By Scott Brinton
Azzata, 48, who is the non-profit group's coordinator, had known for a month that the $60,000 state Youth at Risk Community Partnership Grant upon which the center depends for survival was in jeopardy.
Last Tuesday, the North Bellmore resident learned that the recent state budget agreement between Gov. George Pataki and the Legislature eliminated all Youth at Risk funds.
State representatives told Azzata that the money would not be restored to the budget, as it had been when cut at times in the past.
That left Azzata scrambling last Wednesday and Thursday to prepare paperwork for a Friday trip to Albany to lobby for any funds that might keep the parent center alive. She feverishly assembled informational packets about the center to show state legislators its value and popularity in Bellmore-Merrick.
Azzata was told that local lawmakers, such as Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) or Assemblyman David McDonough (R-Merrick), might be able to arrange for a special legislative grant that could help the parent center stay afloat, at least for another year.
Sen. Fuschillo said that he asked members of the Pataki administration last Friday to look for any discretionary funds that might be available to keep the parent center solvent for another year.
During recent budget negotiations, he said, the Senate had retained 50 percent of Youth at Risk monies in the state's spending plan for next year. The Assembly, the senator noted, removed those monies entirely. He could not say why. "I don't know what their reasoning was," said Fuschillo.
Proud past, uncertain future
Right now, Azzata is uncertain what will become of the parent center. She did, however, say, "Closing is definitely a possibility" without state funding.
The center began some two decades ago as a support group for mothers and fathers, titled "Parents Are People Too." Susan Anderson, a former social worker in the Bellmore Elementary District, now an author, started the group and ran it for six to seven years.
The parent center officially opened 15 years ago with a $225,000 Youth at Risk Grant. The center was first housed in the Bellmore District's Reinhardt School, and the Bellmore, North Bellmore and Central High School districts lent support for it.
Year by year, the state reduced the center's funding, as the original $225,000 was intended as seed money for the organization. For the past 12 years, the center has received $60,000 annually in state grants.
Five years ago, the center moved from the Reinhardt School to the Brookside School, which sits on Meadowbrook Road in North Merrick and is home to the Central High School District's administrative offices. The Merrick and North Merrick elementary districts also later joined in supporting the center. Each of Bellmore-Merrick's five districts now provides $1,000 a year for the group.
Marilyn Johnson is an assistant superintendent in the North Bellmore Elementary District and founder and former executive director of the Bellmore-Merrick Child-Care Program. She wrote the original grant proposal for the parent center.
Johnson said losing the center would be a terrible loss for Bellmore-Merrick. Through its parent-education programs, the center has aided hundreds of thousands of mothers and fathers throughout the area, she said.
"What is more important to invest in than our families and in our children?" Johnson said. "Bellmore-Merrick is very special in that it's very child-centered, very family-oriented." The parent center, she said, is woven into the fabric of the Bellmore-Merrick community.
Myriad of programs
The entire $60,000 that the center receives from the state goes to develop parenting programs, said Azzata. The center operates with three paid, part-time staff members, including Azzata, and eight facilitators, who lead discussion groups among parents and receive small stipends for their work.
The center, which serves as a statewide model, offers 20 different workshops throughout the year, ranging from "Building Self-Esteem in Our Children," to "Discipline, Anger and Communication Skills," to "Getting Ready for Middle School," to "Siblings Without Rivalry."
The center also brings in nationally recognized parenting experts and authors to give talks, which attract hundreds of local parents. The recent "Parent University," featuring keynote speaker Margaret Sagarese, filled the Merrick Avenue Middle School auditorium. The speakers, Azzata noted, are paid for their programs.
And the center offers a lending library of more than 300 parenting books and audio-visual materials at its Brookside office.
Gail Volk, coordinator of the Community Wellness Council of the Bellmores and Merricks, moved to Merrick from Washington, D.C. nine years ago. At the time, her two children were babies. She and her husband didn't have family nearby to turn to for help in raising their kids, so she looked to the Community Parent Center.
"I was seeking parenting advice," said Volk. "I didn't have that familial support. I didn't have grandma and grandpa down the street."
Through programs such as "Sense Around," which shows parents how to explore the world with their children through the five senses, Volk gained self-confidence as a mother and developed a support network of other concerned parents.
Barbara Kane of Bellmore, who is the mother of three grown children, has served as a facilitator at the center since it opened. She said of the group: "It is a wonderful opportunity for parents to enlighten themselves as parents and share with other parents what they're going through."
Azzata, who holds her undergraduate degree in psychology and sociology and has three older children, said the idea behind the center is to "empower" parents by sharing with them time-proved techniques to nurture their children.
She noted that parenting is one of the greatest challenges that a person can face. Yet, as well educated as most Bellmore-Merrick residents are, they have rarely received formal parenting education.
Azzata herself first became involved in the parent center by taking classes there. Through small-group discussions, she realized that she was indeed a very good mother. "I felt like, yeah, you're doing the right thing," she said.
Azzata says the underlying message that the center sends to parents is that, if they feel positive as mothers and fathers, they can help their children believe in themselves. And, if their kids feel a sense of self-worth and trust their parents, they are far less likely to turn to substance abuse as they grow older.
Volk said that, these days especially, "Parents need to be given the permission to be parents. A lot of parents think they should be their kids' friends. They don't need another friend. They need a parent."
Showing people how to become true mothers and fathers for their children, she said, is what the parent center is all about.
To contact the Community Parent Center, call (516) 992-1073.
Assemblyman McDonough could not be reached for this article.
