INC NEWS - Centro Hispano survives proposed Durham cuts (Indy Weekly)

[John Schelp]

Article raises many good questions...


Centro Hispano survives proposed Durham cuts
The Independent Weekly, 9 June 2005

Durham leaders will not follow the advice of a citizen
panel that recommended cutting funds for El Centro
Hispano by more than three quarters, in part because
the center's services are too "Latino specific." But
the organization is still fighting for its full
request. Last year, El Centro--one of North Carolina's
leading Latino organizations--received $33,920 from
the city. This year, the 12-year-old organization
requested $44,900 to support a youth program, summer
camp, a community health fair and ongoing work with
Durham Police, housing and other agencies that deal
with local Spanish-speaking residents.

Instead, a review panel recommended awarding only
$5,000--a suggestion that city budget officials
announced June 6 will not be followed. Among the
reasons cited for El Centro's "low" rating of 71 out
of 100 points (the cutoff score was 70) were that
center programs "should be for any child or family
regardless of race, not just Latino" and that "the
bulk of [grant] money is for salaries and a one-time
festival." (Of the $44,900 requested by El Centro,
$12,380 would go to salaries and $3,000 to the Health
Fiesta, according to its grant application).

El Centro's leaders were bewildered by the panel's
recommendation because the proposal they submitted was
essentially the same as last year, when the
organization received a rating of 98 and was given
three quarters of the money it requested.

"We just don't understand how this can happen," says
Angelina Schiavone, El Centro's outgoing director.
"The city has always been very positive and supportive
about our work. Those views are not coming through in
this decision."

City Council member Eugene Brown had much the same
reaction. "I don't know how this happened," he said in
a phone conversation before Monday's council meeting,
where it was announced that El Centro will receive
$30,000 in grants this cycle. "It's going to change."

While the city grant is a small part of El Centro's
nearly $799,000 annual budget, Schiavone says its
leaders are concerned about the reasons cited for the
cut. The Latino population that El Centro serves
represents people of many races and countries of
origin, she notes, and the organization supports
immigrants from African countries, as well. (The local
Tanzanian immigrant association holds its meetings at
El Centro's downtown Durham offices).

"They said they want us to be more diverse and
inclusive," Schiavone says. "But people have a
different knowledge of what the Latino community is.
Within the community we serve there is diversity. And
the reason we focus on Latinos is that we feel this is
a community that is underserved and marginalized."

Others stress that El Centro's youth program is
essential at a time when concerns about school dropout
rates and gangs are on the rise in Durham. At the
group's first meeting of the summer last week, Latino
teenagers from several local high schools talked about
the racism they'd experienced at the hands of fellow
students and the support groups El Centro helped them
form to bridge those gaps.

Overall, the organization is offering people the kind
of help "that, in fact, the city of Durham itself
would be hard pressed to give them," writes Ariel
Dorfman, a distinguished professor of Literature and
Latin American Studies at Duke---one of a number of El
Centro supporters who sent letters to the City Council
asking for full funding for the group.

On Monday night, members of El Centro's youth group,
staff, volunteers and supporters marched to City Hall
chanting, "El Centro Hispano unido jámas será vencido
("El Centro Hispano united will never be defeated").
Youth group members hoisted a poster-size letter to
the council with comments such as, "Don't marginalize
me. Every time you do that it pushes me towards
violence."

During the meeting, the group learned that city budget
officials had added $25,000 to El Centro's proposal
for a total of $30,000. That recommendation now goes
to City Council, which is slated vote on a budget June
20.

Why did the review panel recommend cuts?

A "consensus sheet" on El Centro's grant application
to the city was signed by two panelists: Mike
Shifflett, past president of the Interneighborhood
Council and Harold Chestnut, a leader in the Partners
Against Crime organization. The sheet lists reasons
for both the low and high ratings given to the
proposal--comments that contradict each other. For
example, under "low rating justification," questions
about "inclusiveness" are raised. But the high rating
justification notes that services El Centro offers the
Latino community are "not duplicated" by the city or
other nonprofits.

Chestnut--whose name appears beside comments on the
low ratings--says he doesn't remember the specifics of
El Centro's proposal or his written notes, since the
panel made its evaluations back in March and looked at
so many applications.

Shifflett doesn't remember any debate on the panel
about El Centro's target population, though he says he
feels it's "very appropriate" for the group to focus
on Latinos. He says he was most interested in whether
all of the nonprofits he reviewed could show concrete
results.

This is the third year that Durham has used citizen
panels to review grant requests from nonprofits doing
work in the arts, public safety, youth and community
development. El Centro was not the only nonprofit to
see its funding request slashed. Panelists also
recommended substantial cuts in requests from the
African American Dance Ensemble, Schoolhouse of Wonder
and the SEEDS community gardening program--among
others. The $2.18 million available to fund nonprofits
in 2006 is about the same as this year, according to
city budget officials, while the number of groups
applying for grants has risen from 54 to 64. The
review process is aimed at helping the city make
better and more accountable decisions about nonprofit
funding. But some say it still has flaws.

Barbara Lau, Community Programs Director for the
Center for Documentary Studies--whose request for
funds for a youth arts program was rejected by the
panel this year--points out that nonprofits aren't
able to choose the category in which they will be
considered. Her organization's request, for example,
was evaluated under community development, not arts
and culture. City budget officials insist that the
individual categories don't affect how proposals are
evaluated since the scoring system is uniform.

It's also not clear, Lau says, how the rating system
for each proposal is related to the city's stated
goals or its overall budget totals--a point on which
volunteer panelist Shifflett, agrees. "I would love to
be able to see a policy that gives direction to the
panel about whether they are going to do capacity
building or increase funding year to year for these
organizations," he says.

Some say El Centro's experience this year raises
larger questions about the city's nonprofit grant
review process. ("Are we asking other organizations if
they serve Latinos?" asked one of the group's
supporters).

For Lau, those bigger questions include, "Who should
be involved in deciding how the city determines who
funds nonprofits? What should the panels look like,
and how can the process become more transparent and
less political?"

More important than funding, El Centro's staff members
say, is the need to make sure city leaders understand
their organization's mission.

"They say we are not diverse enough, but I'm
Palestinian and I'm working at El Centro because this
is my community," says Nadeen Bir, one of two
part-time leaders of the youth group, Jovenes Líderes
en Acción.

"People don't realize that North Carolina is where the
Latino population is growing the fastest," adds her
co-leader, Sergio Graterol. "There aren't a lot of
other places Latino youth can go."