Aurora contributed nearly $900,000 last year to 29 nonprofit groups across the city. Of those agencies that applied again for grants for 2020, all but one have been recommended to receive money.
The one outlier is linked to an organization that has sparred with the city for much of 2019: Wayside Cross Ministries.
For the first time since an Aurora grant program was revived in 2018, Urban Youth Ministry, a division of Wayside Cross that works with at-risk youth, will be denied its application for grant funds, if the recommendation is approved by the City Council. Six other applicants were also recommended to be denied funding from the city, but only Wayside was denied after receiving funding the prior year, a city document shows.
The recommended denial comes amid ongoing tension between Urban Youth Ministry’s parent organization, Wayside Cross, and city leaders. This year, Wayside and Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin have clashed over the ministry’s housing of a notorious convicted murderer in its rehabilitation program for ex-felons and the location of sex offenders participating in a ministry rehabilitation program.
The timing raised questions for some about the reason for the denial.
The youth ministry could have been denied funding for a variety of reasons, and city spokesman Clayton Muhammad said all grant recommendations were based on blind scoring of rubrics for each applicant. But Ald. Judd Lofchie, 10th Ward, who sits on a City Council committee that gave initial approval to the grant recommendations and who said he volunteers with Wayside Cross, called the recommendation to deny the grant application “disappointing.”
“It sure doesn’t look good,” he said.
Urban Youth Ministry received $12,500 in 2018 and again in 2019 as part of the city’s Quality of Life grant program, city documents show. For 2020, it requested $20,000
Five other organizations also requested funds but were denied, out of 38 agencies that applied for funds for 2020, a city application review sheet shows. Four would have received money for the first time since at least 2018 had they been recommended to receive funds. One had received money in 2018 but not in 2019, and for 2020 was recommended for a different program, city documents show.
At a regularly-scheduled media briefing Tuesday, after this Beacon-News report of the grant recommendation had been published online, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin called the article a “futile attempt” to connect the city’s concerns with Wayside to the grant proposals. The article “missed the mark,” he said.
“There is no direct connection between the two,” Irvin said.
The grant recommendations were slated to be discussed at a City Council committee meeting later Tuesday evening, but Irvin said he would hold the recommendations from moving forward in the City Council review process and review the recommendation process before proceeding.
Robin Sterkel, program coordinator for the youth ministry, said when she asked why her program had been recommended to receive no money she was told it was because the youth program included a religious element and that it amounted to a duplication of services.
But the reasons didn’t add up to her because the program hadn’t changed between the years it was awarded grant money and the most recent recommendation for denial, she said. She wasn’t seeking to point fingers, but she was curious to know why her program had been turned down.
“Right now, it feels very political,” she said. “And I’m so saddened. I’m so saddened, because it is all about these kids and giving them a better life here in Aurora.”
The Urban Youth Ministry runs summer and after-school programs for at-risk kids in Aurora, Sterkel said. The ministry program that received city grant money serves students attending two East Aurora School District 131 elementary schools and the district’s three middle schools and high school.
Middle and high school students meet once a week at the Harkness Center on Aurora’s East Side for homework help, activities, dinner and, at the end of the program, an optional Bible study. Transportation is provided.
Elementary school students meet on Fridays for a snack, activity time, arts and crafts and optional Bible time, Sterkel said. Both programs have field trips, such as one upcoming trip to see “Beauty and the Beast” at the Paramount Theater.
Between the two programs about 80 students participate, Sterkel said.
The city grant money has gone to help with transportation for field trips and to purchase a projector and speakers to help with events, Sterkel said.
Some also helps with costs related to staff, and without the grant money the program could lose one or two of its four part-time staff members, Sterkel said.
All told, a committee of city staff recommended $898,000 for about three dozen organizations and programs in 2020, including many who had previously received money and some newcomers. Many were recommended to receive less than they requested, an application review sheet shows.
The total dollar amount is just $375 less than the amount awarded in 2019, a draft of the program budget shows. Nearly $24,000 was left over, which is a typical amount left as a contingency in case other funding opportunities arise during the year, Muhammad said.
The committee also recommended an additional $24,500 in smaller-value sponsorships for seven organizations.
The city’s Quality of Life grant program dates back more than a decade, but was closed and gradually shrank during the economic downturn. It reopened in 2018, according to city documents.
For 2020, grant recommendations were made by a committee of six city staff members, including the chief innovation officer, the chief community services officer and a manager in the community development division. The committee was expanded this year to also include the deputy mayor, the youth services manager and a representative of the police department.
The committee left open the possibility that Urban Youth Ministry could receive money through a different pot of funds if the opportunity arises, Muhammad said.
Despite the dispute between the city and Wayside, Muhammad said committee members, while aware of the overarching situation with Wayside, were just there to score grant applications.
“These were not sole decisions made by an individual,” he said. “It was made by a (committee) of professionals.”
The grant recommendations were brought to the mayor’s office during a regular update meeting, where the committee would have met with the mayor and his staff, Muhammad said. That process is typical for funding recommendations.
The regular update meeting and the participation of Deputy Mayor Chuck Nelson, who was on the quality of life grant committee, amounted to the only input the mayor’s office gave in the process, Muhammad said.
He said this year’s grant process included new applicants and prior recipients who came with stronger applications. He declined to provide specifics on which programs had stronger applications this year.
Sterkel said she was told by city staff the program was denied funding because it included Bible study. But, she said, the agency was upfront about the inclusion of Bible study in the program in previous years when it was awarded grant money and ensured city money didn’t go toward that part of the program.
She also heard their application was recommended for denial because the Urban Youth Ministry program was a duplication of services already provided, but she disputed that was the case. Her middle and high school program provides transportation, offering a service to parents who don’t want their children walking home in the evening. The elementary school program is on Fridays, while many other programs run Monday through Thursday, she said.
“I still want to believe that they are not going to take it out on the children of this city, with what’s happening in another division of our program.” she said.
The recommendations have been given preliminary approval by a City Council committee, including Lofchie. He said he voted to pass along the grant recommendations because he didn’t catch the line recommending denial to the Wayside youth program.
Final approval by the full council remains pending.
sfreishtat@tribpub.com
