Youth Counseling Program Is Approved

An intervention program for troubled youngsters and their families should be up and running by early next year, officials said.

The City Council recently approved a plan that will allow the county Probation Department to operate the Youth and Family Resource Center at 1401 S. Anaheim Blvd. The facility was opened in September by the Orange County Department of Education and Anaheim Union School District.

The center now offers academic classes only. The plan calls for addition of after-school activities, counseling and parenting classes.

The center now serves 25 youngsters, ages 12 to 15, who are on probation. The goal is to enroll about 60 students by the end of the 1996-97 school year.

The center was established to reduce the number of repeat offenders, said Rod Speer, Probation Department spokesman. “They become our chronic juvenile offenders.”

Don Hallstrom, chief deputy probation officer, wrote in a letter to city officials that first-time offenders have “significant potential for becoming serious, repeat offenders without coordinated multi-agency efforts and a family approach.”

The aim of the pilot intervention program, Speer said, is “to turn them around so they don’t become repeat offenders.”

The county probation and education departments, as well as other local agencies and organizations, are working together to set up and fund the program, which will also serve youngsters from Buena Park.