| The La
Grange Community Youth Center was founded by volunteers in 1990. A building in
downtown La Grange, Missouri, was rented, renovated, and opened as the La Grange Community
Youth Center. Originally, the center was intended as a supervised place where young
people could go to relax, visit, and play pool or video games. The center quickly
grew beyond the scope of its early expectations. Organizers saw a need for drug and
alcohol awareness programs, life-skills classes, and the young people wanted help with
school work, informal counseling, and social activities, such as dances and karate
classes. In less than six months, the youth center had grown in both use and scope,
and the board sought a larger building, a former service station also in downtown La
Grange. The new center gave rise to new programs such as dance social events,
Ala-Teen sessions, tutoring, nutrition classes, drug and alcohol education programs, and
more. In 1993, the center was flooded by the Mississippi River, remodeled,
re-furnished, and again re-opened for the youth in the area. Desiring to find a permanent home and to
vacate the vulnerability of the flood plain, the La Grange Community Youth Center applied
for and was selected by the Missouri Department of Economic Development in 1997 to
participate in the Youth Opportunities Tax Credit Program (YOP). The goal of YOP is
to get local, neighborhood, and community businesses and individuals involved in finding
solutions to problems concerning youth in their communities. The Department of
Economic Development allocated $88,470 in tax credits toward the construction of a new
facility for the La Grange Community Youth Center. The proposed new facility is a
building that will cost an estimated $136,000.
As fund-raising began
for the new facility in 1998, the center was forced to move yet again. The building
that the center was renting sold, forcing the center to move into an old church building,
where it is currently renting.
It is important to note
that the center has always been staffed exclusively by volunteers and is funded solely by
private donations. The history of the youth center gives testimony to the energy,
capacity, and commitment of the center's board members and volunteers.
The La Grange Community
Youth Center provides educational, recreational, and leisure-time activities for the young
people of La Grange, Missouri, and the surrounding areas. The center was established
to provide an alternative to drugs, alcohol, and gang activities.
The Youth Center offers
free activities to area youth, including: pool, ping-pong, television, and the
opportunities to socialize with other youth and adult volunteers. In addition, the
center offers tutoring, rap sessions, and life-skills programs through the University of
Missouri Extension (such as anger management, economics, hygiene, cooking, household
management, and health). The center places special emphasis on drug and alcohol
abuse prevention. Programs are also offered to the community to promote gang
awareness and intervention.
The youth center
conducts an annual fund-raising campaign each spring for the center's operating expenses.
The new building was
completed and open to the community on April 1, 2002. (If you wish to make a
donation to the Youth Center for help in operating funds go to the Contact
Page for information on how to contact the center).
In addition, the youth
center director has recently become administrator of Lewis County's division of Community 2000, a program of the Missouri Department of Mental
Health. By pursuing its involvement in this program, the La Grange Community Youth
center will become eligible for annual grants for new programs. |
