Everyone seems to be adjusting their spending in these uncertain economic times, including the Netter Center for Community Partnerships.
Founded in 1992, the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships is the major source of academically based community service at Penn and provides funding and assistance for a wide array of programs.
According to Netter Center Associate Director Cory Bowman, the Netter Center, which runs on a budget of about $5 million a year, is being forced to make some changes this year.
“The bottom line is that we are still working in the same schools, and we still have the same goals and mission,” Bowman said. “But, because of funding changes ... certain aspects of programs are changing.”
One of those changes, according to Bowman, was the decision to stop funding for Family Fitness Nights, a program held at William L. Sayre High School, located at 5800 Walnut St., that catered to approximately 140 people per week. The program offered free classes and workshops focused on health, fitness, nutrition, the arts, karate and computer literacy.
The program is part of a greater partnership between Penn and Sayre. Among other sources, the program receives funding from the city of Philadelphia.
“Because of funding changes, in this case specifically from the city of Philadelphia, we are no longer able to have the Family Fitness Nights this semester,” Bowman said. “We expect to bring them back and we would like to keep doing it, but we are not doing it now.”
In terms of complete cutbacks, Bowman said the Family Fitness Nights was the lone victim. However, a number of proposed program expansions have been put on hold. The affected programs include the College Access and Career Readiness Program, Moelis Access Science and the Urban Nutrition Initiative.
“We are riding slimmer than we usually do,” said Idris Stovall, the director of the Moelis Access Science Program. “It’s more about the resources allocated to those projects, so the projects themselves are riding a little slimmer.”
Jamie Tomczuk, a College senior and the director of Community School Student Partnerships, which runs a tutoring program in a number of West Philadelphia schools, said CSSP had not seen a change in the overall funding from the Netter Center, but that parts of the program — specifically a lack of transportation — cannot be expanded this year due to the economy.
Although Tomczuk noted that “nothing has been specifically cut off,” she also said transportation has been a significant problem. Though the program has in the past had access to two vans, these are insufficient for the 355 undergraduate students working in the program.
“Clearly transportation is our biggest concern at the moment and we don’t have the resources to expand on that,” she said.
But Bowman still said there is no reason to panic.
“There’s definitely no panic,” he said. “Concern? Yes. Does it bring on extra work? Yes. Does it trim some of the existing programs? Yes. Does it keep us from developing into new and important areas that we have been planning on? Yes. But not panicking.”
