Youth-Services Coordinator Asked

Youth-Services | Coordinator Asked
By Jay Stielstra, (D)
(City Council, Fourth Ward) I am familiar with and concerned about the youth of Ann
Arbor. In spite of the fact that we know have an abundance of material on almost every face of the youth problem and cai obtain much of the financing needed, we have actually accomplished very little.
I believe the city should seize the initiative and in coopera. tion with the public schools and county government hire a youth coordinator. His duties would be as follows:
1) Coordinate the work of presently available agencies, thus avoiding Stielstra duplication in one area and vacuum in another.
2) Establish a central clearing house where people may learn about the resources available to them and an individual youth may be properly referred to receive exactly the help he needs.
3) Aid the youthful offender before trial is necessary. The youth coordinator could recruit and direct a corps of volunteers, counselors and tutors. The Police Youth Bureau would supplement this work at the precourt level.
4) Obtain funds from avail. able sources (there are several if these-at the local, state and federal level) and direct them to their most effective use. 1 Juvenile authorities agree that severe punishment is not an answer but an admission of defeat. When we send an offender to Boys Training School, he associates with more sophisticated delinquents, and we have, in a sense, committed him to a life of crime. We need social workers, half-way houses, foster homes and coordination among all agencies. Expensive? Possibly. But it can never be as expensive, humanly or financially, as dealing with the adult criminal.