At a board meeting Wednesday, CAPK announced it would be sunsetting it's after-school and summer youth programs at the Shafter Youth Center and reallocating the funding used for those programs to its food bank.
According to the agenda, the Youth Center provides services to more than 45 kids and their families across each program, but notes that due to funding cuts to food related programs, additional food bank funding is necessary.
"Our agency on a continual basis, takes a look at how we're evaluating impact at the community level, and where we're making investments where it's desperately needed," said Pritika Ram, Chief Business Development Officer for CAPK.
According to the presentation, the suspension of those services and subsequent reallocation of funds could fund as many as 160,000 meals in 2025 and approximately 500,000 in 2026.
Savannah Oates, the PR and Advocacy director for CAPK, says while the doors to those youth programs are closing they still want to help people in the shafter community how they can.
"It's not necessarily we're closing our doors to Shafter. No, we're opening our doors to Shafter in a new way. Those funds are now going to be allocated to Food Bank, because our food bank is in a deficit, so we're going to be able to provide more food to the Shafter community by reallocating these funds. So the conversations, you know, there was, you know, question, are we forgetting our clients out in Shafter? The answer is no, we're just serving them in a different and a better way that we can best do well."
Two questions still to left are: What does this change mean for the building? According to Oates, the building will sit empty, but CAPK will still manage the property.
The other: Does this mean that the programs will never come back? Oates says the organization is routinely reviewing their funding and options and they'll keep the community updated on any changes coming to the center.
There's talks of potentially, you know, workforce development or retrofitting it for our cap K Head Start program. So to be larger and better for the community, we're talking with the city of Shafter to see what their needs are. So there's lots of room for what it could be, what it's going to be, and then in the future, if there's a need, and the funding is there, and we see that we need to do after school program, again, that's never out the question.
The organization did say they don't plan to cut these programs immediately. they will wrap up this summer session, the last day for kids at the Shafter Youth Center will be August 1st.
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