Amendment #645 to H4000

Black Men of Greater Spfld W.E.B DuBois Saturday School & Summer Camp program

Representatives Swan of Springfield and Curran of Springfield move to amend the bill in section 2, in item 8100-0111, by adding at the end of line 41, after the word ”program”, the following: “provided further, that not less than $200,000 shall be expended to the Black Men of Greater Springfield, Inc to continue the operations of the W.E.B DuBois Academy Saturday School, W.E.B DuBois Academy Summer Camping program and the Unity grants program, as a youth development and violence prevention effort in Greater Springfield.” The continuation of their Saturday School of mentoring, counseling, tutoring, and role-modeling to boys K-12 each Saturday during the school year; and a summer camping experience during July and August at no cost to the participant is vital to the prevention of violence and school drop-out. The program is staffed by volunteers, except that youth camping staff is paid during the camping experience. This program uses state-of-the-art youth development methods and is an important activity toward violence prevention and good citizenship development. This program has been a most successful activity, but has not received state funds since 2007.