Future of youth programs uncertain amid proposed budget cuts

Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed budget cuts to various arts and cultural grants have some members in the community concerned.

The Giving Hands Drop Center in Mountain View is one of two drop Centers in San Diego that opened their doors to youth to keep them out of trouble and off the streets of San Diego.

Lanell Brown is the Director of the Giving Hands Mountain View Drop Center in Southeast San Diego.

“This place right here is open so that I can be a father for the fatherless,” Brown said.

Since it opened its doors a few months ago, it has been a place where youth like Kayla’s 18-year-old son go to get connected to resources they need or just hang out once they get out of school.

“It’s extremely important because you know, the area that we live in he’s gone through a lot of trauma at a very young age of his life and it’s really been helping him to stay on track, and just with responsibility, and working,” Kayla Hale said.

Here they also get connected to mentors like Torrion Dedmon who works with the Juvenile Diversion Incentive Program.

He teaches four-week trade courses to help young people clear their record.

“I teach them the basics of construction. How to work with hand tools and you know, just do certain things and once they get finished with that course, they get their record expunged,” Dedmon said.

However, the future of this youth program is in limbo following the mayor’s budget draft, which proposes $12 million cuts to arts and cultural grants and $8-million cuts to parks and recreation and libraries, raising serious concerns for Brown.  

“If this building can stay open at least this is something they can have as an alternative to all the other stuff that the mayor is closing down,” Brown said.

Brown said the Giving Hands drop centers in Mountain View and at Stockton Memorial are a lifeline to keep youth safe and on track to a better future.

“There are some people who don’t have internet or anything like that, so they go to the library to go get that free service. So if you’re closing all of those down when school is over, how do you expect us to thrive in this community?” Lanell said.

That’s why he’s pleading to the mayor to remove them from the chopping block and consider the lives of youth who will be impacted if he moves forward with the cuts.

NBC 7 reached out to the city for comment and is awaiting a response.