Boxing club looks for funds to keep after-school programs afloat

Since 2004, Richard Steele’s after-school programs have kept youngsters off the streets and out of trouble.

Steele is a Hall of Fame boxing referee who operates his self-named boxing club at 2475 W. Cheyenne Ave., Suite 110, in North Las Vegas. When not training tomorrow’s champions, his gym welcomes students for programs that mix physical fitness and strong role models and offer everything from homework help to street smarts.

The nine programs were funded by the state’s Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Agency. The grant was $205,000 per year, enough to offer the programs free to the community. On Aug. 1, the gym lost its funding.

“We thought it would be just be a couple of weeks that they would not fund the program. ... We had just been through an audit, and the audit came through perfect,” Steele said.

The temporary delay assumption was further supported by the fact that the agency had requested that the programs be expanded. So, Steele worked up two new programs. One included parental counseling, and the other taught job skills to young people fresh from juvenile detention centers. Steele had put a proposal together for both new programs but heard nothing.

He sent a follow-up email to Charlene Herst, prevention team supervisor for SAPTA in Carson City, asking when to expect word. In December, Steele received an answer via email.

“We are holding large scale projects in abeyance for the time being,” Herst wrote. “We are in the process of merging with the State Health Division and have lost 99 percent of our fiscal staff, part of our treatment and data staff, and I am possibly losing at least one prevention staff member. It will be a while before we can start the request for application (RFP) process for large and complex projects.”

Steele said he was blindsided by the December email. If the state wants to save money, he said, what better way than to keep kids out of gangs, off drugs and on the path to being productive citizens?

“Prevention has always been my thing,” Steele said. “Prevention, in like, keeping kids away from drugs and alcohol and ... prevent(ing) kids from being sent to prison.”

Steele estimated that his programs have saved the state $800,0000 just by keeping kids out of the court system and out of jail.

“I try to show how much it costs to incarcerate a kid,” Steele said. “My program costs $40 a month, instead of $4,000 a month” to house an inmate.

The Police Athletic League of Southern Nevada is part of the program. Metropolitan Police Department officer Melissa Lardomita heads the league’s Saturday workshop at the Richard Steele Boxing Club. It sees about three dozen youths participating. Lardomita said the program was “more than just kicking a ball, more than keeping them active. It’s important to give them the ability to set goals for themselves.”

Since the money dried up, parents have been asked to foot the bill, paying $40 a month for each child 17 or younger in the program. The program had 250 kids in it. About 65 had to drop out once their parents were asked to pay. The programs are offered three days a week.

Elena Crespo-Sanchez has two sons, 8 and 10, who began the program around the first of the year. She said they like it a lot and look forward to coming. Another parent, George Wilson Jr., said he’s seen his son, Tearing, 13, get a boost in self-confidence, and Tearing is now left alone by bullies.

Tyrone Johnson has two sons, Kimani, 10, and Angel, 12, in the program. Johnson is one of the coaches at the club. He sees children in the program from all walks of life.

“Maybe a kid comes from a broken home or a low-income home. For them ... (it’s like) a second home,” Johnson said. “I wish more places like this were strategically placed around the city.”

He and the two other coaches have been training children in the after-school program without compensation since August. They haven’t complained, Steele said, but they deserve to be paid for their efforts.

“They’re here for me,” Steele said. “They know this program works, that these kids need this program. It’s so hard to keep asking them to give me more time.”

Soon after the grant money fell through, Steele tried raising money through steeleboxing.com, which takes donations. To date, it has brought in $1,100 –– a fraction of his monthly overhead.

Steele has been scrambling to find new grant money and submitted requests to three city and state agencies. He said he hopes to hear something this month but said that even if the money is approved, it will take another 60 days or so before the check is cut.

Meanwhile, he said, he hopes individuals will donate, or perhaps one of boxing’s big names will help.

“We just had another shooting last night (Feb. 21) on the Strip ... We’ve got to prevent these kids from going the wrong way,” Steele said.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.