Newtown Youth Services: A Vital Agency For A Vital Community

By Tanjua Damon

It has been in Newtown for over 20 years and has served thousands of youths and families. It offers counseling, parenting programs, youth and adult programs, and much more.

Newtown Youth Services (NYS) is a non-profit organization that began in Newtown in 1979. Its mission is to improve the quality of life in the community through programs and services for young people and parents with a philosophy reflecting the enthusiasm, hope, and creativity that are the promise of children.

There are youth services organizations throughout Connecticut. NYS is just one of over 90 organizations located in the state. Funding for the organizations is a cost sharing program by which money comes from the State Department of Education, the town, local school board, through other organizations, and private and community support.

Debbie Richardson has been the director of NYS for 13 years. The organization has grown over that time and new programs are always being offered to the community.

“Our main function is to coordinate youth services for youths in town and beware of gaps and network with others to fill them,” she said. “Direct services are decided by what is needed in your particular area. It has grown. We’ve added a lot of programs. Sometimes we come up with our own programs and we get ideas from other youth service groups.”

Right now NYS offers 20 to 25 different programs that reach out to a diversified group. Some of their programs include: youth and family counseling, job bank, high school and middle school advisory boards, AIDS education, after school programs, juvenile review board, workshops (Positive Parent, Teen Zone, Positive Parenting with Special Needs Children, Fathers’ Night, and the 4-H Club).

“We have served 12,000 to 15,000,” Ms Richardson said. “We have the ability to add something or change something. As an agency, we try to look for each person’s gift. If you are good at something we’ll let you do that here. So many people have so much to give to kids. It makes the agency diversified.”

Through NYS, Newtown’s youths can receive free counseling and families can be counseled on a sliding scale. Youths and families come to NYS for counseling for a number of things, according to Assistant Director Jane Todorski.

“We’ve covered the whole spectrum,” she said. “Everything from substance abuse to parents losing their jobs to divorce, illness, and death. Really the whole gamut. We wanted to make it possible for anyone to come in.”

Job Bank And Support Programs

David Rod is a junior at Newtown High School. He is the job bank coordinator at NYS. David finds employment for high school and middle school students age 13 to 17.

“I have a bank of members at my disposal. One hundred sixty to 180 kids,” he said. “We’re looking for someone who is responsible. They have to make a commitment and follow through.”

The job bank helps students not only to have employment, but also to develop people skills and to have an opportunity to experience what real life is like, according to David.

“It’s really rare that I can’t fill a job,” he said. “The after-school ones are hard to fill. If I can’t, I post them at the high school and have people contact me.”

David believes the job bank and Newtown Youth Services are a good thing for the community.

“I think it helps the community a lot,” he said. “Hopefully we can really help them.”

NYS has a few volunteer interns doing clinical work. Two interns, Addie Sandler and Nina Allred, are not only doing counseling work but are also working with two Positive Parents groups, one for new moms and the other for parents with special needs children.

The New Moms group meets for eight weeks, once a week. There are two different groups, one for newborns to nine months and the other nine months to eighteen months. The groups talk about topics including developmental stages, nurturing, and boundaries.

“It’s really a supportive environment for moms of Newtown. It’s a chance for moms to get out of the house and bring their kids,” Ms Sandler said. “It’s really empowering for the moms. You see the relief on a mom’s face when another mom says my baby does that too. Being a mom is the hardest job and the most important.”

Ms Allred agrees that being a mother is special and hard work. Sometimes you need other mothers to talk to as you are adjusting to parenting.

“I remember very clearly being a new mom. Very suddenly you are in a very different world and feel very isolated,” Ms Allred said. “In addition, they all have questions. They are warm and compassionate. They really like to talk about issues that concern them. In generations past, communities were a lot more stable. Now that’s not true any longer and we’re trying to fill that gap.”

The Positive Parenting with Special Needs Children group is new this year. This group will meet twice a month over a ten-month period, according to Ms Sandler.  NYS received a special grant from the Children’s Trust Fund to help support the group.

Educational Programs

Roseanne Loring, program and parent education coordinator at NYS, holds a multi-leveled position. Several programs fall under her supervision: Positive Parenting workshops geared for pre-school and elementary school children; Welcome to the Teen Zone talks about issues with teenagers; babysitting class; middle school advisory board, which is a service learning based group of students; and Newtown Youth Creating AID Awareness for Peers (NYCAAP).

“I think it’s important for kids to learn now lucky they are and to give back,” Ms Loring said. “They learn a lot from going out and helping all these people. You don’t know who enjoyed it more, the person you helped or the kids.”

NYS is also trying to get together businesses who would be interested in a Lunch & Learn program at their place of business. Employees would have an opportunity to have a positive parenting workshop right at work during lunch. NYS is currently looking for businesses that are interested.

NYCAAP will meet for one session per month during which parents can come and ask questions about HIV/AIDS and how to talk to their kids, according to Ms Todorski. The members of the group felt that they might have more information than their parents and wanted to provide an opportunity to their parents. Plus NYCAAP is returning the NAMES Project Memorial Quilt to Newtown High School for the week of November 27 through December 1.

Perhaps NYS Office Manager Anita Arnold sums up best what Newtown Youth Services is all about and why people should take a moment to see what NYS offers.

“People should come here for a change of pace from what they are already doing. This is a place they can come to look for something new,” she said. “You can participate in your own fun. There are a lot of opportunities for that.”

For more information about Newtown Youth Services or if you want to sign up for a program the organization offers call 203/270-4335.