CANOGA PARK : Youth Program Still in Need of Funding

Donations have helped keep alive a struggling gang-intervention program in the West Valley, but organizers of Keep Youth Doing Something say a long-term solution to their funding problem is still far off.

Sandy Kievman, director of the program, said she has received about 25 calls from companies and individuals interested in supporting the program, and has received about $3,000 in new donations in recent weeks--including a pledge of $1,500 from the Prudential Foundation, the charitable arm of Prudential Insurance, and $600 from Help Youth Foundation of North Hollywood.

The money is enough to continue for several more weeks to supply the equipment, food and trophies provided by KYDS to the several hundred children and teen-agers who participate in the group’s weekly activities in Lanark and Reseda parks. But Recreation and Parks management analyst Louis Loomis said a permanent funding source is still needed.

KYDS, a nonprofit youth program that provides field trips, dances and Friday night softball games for several hundred poor children, exhausted its $40,000 federal grant earlier this summer. The program, which was started by former City Councilwoman Joy Picus, has yet to find a steady source of funds to replace the grant, which cannot be renewed because its terms specified that it be used as seed money, Loomis said.

So far, the financial problems have not hampered the program. In recent weeks it has expanded from 28 to 72 children in Reseda Park, said Rayna Gabin, a field deputy for City Councilwoman Laura Chick who has helped coordinate the expansion. Gabin said donations from local businesses have so far been sufficient to sustain the expansion, but said reorganization of the group is necessary if KYDS is going to continue.

Gabin said she will propose appointing new members to the KYDS Board of Directors, forming an executive committee and issuing monthly financial reports at the board’s next meeting Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the city has applied for several new grants, including corporate grants, to last out the year, Loomis said.