Your Tax Dollars: YouthNet Makes Quarterly Report

YouthNet continued to make the case that it is a good investment for the towns of Maplewood and South Orange in a presentation to the South Orange Board of Trustees last night. 

YouthNet is a non-profit organization that develops and runs after-school programming and enrichment programs for middle and high school students in the towns—keeping kids off the streets, out of trouble and, ideally, on a path to success. YouthNet receives funding from South Orange Village, as well as from Maplewood. This year's subsidy from the South Orange Village totals $15,000. Maplewood Township also allocated $15,000 to YouthNet.

Executive Director Diane Malloy highlighted three areas of organization activity in a quarterly presentation to the South Orange Board of Trustees on Monday night. YouthNet is actively seeking grant monies, and has been successful. HK Community Fund awarded $3,000 to the organization, while Wachovia-Wells Fargo Foundation awarded $1,000, and work with the Montclair Neighborhood netted $1,300.

In the area of programming, YouthNet has administered "MMS Plus," an after-school enrichment program at Maplewood Middle School (MMS). This program will expand to South Orange Middle School (SOMS) in fall, under leadership of teacher Kathy Hester. This spring saw an open gym on Friday afternoons at SOMS, when officers from the South Orange Police Department, YouthNet staff, and SOMS faculty saw some 40 students weekly. In addition, YouthNet offered swimming at Seton Hall University to ten students each from SOMS and MMS. The students, who travelled to and from Seton Hall in the town jitney, learned to swim.

Tech Zone at the Maplewood Memorial Library, a computer-assistance program, may soon be replicated at the South Orange Public Library. YouthNet saw a number of evening coffeehouses during the school year, and sponsors ongoing bike registration this summer, in collaboration with the Maplewood and South Orange Police Departments.

YouthNet also seeks to place students in mentorships. Some 20 students applied through the Columbia High School Guidance Department, and are working with mentors this summer.

As Malloy concluded her presentation, Trustee Deborah Davis Ford described YouthNet as "a great return on the Village's investment." She further commended Malloy, her volunteers, and the organization for its great diversity of programming. "There's something for everyone, for every interest," said Davis Ford. "That is very difficult to do."