Tom Fudge : The Neighborhood House Association is the largest social services provider in San Diego. Locally, it is the contractor that provides Head Start preschool services. It's one of the largest Head Start providers in the nation with an annual budget of 85 million dollars.
But Neighborhood House has had some tough times lately. And they're the kind of troubles that make you wonder if it deserves the community's support.
Neighborhood House used to run the San Diego Food Bank. But in 2005, news broke that hundreds of tons of food, given to the Food Bank, were not given to the poor but we're sold to swap meets and discount stores. The scandal forced Neighborhood House to give up control of the food bank.
Today, as was the case back then, Head Start is the biggest enterprise of Neighborhood House. But evidence of lax management caused state regulators to seek revocation of 13 local Head Start Centers. Poor supervision of children caused numerous problems, including one infamous case in which a child was sent home with a stranger. Luckily, the child was unharmed.
We'll talk about what the group has done to settle with state regulators and... most of all... to improve it's tarnished reputation.
Guest
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Rudy Johnson
, president and CEO of the
Neighborhood House Association.
