PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Sarah Jonas, Vice President of Youth Division at Children's Aid
3:14:44
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167 sec
Sarah Jonas, representing Children's Aid, testified about the challenges and recommendations for improving the Summer Rising program in New York City. She emphasized the need for sustainable funding, better information sharing, and more support for community-based organizations (CBOs) in program implementation.
- Children's Aid holds 48 contracts with DYCD for various youth programs
- Jonas highlighted systemic challenges faced by all providers in implementing Summer Rising
- She urged for baseline funding, improved information sharing between systems, and better support for CBO staff, especially for supporting youth with disabilities
- Jonas advocated for diverse programming options beyond Summer Rising to meet varied needs of youth and families
Sarah Jonas
3:14:44
Good afternoon.
3:14:45
My name is Sarah Jonas, and I'm the Vice President of the Youth Division at Children's Aid.
3:14:50
On behalf of Children's Aid, I would like to thank Chair Joseph and Chair Stevens for the opportunity to testify today.
3:14:57
For over a 170 years, children's aid has been committed to ensuring that there are no limits to a young person's aspirations.
3:15:05
Children's aid holds 48 contracts with DYCD.
3:15:08
These include Compass, Sonic, s y e p, Saturday Saturday night lights program, and a beacon center and council member, Stephen's own district 16 in the Bronx.
3:15:21
We believe that every child deserves high quality summer programs that meet their needs.
3:15:26
While we value the access that summarizing creates across New York City.
3:15:31
As a summarizing provider, Children's aid experienced numerous implementation challenges that a representative of the systemic challenges all providers face.
3:15:42
Throughout the years, we have partnered with New York City Public Schools And BYCD to do this work.
3:15:47
However, to deliver efficient, high quality, and enriching summer programming that bridges academics and the best principles of youth development.
3:15:57
We urge the city to do the following.
3:16:00
Baseline and provide sustainable funding for both New York City Public Schools And NYCDs portion of the program.
3:16:08
Share information between my schools and NYCD Connect.
3:16:13
In power CBOs to control enrollment, and to be able to enroll on-site.
3:16:18
And better support from NYCPS for CBO staff, especially in supporting youth with disabilities.
3:16:26
We support summarizing while also acknowledging that it cannot be the only program for every young person in New York City.
3:16:34
Our youth and families deserve diverse programming that accommodates their varied needs and interests.
3:16:40
Children's aid and other CBOs run community centers in summer camps that, as we've heard today, offer a variety of experiential enrichment opportunities, but we need the city support to strengthen that system.
3:16:55
For example, at our Good Use Center, summer camp on Staten Island, our kids were outside every day.
3:17:00
They had cooking classes, reading groups, and clubs.
3:17:03
They even got to go swimming every day of programming, and we could have easily taken 25 families off our weight and enrolled them into the program, but we weren't allowed to do so.
3:17:14
We need investments and support for all youth serving programs.
3:17:17
Other fantastic aycd funded programs deserve the same funding, attention and flexibility to add seats as summarizing.
3:17:25
Thank you again for the opportunity to submit testimony, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.
