An improv group wants to help make Charlotte safer, but no school has taken up its offer

Scott Pacitti was thrilled when he learned his nonprofit had been granted up to $50,000 to support its programming in low-income Charlotte-Mecklenburg public high schools.

The problem? No school has taken him up on his free program.

Pacitti’s funding comes from the Safety and Accountability For Everyone (SAFE) Charlotte grant, a city initiative partially backed by the federal government that supports grassroots nonprofits aiming to address violence in the community. Launched this spring, the grant awarded almost $1 million in total to 17 Charlotte-area nonprofits.

Pacitti had hoped to use his grant money to finance a theater-based project in local low-income schools. Borrowing techniques from improv comedy, his program would help young people act out potentially dangerous scenarios and discuss alternatives to violence.

Pacitti said he reached out to four CMS high schools — he declined to say which ones — and askedabout setting up free programming for the upcoming school year.

Three schools did not respond to multiple requests, Pacitti said.

A principal at a fourth school called back and told him the school was already handling the kinds of issues that Pacitti hoped to address.

“He said, ‘OK, what age group of children are you hoping to serve?’” Pacitti said.

Teenagers, Pacitti said he told the principal.

“‘OK, we got them covered. We got teens covered,’” Pacitti said was the principal’s response.

“I said, ‘We’re also hoping to have, you know, social learning,’” Pacitti said. “He said, ‘CMS has already really invested in social-emotional learning, so we’re already paying for those types of things.’”

Pacitti’s programming would not cost schools any money. Any expenses would be covered by the SAFE Charlotte grant.

A CMS spokesperson told the Observer on Wednesday the district would provide a comment, but none had been sent as of Friday.

The United Way of Central Carolinas, which is responsible for distributing the grant money, says it’s helping Pacitti but advises grant recipients to be patient.

Kathryn Firmin-Sellers, United Way’s chief impact officer, pointed out that SAFE Charlotte only announced its grantees in late April, and grantees have until April 2022 to use the grants.

“It is premature to be ringing any alarm bells,” she said.

Firmin-Sellers also noted that grantees were not issued checks for $50,000, but they will instead file periodic reimbursement requests.

Getting in the door

Representatives from nine other SAFE-funded nonprofits told the Observer they haven’t had trouble finding uses for their grant money.

However, Kim Roseboro, executive director of Firm Foundations Youth and Family, said schools “typically” don’t respond to requests like Pacitti’s, often simply because of how much time it takes to organize either an in-school event or an afterschool program.

“It can be challenging to get in the door,” Roseboro said.

But Pacitti isn’t discouraged.

He said he plans to continue contacting high schools over the next several weeks, and he’s hopeful that more will respond as the school year approaches. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department also is helping Pacitti organize sessions with teens over the next two weeks, Pacitti said.

“If I can’t go through the front door of the school by talking to the principals — no disrespect to them — then I’m trying to go around to the side doors, the back window, whatever, to talk to groups that deal with children,” Pacitti said.