YWCA next to face state payment delays

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

ELGIN — The YWCA Elgin knows that area school districts and other nonprofit agencies have already faced the same problem they are — waiting on late, state-contracted payments to pay operating expenses.

And, like other agencies waiting on late state payments, the 109-year-old downtown Elgin fixture on East Chicago Street is looking hard at making massive cuts to prevent closing its doors entirely, said Deirdre White, YWCA event coordinator.

“We do understand that all not for profits and school districts are in the same boat, waiting five or six months for delinquent payment from the state. But we do not have the same resources as other, bigger not for profits,” White said.

Currently, Illinois owes the YWCA nearly $217,000, dating from March through September this year. About 60 percent of the YWCA’s total budget comes from state contracts, said Julia McClendon, chief operating officer.

Already, the YWCA has dipped into, and nearly depleted, reserve funds to make payroll. If state payments are not received by Nov. 15, programs including Department of Human Services-supported Teen REACH, its adult ESL and family literacy programs paid for through Illinois Community College Board funds, and its Southeast Asian Youth program, also state-funded, will be cut.

The Teen REACH program offers an after-school safe haven for 45 teens. About 90 families are served through the literacy program, and 486 adults attend English as a second language programs there, White said.

Another 800 people, adults and youth, are served each year by the Southeast Asian Youth program, which helps to acclimate both adults and teens to their new country.

“Without funding, this is all going away,” White said.

And, if that happens, only the center’s school-age, child-care program, serving about 50 children ages kindergarten through 12 years old, will remain, White said.

The cost of cutting these programs will be more than what the state owes the agency, she said.

“If we don’t help families here, they would still be a burden to the state,” she said. Those who are learning English at the YWCA would have to either find another program or be left with incomplete language skills. The teens using the REACH program would likely end up on the streets after school, and parents would either have to leave children alone after school or quit working to care for them, White said.

“This is bad, and their is no relief in sight,” White said of the current financials at the YWCA. “We cannot, Julia cannot, guarantee to staff that we can meet payroll.”

The cuts now being considered are not the first program elimination for the YWCA. The center closed its pool about 1½ years ago. “It used to be loved by many, but it was loved by few,” and expensive to operate to boot. “It was, excuse the pun, draining us,” White said.

Now, the pool is being used to store a few thousand dresses as part of Cinderella’s Closet, a partnership with the Elgin Junior Service Board to provide formal dresses for area girls who could not otherwise afford to attend their proms.

“We are not just sitting around, waiting for the money to come in,” White said. There are fundraisers planned, including receiving a portion of the proceeds from Thursday night’s Psychosis Haunted House at 200 N. Spring Street. That night, the celebrity bartender at Villa Verone, 13 Douglas Ave., will donate all tips to the YWCA.

The YWCA will also host a special sale of those Cinderella’s Closet dresses to help keep the dresses moving out the door and weed out the collection. Women and girls are invited to purchase dresses for $25 from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, with proceeds going to the YWCA.

These events won’t bring in huge dollars for the agency, at best a few thousand, White said. “We just need $215,000 more.”