Volunteers in Newport Education Struggling to Stay Afloat

The 37-year-old nonprofit Volunteers in Newport Education is desperately seeking funding to keep its programs afloat for another school year.

VINE executives pleaded with the Newport School Committee Tuesday night to add an additional $7,000 to the $6,000 they were already allocated for this year. As it stands, VINE's Roberta Emerson said, the nonprofit only has enough money to support itself through January 2011. The organization is continuing to seek grants and other funding outlets to help, but said it "desperately needs that $7,000" to be able to continue its programs through the spring.

According to Superintendent John Ambrogi, the school district increased its funding to VINE a few years ago from $11,000 to $13,500. This year, due to the "substantial stressors" weighing down the budget, Ambrogi told Emerson this past summer that he didn't think the school district would be able to fund the nonprofit at all.

"She indicated to me that they were in deep financial trouble as an organization and having trouble finding monies, and that she didn't know if they'd last through January 1," he said. "I said, 'Well I'll try to help out to get you to that point, and we funded the program at the $6,000 level."

Founded in 1973, VINE was the joint effort of a group of Newport residents, with the cooperation of the superintendent of schools, and the School Committee. For years, Ambrogi reflected, VINE was a robust volunteer-run organization. But more recently, he said it's seemed that their primary function is providing free books to children in the schools.

While Emerson acknowledged that they do give out 3,000 books a year, "that's not all VINE does."

Emerson said sign-up letters went out to Newport schools just last week for those interested in their programs. In addition to providing books to students at various grade levels through its R.I.F. program, VINE also sponsors at least six other programs, including the reading incentive program Books and Beyond, reading mentors, Free Comic Day, and Art Smart. It also sponsors two coloring book programs: Color Me Safe, which promotes safety in and out of the house, and Color Me Proud, a program that focuses on the history of Newport in relation to Black History Month.

According to Emerson, VINE's budget goes towards paying for those projects, and for two part-time staffers, who they say have already taken pay cuts on behalf of the program.

For School Committee Member Hugo DeAscentis, who sponsored the action on Tuesday night's agenda, the concern to him is one of perception, with the district saying it can't fund a program like VINE, but then ending up with a surplus at the end of the year.

"I'm really torn on this," said School Committee Chairwoman Jo Eva Gaines. "I love this organization, but I'm also looking at the budget and wondering what we're going to do next year. We've been lucky to have those surpluses. We put a million back into programs. But next year, we've got $200,000, and that's not going to save much. ... I need some time to look at this, to look at the budget to see where we're going to get it. I don't want to touch $200,000 because we're going to need it next year."

Gaines called for exploring what kind of work can be done with VINE in the interim. Emerson noted that they'll continue to seek out grants and any other opportunities for extra money as they try to keep the 37-year-old organization alive.

The School Committee tabled a vote on the issue until its next regular meeting.