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Organizers look to expand P.A.L.'s after school program in Daytona Beach

By Casmira Harrison casmira.harrison@news-jrnl.com
Thursday, July 07, 2016 7:12 PM

DAYTONA BEACH - In one classroom of 8- and 9-year-olds at the Vine Street civic center, tiny pink shoes wiggled and tapped impatiently, their owners hoping to be called upon to answer the math problem on the board.

"Oooh!" said one young girl, Charlotte Quann, holding her hand high in the air. She knew the answer was 3, and she was just itching to share it.

Charlotte was one of dozens of children in the Central Daytona Beach Police Athletic League getting a jolt of summertime academics at the Yvonne Scarlett-Golden Cultural and Educational Center this week.

In another classroom, 6 and 7-year-olds tried to grasp the concept of "citizenship" and "fairness" on language cards, and in yet another, older kids learned about setting long- and short-term goals.

For PAL, the classes are a way to even the playing field for kids in Daytona Beach's inner city, keeping them off the streets, out of trouble with law enforcement and on a path to success, organizers say. It's a sight that Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood and several other organizers want to see more of, so they're looking to expand the after-school program PAL has had in place since 2011.

"We're trying to get 'em young and get 'em on the right track," said Linda Lewis, executive director for CDBPAL, about the program which targets children ages 6-12.

Despite the word "athletic" in the club's name, Chitwood says the program focuses more on education than sports, not only giving the kids a safe place to meet up with other kids their age, but also homework aid and mentoring. But the program needs to expand, he says, and rather than asking taxpayers to foot the bill, PAL is reaching out to the business community.

"We have the tutors. We have the mentors. It's just a matter of getting the funding," he said, adding it will likely take two buses at a cost of around $17,000 to transport 80 children.

"Sixty percent of all of our school age children who live in the 32114 zip code live at or below poverty level," said Chitwood recently at a community forum, citing a U.S. Census report. "While that's not an indicator that you're going to go into a life of crime, it's certainly another obstacle that some of our children have to surmount."

But at the same time that family funds are sagging there, so are PAL funds.

PAL averages around $50,000 annually in funding, but a large chunk has historically been from forfeiture funds and Chitwood says those have been coming under pressure, too, due to abuse that prompted a change in forfeiture law.

"They changed the rules," said Carla Quann, who runs the after school program. "That money's gone."

The school program focuses on children in the kindergarten through 6th grade age range, but local business owner Gib Dannehower said, "We're missing kids."

And the owner of Daytona Toyota Scion of Daytona Beach thinks a cash promise from the private sector could reach more kids, and in turn, put the brakes on potential crime - like that on local businesses.

"If we can do it on a small scale in Daytona," Dannehower said, "then it can be an example elsewhere," maybe even nationwide.

The payback for local business supporters might be embodied in Isaiah Toby. In contrast to the younger, excitable Charlotte, 12-year-old Isaiah was more hesitant with his answers, seeming shy.

But this past year after working with a tutor in PAL's after-school program, he said, his grade in math hiked from an F to a B.

Quann says it's important to reach these kids by the time they get to third grade.

"We do have kids in elementary school who are in the court system," she said, adding she thinks Isaiah is exactly the program's target audience.

"They need that one-on-one and we can provide that. When a kid starts to fail, they get in trouble."