NEW YOUTH-SERVICES FACILITY EXPECTED TO BE FINISHED OCT. 1, IN USE NOV. 1

Construction should be completed by Oct. 1 on a Missouri Division of Youth Services treatment center on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

The 15,000-square-foot Southeast Missouri Community Treatment Center could be in operation by Nov. 1, said James L. Davis, facility manager for the Division of Youth Services (DYS) in Cape Girardeau.

"It will take us probably 30 days (after completion) to get in there," explained Davis.

The facility is being built on the east side of a university parking lot at Sprigg and Washington streets. R.A. Schemel & Associates Inc., of Perryville is the general contractor on the $1 million project.

The project, approved by the university's Board of Regents last October, is being financed by the Southeast Missouri University Foundation through a bond issue. The DYS will lease-purchase the facility over a 15-year period.

DYS officials have said that this facility will be the first of its kind in the nation involving both a group home and a day-treatment program for youths ordered to undergo treatment by the juvenile court and a partnership on the part of a state agency and a university.

Davis said construction of the facility, consisting of two residential cottages and an administrative building, is "running pretty well on schedule.

"They are all under roof. One cottage is nearly completed. The other has been framed. The administration building is under roof and they are starting to put up the door frames."

There will be entrances to the facility from both Middle and Washington streets. The treatment center will actually face Middle Street.

The DYS complex will replace two existing group homes, a family resource unit and a day-treatment facility, all currently housed in separate rented quarters in Cape Girardeau.

Davis, who has worked for DYS in Cape Girardeau for 17 years, said he is looking forward to having all the youth services operations at a single place.

"For 17 years we have had exceptional programs. I think we have done remarkable things with kids," said Davis. "But then we had some bad places to do it."

With the new treatment center, DYS will have "a nice place to do it," he said.

DYS has group homes at 29 N. Lorimier and 43 S. Lorimier, a family resource unit that consists of two family therapists who work out of office space at 1925 William, and a day-treatment program at 715 N. Henderson.

Davis said the group homes are housed in aging buildings. "Sometimes we'll spend five hours trying to fix something." he said.

He said the maintenance chores leave less time to deal with the troubled youths served by DYS.

"These old buildings; they were never built to have 11 kids living in them," he said.

With the new treatment center, said Davis, "we can quit worrying about the structure of the buildings and concentrate more on the treatment of individuals."

The new facility will make it easier to coordinate the various services, explained Davis. "This will make a tremendous improvement because everyone will be in one building. We can follow through with a lot of consistency."

Davis said currently it's difficult to keep tabs on DYS staff and operations, which are spread out among the different buildings. "I've got a huge bulletin board downstairs with nothing but schedules on it so I can find people when I need to."

The new treatment center will operate with the existing 28-member DYS staff.

Each of the residential cottages will house 11 male juveniles ages 12 to 17. The day-treatment program will involve another 15 youths, both male and female.

The treatment center will provide on-site schooling for both day-treatment youths and youths housed at the facility.

The youth services facility will deal with status-offender youths such as those who run away from home or have truancy problems. The center also will handle youths who have committed property offenses, primarily thefts, Davis said.

On average, the youths will spend about five to six months in the group home.

The new facility will be more readily accessible to Southeast Missouri State students, Davis said. The Division of Youth Services utilizes about 60 student interns in its operations here."

But Davis said the site is separated enough from the rest of the campus so that the new center will have its "own identity."

Said Davis, "As much as this is a move from separate residential programs, we still are going to try to maintain as much of a group home atmosphere as we can.

"With the furnishings we picked out and the decorations, and set up, we are trying to make it as much of a home atmosphere as possible."