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Q&A
Council Member Salaam inquires about impact of budget cuts on ATI programs
9:17:11
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148 sec
Council Member Yusef Salaam asks about the specific programs and services that will be lost due to budget cuts to the ATI coalition. Representatives from The Fortune Society and Legal Action Center respond, highlighting the potential negative impacts on public safety and the extensive support their programs provide.
- Rob DeLeon explains that specific program cuts are unknown, but overall service capacity will decrease significantly.
- Megan French-Marcelin emphasizes the long-term commitment their programs have to clients and the effectiveness of their approach compared to incarceration at Rikers Island.
Yusef Salaam
9:17:11
Well thank you all for your testimony.
9:17:13
I do have a question regarding so it was mentioned about the cuts.
9:17:23
I'm wondering regarding the ATI coalition, can you provide examples of the types of programs and services that the city will lose, that the city will lose from the before mentioned budget cuts that were discussed?
Rob DeLeon
9:17:39
So you wanna start?
9:17:41
So I could I could start in saying that we don't yet know which of our programs will be cut.
9:17:47
Like that's something that once those cuts come down we'll be informed of.
9:17:51
And the way Fortune is structured is we blend our funding in order to provide services to anyone who walks through our doors who've been in who's been in contact with the criminal legal system.
9:18:03
What I can guarantee is that the number of people that we're able to serve will decrease significantly and that won't have any positive impacts on public safety.
9:18:14
When individuals aren't connected to opportunities to thrive, they result to the things that they know to survive.
9:18:20
So I can't name the programs, but I will say that ATI and reentry services will absolutely decrease for the folks that we serve.
Megan French-Marcelin
9:18:29
And just just to add a little bit of color to that, our programs are a lifeline and a lifetime commitment to people.
9:18:40
We work with clients years, sometimes decades, after their mandate ends.
9:18:48
There are folks that will come in to Fortune or to Osborne or to WPA or to cases and say, you know what, I need a little bit more support twenty years later, and we are here.
9:19:03
So our benefits extend well beyond what we are budgeted because we make commitments that go on forever, but I can tell you that our programs are far more effective than Rikers' at public safety because they, as you heard today, they enhance people's lives, they connect people to communities, to healthcare, to jobs, to stability that we need to be able to thrive.
9:19:33
So as people deteriorate on Rikers, they are built in our programs.