DC SCORES Staff Advocate for Young People at D.C. Council Hearings

Throughout the spring, DC SCORES staff members testified at D.C. Council hearings to advocate for investment in young people and out-of-school-time (OST) programming.

Staff appeared at performance and budget hearings for various agencies, including D.C. Public Schools (DCPS), the Deputy Mayor for Education, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and others. 

Council hearings are public forums that solicit input from District residents on proposed legislation, budget allocations, and policy issues. Budget hearings are held after the Mayor releases her proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, providing an opportunity for residents to advocate for the Council to endorse or modify specific budget proposals. 

This year’s hearings were particularly critical in a challenging budget context for D.C. Federal layoffs are projected to decrease the city’s revenues by approximately $1 billion over the next several years, while congressional funding cuts are set to drastically reduce critical federal resources, including Medicaid and food assistance. 

Testimony from DC SCORES staff stressed the immediate importance of investing in young people and their families through local government partnerships and funding. For example, Katrina Owens, DC SCORES Executive Director, highlighted how DC SCORES’ “deep partnership” with DCPS enabled the organization to “tap into the root of youth communities — their schools.” 

She thanked DCPS Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee for the agency’s support and emphasized DC SCORES’ gratitude for the continued investment in OST and education outlined in the Mayor’s proposed budget. Owens also reiterated the critical need for continued DCPS funding for security costs for free after-school programs, including DC SCORES. 

At other hearings, staff members attested to the power of direct grant funding from D.C. agencies. For instance, Nichole Erwin, Program Coordinator, used her time in front of the Committee of the Whole to share DC SCORES’ gratitude for funding from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH), which supports DC SCORES’ poetry curriculum. 

“Thanks to the Commission, our poet-athletes have everything they need to find their creative passion,” she said, before asking the Council to fully fund DCCAH’s budget for grants in the upcoming fiscal year.

DC SCORES serves more than 3,500 young people at 68 elementary and middle schools across the District of Columbia through award-winning, after-school soccer, poetry, and service-learning programs. To amplify youth voices in these critical policy discussions, it has become customary for DC SCORES witnesses to close their testimony with a poem from DC SCORES poet-athletes. 

Owens selected an untitled poem by poet-athletes at Brookland Middle School that called for action on gun violence, an issue that has increasingly impacted D.C. middle schoolers. She ended her testimony with an original piece by Brookland poet-athletes, first performed at a town hall advocating for gun violence reduction that the team hosted as part of their DC SCORES service learning project: 

In the hush before sunrise

Hope tiptoes through the dawn

But somewhere distant thunder

Means another life is gone.

A playground left in silence

A classroom marked by fear

A family’s table missing a voice

They hold so dear.

Gunfire leaves its shadow 

On every street and soul 

Turning dreams to ashes

Leaving hearts with holes.

We count the names and candles

We march and mourn and pray

Longing for a future when

Peace will light the way.

Let’s build a world of kindness

Where children laugh and run

Where love is stronger than anger

And healing has begun.