ELEV8 expands reach to fill gaps left by federal funding cuts to after-school programs

BALTIMORE — On March 28, the Department of Education told states they were going to stop giving them access to hundreds of millions of dollars in grants from the American Rescue Plan Act and the COVID Relief Act.

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"When we received the notification, along with the rest of the city, that after school programs were being cut because of federal resources being pulled away, we had to think, you know, from a family perspective. How is this going to impact families that use child care, that need child care, use after school programs as their main source of child care,” says Alexandria Warwick Adams, Executive Director of ELEV8.

So, ELEV8 decided to expand its reach in hopes of picking up where other programs are unable to remain.

Although it is expanding the program, the staff and resources remain the same.

READ MORE: City Schools officials "deeply concerned" after Feds cancel $400M+ of planned reimbursements to MD schools

Adams says they decided to increase the number of students paired with each site leader by five slots to make room for more students.

“Even if it's 10 extra slots, those 10 students are those that are in the most need, and those families that need it the most,” she says.

She says although this is a small change, it is really important.

“We're doing the work to repair the relationships between children and adults. Where young people can say 'yes I do have a caring adult on my side that I can go to if times get hard,' and then that person is snatched away because of politics. So that is where we are really trying to mitigate that loss because it takes a long, long time for young people to trust,” says Adams.

But because of the federal cuts, ELEV8 is not able to expand its summer program, which Adams says is just as important, but the organization plans to work with other nonprofits to see if there is a way to increase summer programs, especially for children who can't simply go to rec centers.

“So, it's not, you know, a world-changing opportunity, but it really is saying that we can do more and collectively we can do more."

ELEV8 is looking for volunteers and has job openings for the summer and after school programs later in the year.

The organization is also open to receiving donations to keep the programs going.