Federal stimulus money invested in small organization growth

NEW YORK CITY – Two New York-based youth programs are using federal stimulus dollars to teach students in the arts, including documentary videos and music.

The Educational Video Center, Inc. and American Composers Orchestra – both in Manhattan – each received $50,000 in federal stimulus funds through the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities.

Educational Video Center, Inc. (ECV) is a non-profit organization that teaches students from low-income families to shoot and produce documentary videos. It has so far received $26,750 of its share of the $275 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. ECV has used $22,136 to sustain teachers and staff for the program, as well as to provide new ones, according the Recovery Act's online database.

Six new youth media producers and one program manager have had their salaries paid by the federal stimulus money, according to Steve Goodman, executive director of EVC. Recently, these faculty members helped a group of students create a documentary about drugs and incarceration in New York City, he said.  

"That is all possible by the stimulus funds for the jobs that were created," Goodman said.

ECV plans to receive the rest of the $50,000 before the end of its program year on August 31. Goodman said all the federal funds will continue to be used for salaries and benefits.  

 The American Composers Orchestra, on the other hand, has focused on sustaining its educational programs. Executive director Michael Geller said that ACO employs almost entirely part-time workers. Only three ACO employees work full-time, he said.

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) offers various education programs in New York City public high schools, paying composers or musicians to give instrumental lessons and group workshops to the students. The $22,637 in stimulus money ACO has received so far has gone entirely toward these educational programs, Geller said.

Among the schools benefitting from ACO educational programs are Manhattan's Louis D. Brandeis High School, Brooklyn's Fort Hamilton High School and Queens' High School for Newcomers.

They plan to use the remainder of the stimulus money – which Geller says they will receive at some point before the end of the school year in June – to continue their educational programs.

"Our request [for stimulus funds] was totally for education," Geller said. "So it's not used for ACO's performances. Like when we do concerts at Carnegie Hall, it wouldn't be used for that."

Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Feb. 13, 2009, approving the distribution of $275 billion for federal contracts, grants and loans for small business use.

Michael Williams, Ph.D. and Dean of the Graduate School of Business at Touro College in Manhattan, said stimulating small businesses and organizations is crucial because of the important part they play in the national economy.

"Small businesses are really the economic engine of the United States economy," Williams said. "With globalization working both ways…It was critical to identify and fund smaller companies to enable that economic engine to at least stay stable if not grow so jobs at the local level would not be completely abandoned."

The stimulus package, then, was a critical step in resuscitating small businesses during a recession.

 "The small business community in the United States…generates about 75 percent of the net new job growth," said Barry Sloane, Chairman of the Board & CEO of Newtek Business Services, a non-bank lender which gives small business loans. "The administration targeting small businesses as an important part of the economic stimulus makes a lot of sense."

Williams compared the stimulus to a "life preserver" to keep small businesses alive over a short period of time.

"It definitely has made a difference, [and] it continues to make a difference," Williams said. "Having money on the ground to local businesses is a critical part of the economic conduit to get money out."