The Roosevelt Island Youth Program will be richer by nearly a million dollars in the next few weeks.  The funds are to be used for site renovations.  Alternatively, a permanent facility at a new site could be built.

The money has come from New York State's Community Enhancement Facilities Assistance Program and from an allocation in the City's budget.  The first installment of $150,000 was secured in April of this year from Assemblymember Pete Grannis's office.  The second, $610,000, was announced June 9 by City Councilmember Gifford Miller.

City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (striped tie) and Councilmember Gifford Miller attended Roosevelt Island Day June 9 to announce a grant to the Youth Program.

"A promise made should be a promise kept.  This is what I am trying to do by securing this money for the Youth Program," said Charles De Fino, the Executive Director of the Youth Program, half-smiling as he sank into his chair in an office crowded with equipment and stacks of papers.  "We don't have storage space and our equipment gets stolen so I have to keep everything locked up in my office," he said by way of explanation.

The Youth Program was moved out of the basement space now occupied by The Main Street Theatre with the promise that it would get a new space in one of the unused school buildings when PS/IS 217 was built in 1992.  "That was the promise made by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, but we ended up being guests of Doryne Isley of the Roosevelt Island Housing Management Corporation in what was then called our 'temporary' headquarters," said De Fino.  The lease was never concluded for any of the old school buildings because the Youth Program was unable to get sufficient funding to construct the new facility.

"When I applied for funds under the Federal Urban Development Program, I was rejected because the Island was not defined as 'urban.' The next year, I applied under the 'rural' category, to be rejected yet again.  We did not get the funds until the restriction was finally removed.  Now, thanks to Pete Grannis, [City Council Speaker] Peter Vallone and Gifford Miller, we have the money to renovate this space or even move out," said De Fino, clearly pleased with developments.

At this point, it is not entirely clear whether the existing facility at 506 Main Street will be renovated or a more ambitious project will be carried out.  That might mean moving into larger space and setting up the Center afresh with an audio-visual editing room, music education and rehearsal rooms, counseling rooms and exercise rooms.

On October 20, 2001, the 20th anniversary of the Youth Program, De Fino plans to unveil the architectural renderings of a proposed new facility.  "I want to secure a new building.  I will have a new space ready if I have to do it brick by brick," he said.

"We have a special community.  The Program serves 1,800 children and we need a special place to run our program.  We need to bring them up right.  For too long, we have waited to expand.  We came out of a basement.  Now, we have seen the light.  We want to stay here, not go into another basement.  This is our last opportunity to build," said De Fino, sounding eager and anxious at the same time.

The current Youth Program offers activities seven days a week for children as young as five, teenagers and even adults.  Activities include drama, arts and crafts, creative dance, career and drug workshops, homework help and tutoring for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).  "We are a quality agency and we should be in a quality building so we can attract quality people for quality work," he said.

The Program has been endorsed by those who are now supplying funds for it.  "The Youth Program is really important to the entire Island.  The current site is overflowing and this is an exciting opportunity to expand and bring better services," Gifford Miller told The WIRE in a telephone interview.  "After I secured funding for the Beacon program, the next logical step was to get the Youth Program a better facility.  It was a natural progression."

When asked how the Youth Program managed to secure the fund, De Fino answered unabashedly, "It is because of me.  My job is to raise money.  I have raised more money than all the other organizations on the Island."

The boast is not an empty one.  De Fino has, in fact, secured the trust of the politicians who have assigned the money to his charge.  "We have had a long-standing relationship with De Fino and are confident that, under his leadership, the expansion can become a reality," said Tony Morenzi, the District Office Manager for Assemblymember Pete Grannis.  "When De Fino sent in his proposal, he asked for seed money and said he could make it multiply.  The fact that he has got additional money shows that his original plan worked."

Now that he has the money, De Fino must deliver the goods.  He is clearly feeling the pressure.  "This is about their belief in me and this program.  If we don't build a new center now, we will never get any money."