Community Concerned R.O.C.K. Might be on the Chopping Block

When the fund supporting a Leesburg after-school program ran out earlier this year, parents and community leaders began to worry that some or all of its services would  be cut in fiscal 2012.

The Recreation Outreach to Community Kids, or R.O.C.K. program, offers free recreational outreach to community kids. Founded in 2005, it now serves about 100 kids ages 5 to 12. Program leaders host afterschool activities for kids Monday through Friday, providing a safe environment for kids to play while their parents are at work or away. In the summer, the program also provides day camps.

“In a lot of neighborhoods, the kids are latchkey kids going home to an empty house without a lot of supervision,” said Linda Fountain, the youth services supervisor for R.O.C.K. “It provides these kids with mentors and role models and consistency in their lives.”

“Any outreach early on is a great deterrent from negative recreation,” Leesburg resident Adriannne Bray said. Bray, a single mom, relies on the program to give her 11-year-old daughter positive interaction after school.

“If we want to fund the R.O.C.K. program, we’ll have to put it in this year’s budget,” Council Member David Butler said. To pay for R.O.C.K., something else had to be cut.

Previously, the town and the county have split the costs of employing school resource officers for local middle and high schools. This year, the council asked the county to pay 70 percent of those costs instead of the previous 50 precent.

“The county voted to fund the extra $166,000, and it appears that there is a majority on council to take that $166,000 and fund the R.O.C.K. program with it,” Butler said. “I fully expect that the R.O.C.K. program will end up being funded.”

This was good news for Bray, whose only child, Amira, has been in the program for the past two years. Bray lives in Leesburg’s Hancock neighborhood, near Fort Evans Plaza.

“For logical reasons, kids around here really don’t go out that much,” Bray said. “There’s a lot of traffic out there. [In the program], they go out and meet other kids. People are now attached to this neighborhood. It’s really helped this area with crime.”

While Bray works, her daughter is often at home with Bray’s mother. But many other kids come home to empty houses or come home to watch their own siblings.

“Kids are going to the program and bringing their brothers and sisters,” Bray said. “It’s very important for them to understand that they’re kids, and kids are supposed to play.”

Bray believes that the program develops character in the kids.

“I really see it as a connection from the town to these children,” she said. “There are parents who don’t always take a strong interest in the development of a child. I’m seeing changes with these kids. Having to go to one place at a set time - that’s forming their character.”

Butler said that the program also has a positive impact on town safety.

“I think [R.O.C.K.] is critical,” Butler said. “It’s a crime prevention program that helps kids that would normally have a lot of free time in the afternoons. It gives them something do. This has been proven to reduce crime and to reduce the potential for gang activity.”