Youth Program Loses County Funding, Seeks City Support

The fight is on to save a 20-year-old youth program that has played a critical role in the development of close to 1,500 Union City residents.

’s Union City youth development program could shut down as abruptly as the end of this month due to losing an Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services grant — its primary source of funding for the past 20 years — according to staff.

The news came last week after a yearlong bidding battle between similar alcohol and drug prevention programs in the county, said Christopher Cara, youth services director for FAJ.

According to Cara, last year the county had to reduce their funding for such programs from $2.5 million to $2 million. As a result, funding for some programs was cut.

FAJ and five other organizations, however, were initially selected last April for continued funding, but an appeal from competitors claiming there were biases in the selection process caused the county department to reopen and review the bidding, according to Cara. The programs were given bridge funding through March 31 of this year.

Unfortunately, FAJ was among the programs that didn’t make the cut after the review.

According to Cara, FAJ, which had hoped to expand services into Fremont and Newark, received close to $60,000 a year from the county for the last 15 years, adding up to a $1 million investment over the program’s lifetime. That funding was supplemented by grants from the City of Union City and the Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit program to make an annual operating budget of about $100,000 he said.

“All of our youth programs depend on this funding, including the Union City site,” Cara said. “For the past 20 years, we’ve long been an advocate for young people in South County. It wasn’t good enough for us to provide prevention services. Advocacy and organizing is a big part of what we do as well.”

At risk are FAJ’s school-based prevention programs, including a young men’s group at , a ninth grade group at and a support group at . Also on the chopping block is the FAJ’s office, which serves as a meeting space for youth empowerment and leadership development programs like the Pilipino Youth Coalition, community organizing actions and health education projects.

FAJ also played an integral in pushing for Measure UU and helping advance the city’s .

“Losing these programs would be a huge blow to Union City’s overall youth violence prevention and youth and family support strategy,” Cara said.

Because of its role in Union City, FAJ hopes to appeal to the City of Union City for increased funding. The city currently gives $20,000 a year to FAJ, according to Cara.

“To prevent programming from ending so abruptly we’re asking the city to step in with support,” Cara said. “We’re trying to identify other funding sources but we don’t have any concrete leads to alternative funding at this point.”

Though not on the official agenda, supporters of FAJ will speak before City Council at tonight’s meeting.

The city would lose critical services If FAJ is forced to shut down, the city — and the county — would lose critical services, Cara said.

“We’re quite possibly the only Asian and Pacific Islander organization serving youth in a part of the county where half of the population is Asian and Pacific Islander,” Cara said.

FAJ needs to stay open for our youth, Cara said.

“Our programs promote a continuous culture of leadership within our community so that our community can sustain itself,” Cara said.

According to staff, about 1,500 local youth have been enrolled in its various programs since expanding into Union City from Oakland in 1982.

“Many of the youth who participate in our programs over the years not only become positive members of the community, many of them return to serve the community as community workers, organizers and educators,” Cara said.

FAJ needs at least $60,000 more to make up for the funding loss from the county, but Cara said they’d be thankful for whatever they receive from the city.

“At this point, anything is helpful,” Cara said. “We just don’t want to close our doors so soon.”

Youth enrolled in FAJ programs have already begun phone banking, with additional fundraising events in the works. The agency also has , which kicked off late last year in an effort to raise money for its programs.

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