Nonprofits ask Mobile council for support for middle‑school program and free dental day

Two community nonprofits addressed the Mobile City Council during public comment on Sept. 16 asking for local support for youth programming and free dental services. Jabaria Dent, who identified herself as representing the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama, described the "Bridges to Great Futures" program aimed at preparing students for middle school. Dent said the program would begin the summer before sixth grade, provide 256 hours of summer programming plus out-of-school support during three years of middle school, and run at six sites across the city with a per-site capacity of 80 students, serving up to 480 students annually. Dent said combining summer and school-year programming would provide "780 hours of support in out of school time for these kids." She presented cost figures from the Justice Policy Institute saying it costs about $161,000 per year to incarcerate a young person, and contrasted that with the club's approximate $4,725 per participant cost for the program. Lindsay Blankenship spoke on behalf of Dedicated Dentist Inc., a charitable project started by Dr. Sonya White that runs a free dental day. Blankenship said the group provided about $54,000 worth of services to roughly 100 people at last year's free clinic and that local county commissioners contributed $5,000. She said the organization was short about $10,000 for the upcoming Oct. 11 clinic and asked the council to consider a contribution; she provided flyers to council members and offered to supply a PDF to the city clerk for distribution. Both presenters framed their requests as preventive, education- and health-focused investments. There was no formal appropriation vote during the meeting; council members asked that the presenters send materials to the city clerk and review possible grant or discretionary funding paths.