Council adopts student council’s funding advice

Big Brothers Big Sisters will receive $2,000 from the city of Spokane Valley in 2006 following recommendations from the city’s Student Advisory Council.

This is the first year in which the council of Valley students was given an advisory role in the city’s budget for youth programs.

Each year the council allocates a small portion of its budget – $120,000 – for outside economic-development and social-service agencies. In its first bid for city funds, Big Brothers Big Sisters requested $8,500. Spokane’s Chase Youth Commission, which received $1,000 from the city last year, asked for $3,000 to help fund regional youth programs that involve Valley students.

At a meeting in September, the council decided to set aside $2,000 for youth programs and let its student council determine how much to give each organization. Members of the Chase Youth Commission told the Spokane Valley group that, if the city would not fill their request entirely, they felt the money should go to Big Brothers Big Sisters instead.

The council recommended just that, and the City Council put its funding suggestion on the books at Tuesday’s council meeting.