TREATMENT CENTER AIMS TO FOSTER FAMILY VALUES

State and local leaders praised the SEMO Community Treatment Center Thursday as representative of a push to put more emphasis on traditional family values.

The center, located in Cape Girardeau, treats troubled youths. About 20 live in the facility, and 15 more receive counseling there.

At an open house Thursday, Gary J. Stangler, director of the Missouri Department of Social Services, told about 150 people the center is a cooperative effort among state agencies to see to it that troubled kids aren't ignored.

"It's part of the whole effort in this country to get back to family values," Stangler said, adding that Missouri and Michigan are nationally known as leaders in providing family counseling services.

Located at 609 North Middle, the $1 million center includes two group homes, where about 20 boys age 12-17 live, and an administrative building.

The buildings were financed by the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation and are located adjacent to university property. The Missouri Division of Youth Services will lease the buildings from the Foundation for 15 years as part of a lease-purchase agreement.

About 60 university students studying social work, psychology, criminal justice and other majors work as interns at the center.

Circuit Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh served as master of cere~monies for the open house.

Limbaugh called the new center "state of the art" and said the kids who are treated there are the real beneficiaries.

"There is not a more innovative program in the nation," he said.

University President Kala Stroup said the lease-purchase agreement with the state for the center was overwhelming supported by the university's Board of Regents and represents a proud partnership with the state. The center also benefits the university students by offering them a chance to work with the kids treated there, she said.

"These are practical, real-world learning experiences at their best," Stroup said. "In the final analysis, it's good for all of us."

The center replaced two dilapidated group homes and a family resource unit.

James Davis, manager of the treatment center, called it a "new home" for the Division of Youth Services program, which has oper~ated in Cape Girardeau for 18 years.

Davis called the open house a "day of gratitude" for years of cooperation by several state agencies and the university in efforts to get the project financed.

He told of a man who went through the program as a teen-ager and was attending the open house as a successful businessman.

"He was handing out his business cards," Davis told the group. "We always hear when there are further problems, but we don't always hear the success stories. This is a success story."

Kids who enter the program are referred to the DYS through other state social services programs or juvenile court.

The open house coincides with the National Youth Services Conference being held in Cape Girardeau. Leaders in youth services from 16 states are attending the conference.

Edward D. Robertson, chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, praised social services leaders and university officials for finding a way to finance the center despite the state's "fiscal distress."

He also praised employees of the center and the youths who are in the program.

"The mortar that will hold this program together ... is the people who are involved" in it, he said. The center has a staff of 28.

Youths who live in the group homes receive counseling and are encouraged to pursue life-long goals despite early setbacks. They stay in the program for two months to a year. Some go back to live with their families when they complete the program.

Kids who don't live at the center but receive counseling there are involved in the Educational Cooperation for Heightened Opportunities, or ECHO program

Dorothy Arnzen, director of ECHO, said the program offers job placement, training in social skills, career counseling and other types of counseling.