Already working on a tight budget, Marion Greaux, director of a child abuse prevention program in Hunts Point, said the mayor's proposals could put more children in danger.
"If you say cut the program at 50 percent, then you have a lot of families with children at risk," said Greaux, who runs the Cardinal McCloskey Family Outreach and Family Rehabilitation Program.
The program helps parents with drug or alcohol problems to keep their children, while insuring the children are not abused.
Parents are placed in drug treatment and social workers visit homes to monitor the children's safety. The program also offers health workshops, day care, sex-abuse counseling and access to continuing education.
Greaux's program already serves nine more families than the 60 the city funds. Additional cuts could endanger children in potentially abusive families, Greaux said.
"If the abuse is severe, children are affected emotionally and children are affected physically," she said. "In the last instance, we know what happens: children are killed."
-- Tara Dooley