Teen Counselor Service to End

In the face of steep cuts in state family planning money, the South Bay Free Clinic will close its 10-year-old Teen Advocate program Friday. Its peer counselors gave school presentations on pregnancy prevention and counseling on such problems as drug abuse, suicide and communicating with parents.

The Hermosa Beach-based program, which the clinic said reached 7,000 students a year, has received $45,000 a year.

In a related move, the clinic today will ask the South Bay Hospital District for $226,600 over two years to continue family planning medical services, including family planning, testing for sexually-transmitted diseases, pregnancy counseling and physical examinations. None of this the money would be used for Teen Advocates.

The free clinic, which has sites in Manhattan Beach and Gardena as well as a mental health program in Redondo Beach, expects to lose as much as $350,000 in family planning and matching grant money as a result of Gov. George Deukmejian’s two-thirds cut in the state family planning budget in July, said Craig A. Vincent-Jones, the clinic’s development officer.

He said $50,000 of the money being sought from the hospital district would cover an immediate deficit created by the state cut. The hospital district provides funds for public health programs in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach. The clinic is trying to find additional sources of family planning money, he said.

Closure of Teen Advocates does not affect the free clinic’s teen safe-rides program, in which intoxicated young people are driven home from social events. The program will be moved from Hermosa Beach to Redondo Beach.

Vincent-Jones also said that some Teen Advocate workers, who have been paid $3.50 an hour for 10 hours work a week, will continue working with other teens on an informal basis. New funds will be sought to resume the program, he said.