By: Shannon Hegy

HOLYOKE, Mass. (abc40) -- Nineteen-year-old Ricky Cora has grown up at the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club.

"I was a really bad kid when I was little, so it helped me get out of the street and into a good environment," said Cora.

Ricky enrolled when he was just 5 years old.  Now he works at the Boys and Girls Club, trying to be a role model for other children, but new proposed state budget cuts threaten the very programs that helped him get off the streets.

"Our evening membership would be greatly impacted," said Nancy Dimauro, Vice President of Operations at the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club.  "We may have to close it down."

Dimauro says without the almost 900,000 dollars in Shannon Grant money the facility receives yearly, it won't be able to sustain it's program that draws over 100 young people every night.  From Career Point services, to homework help, and even jujitsu classes, Dimauro says the program for 13 to 18-year-olds has helped decrease crime rates in the city.

"To have a person in the correctional system is going to cost more than to provide these services that prevent the youth to go through the system," said Dimauro.

The Shannon Grant money is part of close to one million dollars that administrators believe could be cut from the facility's funding.

"We're going to have to try and work through these issues," said Governor Deval Patrick.  "It's not easy for anybody.  I know it weighs on the Speaker's heart, just like it weighs on mine, and certainly on the folks at the Boys and Girls Club."

Administrators at the Boys and Girls Club are holding their breath, hoping a new solution will arise before their 2008 Shannon Grant money runs out in December.  They want every child to have a chance, just like Ricky did.