After-school nonprofit in Glendale shutters due to federal funding cuts

With its federal grant funding cut by 35%, a nonprofit after-school program has shut down and returned $23,000 to Glendale.

The program, Club Jam, operated out of Grandview Presbyterian Church but closed this summer because it couldn’t absorb a $13,000 reduction in federal grant funding that’s parceled out by the city, according to a city report released this week.

Glendale officials charged with distributing millions of dollars in Community Development Block Grant funding faced drastic cuts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this year.

Of the $4.4 million the city received in block grant funding, Glendale had $290,000 available for nonprofits and city-run public social services. But the pot of money came nowhere close to equaling the nearly $1 million in funding requests submitted by about 20 nonprofits.

The HUD money is given to agencies throughout the country based on a formula that incorporates overcrowding, population and poverty data.

Club Jam’s returned funds are set to go to an Armenian nonprofit, a homeless shelter and a police mentoring program. After all three had their funding cut this year, the extra boost of money brings them closer to their 2011 allocations.

Most of the extra money — approved by the City Council this week — was given to the Armenian Relief Society, increasing its grant by $14,000 to a total $52,000. Door of Hope, a shelter for homeless women and children, got $4,084, raising its final grant total to $19,000.

The police mentoring program, Students Training as Role Models, received a $4,916 boost to bring its total to $15,900.

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