Yours Ours Mine Community Center (YOM) in Levittown, a human service agency that has served over 1300 youths and their families this year alone, will be one of the many non-profit agencies that will be affected by Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta's directive to department heads to cut overall spending in discretionary contracts by 50 percent.

YOM is a not-for-profit multifaceted human service organization that has provided services to Levittown and surrounding communities including East Meadow, North Bellmore, Wantagh, Seaford, Plainedge, Hicksville and Bethpage for the past 35 years. YOM provides youth with counseling services, leisure time activities, employment/educational opportunities and support services. Youth and their families are also provided extensive outpatient substance abuse treatment services.

Erica Heyward, associate director at YOM, stated that the proposed cuts may cause the center to have to close down some of these services. "For years we've been working on just making do with the minimum and if they take 50 percent from the Youth Board, where the Youth Board gets $8.6 million, they're looking to take $4.3 million. The Youth Board contracts for 43 agencies, many of which their only funding source is funding through the Youth Board. This 50 percent cut could close doors for many of the community agencies," said Heyward.

YOM is fortunate, noted Heyward, that the money that they receive from the county is important to them, yet it is not YOM's only source of income. YOM sponsors programs such as its child care and adult day care programs, the fees from which go directly back into the YOM services. "Outside of those programs, our largest budget is the Youth Board budget," added Heyward.

It is believed by those at YOM that the drastic cuts will break down the number of agencies that are available, the support system for human service providers and the quality of life. "We're providing prevention and intervention services to keep youth and families from having to be involved in the court system and incarceration and things of that nature," said Heyward. "Without those services they may as well just put more money into jails."

Nassau County Legislator Dennis Dunne, of Levittown, agrees that YOM provides essential services to the community and does not believe that agencies such as YOM will be the ones that are severely impacted. "The County Executive explained to me that it isn't going to be across the board, every agency gets a 50 percent cut because then places that are great, like YOM, would be crippled and they'd have to close their doors...The department heads have to pick and choose who is really doing the work and who is just getting by," said Dunne.

Citing the rave comments about YOM he has heard from people throughout the community, Dunne stated, "I am truly confident that, if in fact the department heads follow the county executive's order, YOM will not be one of the ones hurt." He added that it will be up to the county executive to make sure that the agencies that are doing the best work are not hurt.

"This is a tough thing to do, to cut any of the outside agencies when you're helping people. To help one person is a tremendous thing and you can't really put a price tag on that but when you are in a financial problem like the county is in, you have to start trimming," said Dunne.

If YOM were to be one of the agencies affected by the 50 percent cut the agency will lose $146,000 from the Nassau County Youth Board and $248,000 from the Nassau County Department of Drug and Alcohol Addiction. In a release from YOM, CEO Jim Edmondson notes, "This 50 percent reduction actually equates closer to 80 percent which is devastating since the agency will still continue to have 'fixed' costs such as rent, utilities and liability insurance."

Yom has estimated that the approximate loss of $400,000 will result in the elimination of parent support groups; reduction of counseling, psychiatric and school intervention services; reduction of chemical dependency services which includes turning away mandated clients who are DWI referred to the agency; reduction in the number of referrals accepted from family court, probation, parole, juvenile correctional facilities, school districts, civic/religious organizations and walk ins; and may lead to the agency considering privatization which will increase participants' inability to receive needed services. YOM believes that the short-term results of the drastic budget cuts will be: a further increase in youth violence, family deterioration and child abuse; an increase in academic underachievers and the loss of a major community safety net.

In an effort to prevent the loss of these services YOM has begun a letter-writing campaign, contacting local legislators and assemblymembers, stating their opposition to the proposed cuts. Heyward noted, "We have parents signing off on letters in support of the opposition to the proposal because its going to have an effect on them. These families come to us because they know we're here. Our doors are open, regardless of what the situation is. They may not need us today but tomorrow they might. Tomorrow, for some of these centers, if this happens, they won't be here."