asst. to editor

ALTUS — Southwestern Youth Services provides a bridge over troubled water to a land called success.

From the organization’s main offices at 309 N. Hudson, where the sign on the door explicitly advises all who enter not to be garbed in gang colors, Director Judy Hanes runs a tight and efficient ship.

The community based nonprofit organization serves youth and families in Jackson and Harmon counties offering a continuum of support including after school activities, counseling, homework assistance, educational advocacy, a youth emergency shelter, a transitional living program for young adults and a SafePlace program for youth in crisis.

“We’re kind of a prevention program or early intervention program to help those kids either stay out of trouble or bring them back so that they can kind of recoup or rehab their own behavior somehow,” Hanes said as she guided a tour of the organization’s facilities Monday afternoon.

Southwestern Youth Services, nationally accredited by CARF (Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities) and a member of the Oklahoma Association of Youth Services, receives referrals from the Jackson County Juvenile Services Unit, the state Department of Human Services, schools and parents of troubled kids for counseling, substance abuse, anger management and residential services.

The four year accreditation, Hanes explained, is essential for the organization to acquire grants and continue operations with its staff of 21.

Clinical Director Lia Hickman oversees community outreach services for kids ages 6 to 18 who may be in trouble with JSU or have been referred by DHS, schools or parents.

The focus of the organization, Hickman said, is on home issues and not punitive, adding that she is very picky about what is reported to JSU, other than the status of how the kids are doing and their adherence to the treatment plan. “The JSU kids, once they get in here and they realize we’re not JSU, they like it,” Hickman said.

Next door to the main office, at 305 N. Hudson, part time teacher Jane Bull is in charge of bringing the kids back to basics.

A photo hanging on the wall above the desk in Bull’s office is indicative of her spirit. The retired Mangum school teacher clings to the side of a sheer red rock cliff in Arizona — only one way to go: straight to the top.

“That’s what I do for fun,” Bull said as she arrived Monday to begin her work.

Bull helps kids with core subjects and has been recognized by the state Office of Juvenile Affairs for her work with at-risk kids, Hanes said. “Those kids made a complete turnaround. They got school back on track and the rest of their lives kind of fell into place,” she said, calling Bull a “common thread” in the lives of the kids who have succeeded because of Bull’s influence.

For her part, Bull attributes the success of the kids to the overall organization. “I tell you what ... they couldn’t do without Southwestern Youth Services here,” she said.

Bull, who has been with the group for about six years, said she does a lot of tutoring in her job, teaching kids to communicate with their teachers and helping parents grasp the need for their kids to have a place to study and organize, to go to school and turn in their homework on time. “A lot of students who are failing are failing because they don’t think they can do the work, and we show them, yes, you can do it,” she said.

Working one-on-one with the kids, Bull sees the lights go on in their heads, and that’s her goal. “When they find out they can do it, they do do it, and that’s wonderful to see,” she said. “My job is to work myself out of a job with the kid, to get them to where they can go without me.”

The genesis of Southwestern Youth Services was ignited by Richard and Dorothy Maffry in 1987, when they saw the need for emergency residential care for homeless and hungry children. They launched their “mom ’n’ pop operation,” as Hanes called it, from a house at 1313 N. Forrest, and the Maffry Safehouse has since expanded and received licensing for up to eight kids.

Available to kids in Jackson, Harmon, Greer and Kiowa counties, as well as kids who may show up in crisis at one of the SafePlace program sponsors in the area, the home accepts infants to 17-year-olds who have either been referred by DHS or police, or perhaps have been neglected, abused or run away from home. It is also a place where parents may bring a kid with whom the situation has simply become too explosive to handle.

“Sometimes parents who are ready to kind of choke their kids for staying out late or for breaking the rules, just for a time-out period they can bring their kids there for three to five days, maybe just over a weekend, until they can cool off and maybe get counseling,” Hanes said.

Generally, she said, such situations are family issues that work themselves out when the emotions and anger are given time to settle. “They can’t just dump them on us forever ... it’s just a temporary fix until we can sort things out,” she said.

Hanes advises that parents should call the shelter before bringing a kid over, to assure that space is available. The number is 482-6229.

Shelter supervisor Clarice Brown does “whatever needs to be done” in the spacious facility, where three homestyle meals and two snacks are provided daily in a home atmosphere under the care of two staff members at all times.

The staffers talk with the kids about their day at school, take them to ball games, play basketball, tennis and soccer, walk around the reservoir, visit Imagination Station and the Rotary Center and go swimming and bowling with them, among other activities.

While inside the home, kids can do their homework, play table games and Nintendo, and they always know what’s on the menu.

“A lot of kids come from situations where they don’t have three squares,” Hanes said. “They’re not used to eating, they don’t know about table manners, they don’t know about hygiene.”

So ... staffers work with the kids every day on those important life skills, which also include getting up and going to bed on time and getting along with others.

The shelter has recently converted a room into a nursery and, although the need hasn’t yet arisen, is prepared to take in infants and toddlers.

House rules are maintained to the letter and staffers are required to take food handling courses, CPR and first aid.

Also donated by the Maffrys is an adjoining house used for the organization’s Transitional Living Program, which offers students from 16 to 21 who are homeless, with no visible means of support, a chance to get on their feet. Residents — who are referred to the program by DHS, schools or word of mouth — must work part time and attend school. While learning independent living skills — to include nutrition, how to buy a car and insurance and money management — they must buy and prepare their own food, keep the premises clean and tidy, keep up the yard and be good neighbors.

“We’ve got a lot of kids here in Altus who are just kind of moving from one friend’s house to another friend’s house and really have no stability at all in terms of where they’re staying,” Hanes said, pointing to the need for such a program, which is in its second year.

Last but not least in the array of youth centered programs offered by Southwestern Youth Services is the Rotary Center at 1120 E. Commerce. Conveniently situated near the Altus High School campus, the center is operated through a recent $50,000 state grant. The center — provided rent free through the city of Altus — provided a day camp program this summer for some 45 kids ages 6 to 14 and is a place for kids to congregate at lunchtime and after school from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The center’s Youth Development Academy, under the supervision of Brenda Darville, offers Play Station, Game Boy, video games, air hockey, ping-pong, DVDs and tutoring.

If a student is in need of, say, a band instrument or has the desire to participate in gymnastics, Southwestern Youth Services will do what it can to find the funding to make it happen, Hanes said — anything to keep them from being on the street.

It’s not easy, what with salaries, benefits, utilities and the high cost of insurance to make ends meet on limited state and federal funding and donors such as the United Way, Boeing Corp., the city and local churches. It is done, Hanes said, “with the grace of God.”