2 Agencies for Troubled Youths Merge Services : Van Nuys: The creation of New Directions for Youth stems from budget problems that forced one of the groups to reduce operations.

Two well-known San Fernando Valley organizations devoted to helping troubled youth formally merged Monday because budget problems had forced one of them to scale back operations, officials for the agencies said.

The new organization, New Directions for Youth, combines Project HEAVY, a community agency formed in 1975 to provide counseling and other services, and the Juvenile Justice Connection Project, which has specialized for more than 10 years in assessing youth problems and making referrals to appropriate agencies. New Directions, as its predecessors were, is based in Van Nuys.

The Juvenile Justice Project had cut back over the last three years because of a steady decline in donations from private sources, agency officials said. Its budget had dropped from $750,000 in 1988 to $450,000 this year, said Valerie Hopkins, former executive director.

The agency was at a disadvantage raising private money because it made referrals only and did not provide direct services, officials said. Only 15% of its funds came from government sources.

“Most corporations want to see their money go to the bottom line of direct services,” said Ken Worthen, president of the board of directors for New Directions and formerly on the board of Juvenile Justice. “They’ve had a lot of problems in the last few years principally because the services provided by JJCP are essentially assessment services.”

Hopkins said the organization was “completely dependent on the fund-raising we did, and that’s kind of a heavy burden. It really did seem to me . . . that the wisest thing was to merge organizations.”

Project HEAVY, which stands for Human Efforts Aimed at Vitalizing Youth and Families, received about 80% of its funding from government sources, primarily the city and county, said Sally Whitehead Thompson, executive director of the new agency and former executive director of Project HEAVY.

“I think we can provide a more comprehensive service,” Thompson said. “I think it will enhance what we already do. They bring with them the expertise of assessment and referral, and I think by putting the two together, it’s really a good marriage.”

Among Project HEAVY’S services, all of which will continue, are individual, group and family counseling, parenting programs, gang-prevention, peer-counselor training in local schools and an anti-graffiti program.

Referrals for services are made by courts, the probation department, police and school officials, Thompson said.