Good morning Chairman Mendelson, Councilmember Frumin, and staff of the Committee of the Whole. Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee today by providing testimony regarding the importance of Out-of-School-Time (OST) programs and the Universal Out of School Time Amendment Act of 2023. My name is Jorge Membreño (he/him), and I am the Director of Youth Advocacy at DC Action, which convenes the DC Out-of-School-Time Coalition.
I am testifying today as an advocate but have worked in DC as a school social worker, mental health clinician, and Deputy Executive Director of an organization that provided housing for LGBTQ young adults and afterschool drop-in programs for middle and high schoolers. While my colleagues are sharing valuable insight on the importance of OST programs and the benefits to kids and their families, I will be sharing some of the struggles our providers face. I’m lucky enough to now serve in an advocacy role that is not tied to government funding so there is no fear of retaliation for speaking up about issues related to the administration of grantmaking programs. We often hear that community organizations are reluctant to bring up challenges with government grantmaking programs because they are afraid they will not be funded as a result. We would gladly set up a meeting to discuss these issues more in detail.
We have heard time and time again that reimbursements being months late for the expenses our providers excitedly take on to run programs for young people. For smaller nonprofits, a late reimbursement means potentially not being able to provide consistent services for youth, retaining staff, or even covering enough overhead to exist as an organization. That becomes a youth issue, a business issue, and a workforce issue. Not to mention that a lot of our smaller nonprofits are run by Black and brown staff and serve Black and brown youth. That’s an equity issue. We encourage the DC Council to consider strengthening the Universal OST bill by adding authorizations for District agencies to prepay for portions of OST grants or contracted services instead of reimbursing organizations for OST programming after the fact.
The second issue I’ll highlight, which is addressed in the Universal OST bill, is that community-based organizations and their staffs need to have time to plan and adjust programming in order to expand services or meet changing grant requirements. That’s why DC Action supports requiring the OST Office to provide at least four months notice when they are considering changes that impact funding (such as grant amounts, application processes, program requirements, or data collection). Providers need sufficient time to modify programs and staffing models to meet new requirements. This might include hiring new staff, recruiting new volunteers, developing new agreements with the schools they partner with, changing enrollment policies, or, unfortunately letting staff go. Greater transparency, more open communication, and a spirit of partnership with the OST Office is what our providers need to be nimble and adapt their programs to put public investment in OST to the best possible use.
There are a number of additional struggles we have heard from OST Coalition partners that we are grateful the language in this bill seeks to address. I would be happy to speak to any of those during panel questions. Thank you.
