Joanne Derwin of One World Project describes funding deficits

Thank you, Betty.

Joanna?

Yeah.

Thanks so much for having me today.

My name is Joanne Derwin, and I'm the executive director of One World Project.

We're a Spanish immersion community center based in Winter Terrace, Brooklyn.

We were founded in 2012.

Really started because I couldn't find a Spanish immersion program for my daughter.

And I did.

I just finished working at the Ford Foundation and I started an organization that built

collaboration between progressive business, labor, and community, and I was able to use my knowledge in nonprofit development to start a school.

I just wanted to emphasize how important it is to support multilingual learners.

At One World Project, the greatest challenge for us has been about funding.

So to respond to some of what the administration shared.

Our current universal pre-K contract every year leaves us with a deficit of $120,000.

It's incredibly hard to offer a high-quality universal pre-K program in New York City with the funding that is allocated by the Department of Education.

The Department of Education does not provide our teachers with what they would earn at a public school.

It's about $25,000 per teacher in our school.

So we have to make up that difference by fundraising.

So on October 18th, for example, we're going to make upcycled musical instruments and have a big waffle breakfast.

And everyone is making a donation to participate, and that's how we're doing it.

Little by little.

trying to build enough funds so that we can continue to offer a high quality universal pre-K.

So it's really frustrating to hear that those funds aren't available.

And just to close, we were offered a 3K spot, and we would have loved to be able to participate.

That happened a couple years ago, but it's impossible to sustain a school by signing another deficit contract.

So I encourage the Department of Education to pay community-based organizations what it costs to run a high-quality program.

And I really want to thank Advocates for Children, which has been incredibly important to work with our families to secure providers who offer services in Spanish.

It's incredibly hard to find speech therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, for example, who are able to speak Spanish to the children who are participating in our program.

Thank you.