More on the Center for Fathers

Special thanks to WBGO's News Director, Doug Doyle, for forwarding the press release about the Center for Fathers to me. I can also now find a tiny amount of coverage for the program (a few of these are essentially the same article): here, here, here, and here.

Here's the press release:

Mayor Booker Tours Newark comprehensive Center for Fathers; Program Provides Support and Resources for City's Dads
Program aims to help Newark fathers raise their children and lead productive lives

Newark, NJ - June 9, 2008 - Mayor Cory A. Booker toured a bold new program to assist Newark fathers at the Newark comprehensive Center for Fathers (NCCF) at Essex County College today. The center is designed to provide an array of services to fathers in transition - men who have lost their jobs or homes, or who are re-entering the workforce following incarceration and who seek to assume greater responsibility for and contribute to the lives of their children.

The facility is administered by the non-profit Newark Now in partnership with the City of Newark; Newark Works; the New Jersey Department of Labor; New Jersey Legal Services; and the ReLese Network. The program is in its third week and already has 20 fathers in the class.

"With the opening of this center, we are now providing the tools that or fathers need to succeed - as men, as parents and as residents of Newark," Mayor Booker said. "I am reaching out to and challenging all the fathers in Newark who are at risk or need help to come out and talk to our staff so that they can help in addressing all needs and concerns. Through the efforts put into this program, residents throughout the City of Newark will be able to sustain successful and productive lives for themselves and their families."

Using a holistic approach, Newark's Comprehensive Center for Fathers offers mentoring, parenting, life skills classes, legal assistance, math and reading skills, individual counseling, support groups, father/child activities. In addition, the program offers employment search and interview preparations services.

At the tour, Mayor Booker was joined by Newark Now Executive Director Modia Butler and Lavar Young, the Executive Director of Newark's Comprehensive Center for Fathers. The NCCF program is based on Philadelphia's nationally-recognized National comprehensive Center for Fathers.

The center's hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. To contact the center and learn more about its programs, call (973) 733-3460 ext. 432.

Contact:
Press Information Office: (973) 733-8004
Press Secretary Esmeralda Diaz Cameron: (201) 396-2556
E-mail: Pressoffice@ci.newark.nj.us

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Cutting Half of a Hundredth of a Percent of the Budget is Too Hard?

If you ever wonder why I get pretty hard-line about tax increases, you don't need to look any farther than Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo.

Right now, [Essex] county collects 1 cent per $100 of assessed property and DiVincenzo has asked voters to support a referendum that would increase that amount to 1.5 cents per $100 of assessed property. For the owner of a house valued at $100,000, the contribution to the open space trust fund would be $15. . . .

"Our penny has done so much," he said. "If you like what we have done in the last 4 1/2 years, please support us. We need that extra half a penny."

Don't get me wrong. Taxes at the local level are good and necessary for some things, and that includes parks. And parks are important for our quality of life. Elizabeth Moore of the Star-Ledger lists some of the things this money has been used for:

. . . restoring 21 park buildings, modernizing 35 basketball and tennis courts, upgrading 17 baseball and softball fields, improving seven walking tracks and football/soccer fields. . . . [also to] build the county's Environmental Center in Roseland, rebuild Garibaldi Hall,... renovate the Turtle Back Zoo's dining pavilion and other habitats in West Orange, plant 2,000 new cherry trees at Branch Brook Park in Newark and Belleville, and purchase Kip's Castle.

These are legitimate local concerns, and we should democratically decide whether to fund these projects or not.

We currently pay one one-hundredth of a percent of our assessed value to fund these things. Small number, right? DiVincenzo wants to raise our property taxes by what he calls an "extra half a penny" -- just half of a hundredth of a percent. Sounds good -- ignore for the moment that he's really asking us to increase his parks budget by fifty percent -- because it's a teeny tiny percentage increase in actual dollars, right?

But that raises a question: if it takes only this teeny tiny percentage to fund the parks that contribute so much to our quality of life, why can't we squeeze the teeny tiny percentage out of something else? Are there no inefficiencies to squeeze out of government?

DiVincenzo can't cut something in his County budget by one half of one hundredth of a percent to make room for this new expenditure?

Why exactly is that too hard?

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