"It's an situation that we've found ourselves in during this safety crisis where we should be expanding what we were doing," says a councilor in Worcester, Mass., where violence is on the rise.
The city council held a four-hour hearing Tuesday on the proposed fiscal 2025 budget, and the main topic was the loss of $500,000 in funding for Recreation Worcester, a free out-of-school time program for teens and young adults, reports the Telegram & Gazette.
The program received $450,000 in state grant funding in the current fiscal year, and is projected to receive $120,000 this summer.
"When I hear tonight that there is a possibility of that not being in every district, that's really scary for us as a city," says City Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson.
Councilor Khrystian King, a social worker in the city, says the loss of funding is "unacceptable," and he wants the city to commit to spending $2 million on youth programming over the next four years, reports MassLive.
"Research shows the economic conditions, jobs, housing, access to mental health services, youth programming, diversion programming...
and community policing, all of it together is what moved the dial, and it's about the method that
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