Operations at Salt Lake County's Division of Youth Services are "bursting at the seams" and require more space and staff, according to administrators.
LaMar Eyre, division director, has informed county commissioners that the Youth Services Center, 3999 S. Main, is too small. He also said the agency needs a new satellite facility and a second Children's Justice Center in the south county area.Besides the "brick-and-mortar" requests, Eyre is seeking at least three additional clinical and youth service workers and a full-time volunteer coordinator "just to maintain current levels of operation."
Eyre said the Youth Services Center has functioned with the same number of employees since 1979, while the number of youth served has increased sharply. In the past four years alone, admissions to the center have risen from 3,591 to 4,408.
The division provides crisis and continuing intervention services to harmed or troubled children - runaways, homeless, ungovernable and abused - and their families. Programs includes shelter care, emergency foster home, extended shelter group home and the justice center.
Voluntary, non-secure facilities are open 24 hours a day, diverting status offenders from the more costly detention center. The total number of youth served in all of the programs has increased from 5,317 in 1988 to 6,490 last year.
The division's current budget is $2.1 million, but Eyre said the upward trend in need will require additional resources.
"This week we had 55 kids in shelter, and that's terribly high," Eyre said. "We're proud of the efficiency with which we have been able to handle the growth, but we can't maintain that level indefinitely."
Eyre said the interim care program, which separates feuding parents and children for a "cooling- off" period, has become one of the division's most appreciated services.
Although the Children's Justice Center has been operating less than a year, it has already neared saturation, Eyre said. Located at 257 11th Ave., the center coordinates a multiagency response to sexually and physically abused children.
At the center, Eyre said, victimized children are spared the trauma of being shuttled through a frightening maze of criminal justice offices. It has been so successful that a second center is warranted in the southern half of the county, he said.
County officials are also evaluating the need for a satellite youth services center to accommodate runaway, ungovernable and homeless youth in the south and southwest area of the county.
"It is anticipated that approximately 1,000 admissions per year would be served by this center," Eyre said, adding that funding it would require a joint state-county effort.
Meanwhile, the existing center at 3999 S. Main may be remodeled and expanded to temporarily meet the growing needs countywide, he said.