewyork.org/SaveSummerCamp

We teach our kids that breaking a promise is just plain wrong. So we are shocked by the way this promise was broken by the Mayor’s office. The funds were there, the agreements with organizations like US signed, and we were in the middle of signing up families and hiring staff. Now these parents don’t know if their children will have a safe place to go this summer.

It’s wrong, short-sighted and, frankly, dangerous.

With school out in a few weeks, working parents need to know their kids have a safe place to spend their day that will also provide them with engaging, skills-building activities — like sports, arts, book clubs, field trips, and unique activities like chess, martial arts, photography and more.

Where will these kids go? What are we to tell parents who now have to find an alternative they can afford? Should they simply leave their kids at home alone?

Speak up with US now for the 40,000 New Yorkers – and the countless parents – who were relying on US for summer camp by taking one or more of the actions above.

We need the Mayor – and the City Council – to know that for our kids, it’s summer camp, not bummer camp

Thank you for supporting our family of organizations, and the families who count on us.

University Settlement 184 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002 | info@universitysettlement.org

The Door 555 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013 | info@door.org

Broome Street Academy 555 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013 | info@broomestreetacademy.org