Teen Support Center Gets Home

After three years of searching, the Glendale Teen Support Center has finally found a home.

Supporters say the center, planned as an after-school hangout for high school students, should open in the fall in a brick building at 115 E. Lexington Drive, in the downtown central business district.

“It’s very exciting, we are now finally getting on the move,” said Stephanie Bell, 20, one of about 25 youth organizers of the program.

She said a group of teen-agers and their adult sponsors will spend the summer rehabilitating the 1,300-square-foot building, a former dental office in the redevelopment zone that eventually will be torn down.

Activities planned for the center include pool, table tennis, a soda fountain, juke box, a television room and a study room. It is expected to open by mid-September, initially after school and during the day on Saturdays.

Organizers said that developers told them the center could use the building because no construction is planned on the site for a least two years because of the recession.

Plans to use four other sites eventually collapsed, either because of time delays or excessive costs, said Sheila Ellis, a mother of three who founded Teen Support Center in March, 1988, after her daughters complained about a lack of activities for Glendale teen-agers.

“It’s a done deal,” Ellis said. A lease was signed and a deposit was paid last week to owner Frank Howard, a developer who plans eventually to build high-rise office buildings on the block on Brand Boulevard between Lexington Drive and Milford Street. The building currently is headquarters for a political campaign, expected to vacate the site in June.

Members of the Youth Participation Council, which sets policy for the program, have been meeting weekly at Ellis’ home, where they have participated in workshops on diversity awareness, conflict management and peer training.

Members of the council will be at the center “to listen to anybody who wants to talk,” said Bell, who has been a member of the council for two years. Youths who need more counseling will be referred to professionals.

A board of directors oversees the operation’s budget. Attorney Bob Burlison is the president. The board last September hired its first full-time staff member, Susan Basler, as executive director. Her job includes raising about $135,000 a year to operate the organization. The city of Glendale has allocated $50,000 in grants to the project in the past two years, Basler said.

The center is intended for Glendale residents, although no rules have been set up about how that will be monitored. Also, charges for using the center have not been decided.

“We’re very confident now that with a site the funding project will pick up steam,” Basler said. “We know there is real support waiting out there.” She said the group is looking for equipment, volunteers and monetary donations. Contributions can be made by calling (818) 547-5727.