We are committed to our programs being accessible to youth, regardless of economics. Sliding scale is one way to do this.
If the program's base cost is $312 per student, how do we make it accessible to any kid who wants to come? If someone's parent(s)/guardian(s) can currently pay $100, or $200 or $10 or $0... that kid still deserves to come!! Someone else's parent(s)/guardian(s) may have solid savings and may decide to "pay-it-forward," into the community by paying $624 to support other youth having access to these programs.
It's a reality that there are people in our community with more or less financial stability, and that we all benefit from kids growing up to be healthy and well rounded adults.
Our programs are priced and do cost money to run. Where does that money go?
-Adventures in Sensemaking has 5 adults present at all times, and Flow Through & Play has 3 adults.
-The basic prices cover the cost of paying those adults for their time at the programs (though not covering full program development costs). Each program also pays a partial contribution to program costs such as porta-potties, background checks, and website hosting. Initial start up labor was funded with stimulus checks and/or unpaid labors of love.
For the summer of 2021 GAPS helps programming be free for Albany students. For the future we are considering becoming a non-profit and working to secure grant funding, and continuing to use sliding scale and community sourced models to pay decent wages to our instructors/mentors/staff.