Kids With Dreams is a beautiful, constructive, and inspiring community that truly embodies the spirit of volunteering. We love people, regardless of ability, and cultivate an atmosphere of warmth and friendship in all that we do. My experience as an intern for this organization has been phenomenal; the leadership board embraced me and my fellow interns, treating us as equals and listening to (and implementing) our input and suggestions. The primary goal of Kids With Dreams is clear; we strive to improve the quality of life of the people we work with in a safe and supportive fashion, and as long as we consistently do that we are successful. Kids with Dreams is the only Stanford organization that works with kids and young adults in the community who have special needs.

Unfortunately, Kids With Dreams hit a rocky patch recently; the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Undergraduate Senate denied our request for an annual grant of $6,670. This request amount is less than our budgeted total expenses and is significantly less than the funds requested by other student groups. The reason we were denied funding is because the annual grant pool was “extremely tight” financially this year; no other explanation was given. It is understandable that there is a set amount of money that may be allocated to student groups, as the funding for Voluntary Student Organizations comes from fees automatically charged to students’ bills that include tuition, housing, board, and health fees, among other expenses. (Students do have the right to request a refund for this student activities fee, but risk being denied entry to events funded by the ASSU as a result.) That said, denying annual funding to an organization like Kids With Dreams puts us in the position of trying to get 1,200 undergraduate student signatures by this Wednesday, March 9th in order to secure money for next year. Not only were we denied funding for an annual grant, but we were not informed we were denied funding until we only had roughly a week to react.

I will note that there are other options for funding. Discretionary General Fees Funding provide up to $7000 via Standard Grants. The organization must submit Standard Grants forms, and a group representative must schedule an appointment (or attend ASSU office hours) at least a week before the event. It seems the Undergraduate Senate assumed that we could apply for money through Standard Grants because we requested less than $7000, but this was not discussed with our financial officer. Simply put: these alternate forms of funding are not feasible for KWD, which runs multiple weekly programs in addition to large events. Our financial officer would need to submit forms almost daily, in addition to attending weekly office hours for each program.

Annual funding gives us the flexibility to distribute money to programs as they occur, without having to go through a cumbersome registration process. Not only would case-by-case grants burden our financial officer, but they would also get in the way of our missions and goals as an organization. We spend a significant amount of time brainstorming, planning, and designing programs for kids and young adults with special needs in the community, and adding “get funding” to the to-do list would make implementing events that much more difficult.

Kids With Dreams will do everything we can maintain our service to the community. We will continue to maintain programs and to hold events because we are devoted to improving the lives of truly inspiring, dynamic people who love life and see the best in everyone, even though they have been defined by (and even bullied because of) a single label. We will continue to give Stanford students opportunities to volunteer and to form strong, lasting friendships with wonderful community members with special needs. But, we need funding. The description of the group is as follows:

“Kids with Dreams is an organization of Stanford students dedicated to improving the lives of individuals with special needs. Through its weekly programs, the organization networks Stanford volunteers with community organizations and to connect them with children and young adults with special needs. Through fun activities like playing soccer, swimming, rehearsing a play, making arts and crafts, and practicing dance moves, volunteers and kids alike get to have a blast while building skills and friendships that are meaningful to all.”

Stanford undergraduates, please click this link to sign our Special Fees petition. Thank you.