Thursday, August 19, 1999 Older Editions

Town taking greater role in caring for youth

By Neil Fater

The recent decision to make Youth Services a separate town division seems to be only the latest sign that town government is taking a greater role in teaching, entertaining and caring for Andover youth.

Andover officials have indicated they see Youth Services as a growing division because:

© For the past year, selectmen have publicly and privately talked about the importance of Youth Services programs;

© Currently, two separate, private groups are working to build a youth center in Andover;

© Last Sunday, Andover advertised in a Boston paper to fill a new Youth Services position; and

© Selectmen also plan to discuss creating other service positions.

Selectman Larry Larsen says all of this is just an acknowledgment of the times.

"The question is not, is the town becoming more of a parent? It's, what was available heretofore? The town's trying to put something where there was nothing," says Larsen, a child psychologist. "The programs Youth Services is now offering are often for young people for whom nothing has existed.

"There are certainly people who would argue, 'They never did it for me, why should I do it for them?' " he says. "But when you have two parents working as hard as they can just to put bread on the table and pay lavish taxes, we have a responsibility to do something."

However, although Youth Services is now a division, Director Bill Fahey says youth services can't offer much more than it already does without an increase in staff. Fahey says he sees his raise to division head as an acknowledgment of what he's done in his five years here.

"It's almost impossible to grow further if it's just me and one other person doing all the weekend and nighttime hours," says Fahey.

Andover did advertise for Youth Services help on Sunday, and Fahey says that, ideally, the new person will have some administrative skills. He doesn't want to be blocked from kids by a mound of paperwork.

"I want to stay actively involved in the program," says Fahey, "in terms of not getting in the position where administration becomes overwhelming."

Fahey also indicated the department of community services could use administrative help because of the paperwork generated by the dozens of programs for youth that it runs.

"DCS sort of initiated youth services and we work closely together and will continue to do so," he says.

"Their programs are growing and our programs are growing, and there's such a pressure from the community to have more programs," says Fahey. "Somehow in the process we're trying to look at what kind of staff we might need and what kind of staff they might need. Looming behind all of that is the space issue."

Staying centered

One solution to such a "space issue" is the idea of a youth center that would work as a base of operations for both community and youth services.

It's an idea that's once again receiving attention from a pair of groups in town.

Jim Arnold, who brought Hoops for Hope to Lawrence, is talking with Merrimack College about building a facility for youth on college land, while Selectman Larsen has formed a group to raise money for a youth center on town-owned land.

Fahey, who saw a 1995 effort for a youth center at Rec Park fail, has chosen to let others work toward a youth center while he focuses on youth programs.

But he says he "hopes to present a vision" for a youth center by the end of the year.

"Personally, as a community, I think we need to come up with something really creative," says Fahey. "There's really a growing need for programs seven days a week, 15 hours a day, before school, after school, all summer."

Paper czar

Perhaps because of this need, Selectman Brian Major says officials will discuss creating a new position that will oversee youth services, community services and senior services.

Fahey says he might support such a position if it freed up the social service division heads to focus on program enhancement.

"I'd be up to investigating anything that would help give the community better service," he says.

"For myself, I would rather see my role be someone who could develop more programs and implement more programs rather than spending weeks developing policy," says Fahey. "That's where I want to be. That's where I should be."

But Larsen is adamantly against creating such an overseeing position, because he believes the job will just create more bureaucracy.

"I do not want to see them under a czar of social services," he says. "Senior services, community services and youth services all are important and deserve the direct attention of the town manager. They should be in the staff meetings."

Larsen says he thinks the position will be created after he leaves office this coming March.