The City of Gainesville recently launched its first crowdfunding campaign to increase funding for the Summer Heatwave program.
The city aims to raise $10,800 by May 24 for the program, which provides classes on life skills and recreational activities such as basketball tournaments for teens 13 to 19. Teens attend during the months of June, July and August.
The money being raised through Citizinvestor, a Florida-based company that works with local governments to create crowdfunding projects, would help pay the salaries of employees who run the programs, said Steven Phillips, director of the Gainesville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department.
He said the money would also be used to increase the number of participants from 500 to 1,000.
The program already budgeted $10,000 for this summer, Phillips said. An additional $10,000 would go directly to the city if the campaign reaches its goal by the deadline, and Citizinvestor would receive an $800 service fee. All campaign donations are tax-deductible. If the program does not reach its goal by the deadline, people will not be charged.
The Summer Heatwave program will have the same number of teens as last summer if it doesn’t meet its fundraising goal, Phillips said.
Along with Phillips’ department, the program is run by Gainesville Police and the State Attorney’s Office.
Lila Stewart, Gainesville’s senior strategic planner in the administrative services department, said the idea of using Citizinvestor to raise funds for the program was devised after a City Commission meeting last November where the State Attorney’s Office presented data showing a correlation between the program and a reduction in crime.
“When the City Commission recently expressed an interest in expanding the Summer Heatwave program, we thought it would be a good opportunity to try crowdfunding,” she said.
Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said he believes the campaign could help with his department’s goal of forging relationships between teens and police officers. Police officers will act as mentors for the students.
“Any time you have extra money and extra funds,” he said, “that’s many more youth we can hopefully help with this program.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 3/11/2014 under the headline "City launches crowdfunding campaign to expand teen program"]
