Reduced Funding for DASH, SPARX, KWA

Human Services Funding
Resolution 38594 would approve the recommendations of the Human Services Commission to allocate $5,873,000 budgeted from the General Fund and the Mental Health Fund, for local human services programs. The resolution would also authorize $200,000 from the General Fund to support gang prevention/intervention services in 2013-2014. We heard a lot of public comment on this at last week’s public hearing on human services funding from groups affected by the allocations. One program we heard a lot about was the DASH Center for the Arts, which doesn’t appear on the list of programs proposed for funding as it stands at this point.

DASH won’t be completely without City funding; another resolution on this week’s agenda would set aside Council Contingency Fund dollars for the DASH Center, Metro Parks’ SPARX program, and the Korean Women’s Association. Each of these three programs applied, but was not recommended for funding by the Human Services Commission. The DASH Inspiring Artists Program and KWA’s case management services would each be awarded $25,000 for the 2013-2014 biennium, and the SPARX middle-school youth development program would get $100,000 for the next six months of operations, while Metro Parks seeks additional funding sources.