The population served by Central Texas Youth Services proves the point since its clientele is equally divided by gender, ethnicity and financial capabilities.
“Everybody has problems,” said Steven Wick, deputy director and director of counseling for Central Texas Youth Services.
Central Texas Youth Services, established in 1970, serves 10 counties and has as its mission to assist troubled children, youths and families toward development of their full potential through provision of quality community-based services.
The program’s objective is to provide crisis intervention for immediate problems, diverting status offenders, preventing delinquency, providing one-on-one counseling, doing community referrals, providing emergency shelter care and follow up after care.
Central Texas Youth Services exists to help youngsters grow up and to assist families in helping their children grow up, Wick said.
“We have three thrusts of work - crisis intervention, prevention and intervention,” he said.
There are many behavioral issues and socioeconomic problems that can be solved if dealt with early on, Wick said.
If criminal activity can be prevented and a child kept out of the juvenile justice system, enormous amounts of money are saved.
“It costs $30,000 to $40,000 a year to house a child with the Texas Youth Commission,” Wick said. “It costs us $600 a year to deal with the entire family.”
The average stay for a child in the Youth Services’ emergency shelter is anywhere from 30 to 60 days.
“For runaways the first effort is to get them home,” he said.
Wick says the program could be described as being first cousin to Child Protective Services.
“We have no authority to remove a child from a home, but we work with a lot of abused and neglected children and get referrals from CPS,” he said.
If the child is homeless, the center will work with the state to find a stable environment for the youngster.
“Most of the runaways today are kids running from situations where the street is safer than the home,” he said.
The throwaways are youth from families where the parent no longer wants to deal with the child, Wick said.
“We’ve had situations where the child has come home from school and not only is there nobody there, but all of the furniture is gone … the parents have just left,” he said.
With a staff of about 40, the Central Texas Youth Services serves any emotional or behavioral problems, including abuse, neglect, pregnancy, substance abuse, gangs, runaways and throwaways.
The majority of clients learn about Central Texas Youth Services through word of mouth. Law enforcement, MHMR, juvenile probation also refers individuals to the program.
“We do a lot of work with schools,” Wick said.
Outreach programs are Central Texas Youth Services’ focus and the primary age of those served is 14.
Central Texas Youth Services operates a hotline, 1-800-421-TEEN, and a counselor is dispatched within 15 minutes to any emergency.
STAR (Services To At-Risk [children, youth and families]) deals with any problems of any child, providing crisis intervention, case management, information and referral services.
Project Safe Place uses signs to indicate to youth a secure place they can go for help. There are 351 safe place sites in Bell, Coryell and McLennan counties.
Option House in Killeen targets ages 3 to 17 and offers emergency shelter and assessment. It’s the only shelter of its kind between Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth.
“A lot of the children served in Option House are developmentally delayed due to trauma,” Wick said. “We do a lot of life skill development to catch them up where they should be chronologically.”
Project FUTURE (Focus Upon Training, Utilization of Resources and Employment) started when it became apparent the older population, about 50 youth a year, served by Option House were at a loss as to what they would do when they left the shelter.
Project FUTURE has furnished apartments available to the youngster coming out of foster care. Participants are required to have a job. They keep a third of their paycheck, a third goes into a savings account, and a third goes into the programs.
There is also an independent living center and a drop-in center for the homeless to use.
“We do a lot of life skill development preparing these kids to live on their own,” Wick said.
The problems some of these children and their families face aren’t necessarily anyone’s fault, Wick said. There are a lot of factors that people don’t have a lot of control over, especially financial.
No fees are charged for the services provided by Central Texas Youth Services.
“We don’t want anything to get in the way of anyone getting help,” Wick said. “We don’t refuse anyone, no matter the age.”
The majority of Central Texas Youth Services’ funding comes from the state and federal government, but United Ways in various communities, including United Way of Central Texas, also provides financial assistance.
The United Way is in its fundraising campaign for the year, with a goal of $1,625,000 to provide funds to 28 local agencies.
For information or to donate to the United Way, call 254-778-8616.
