RELEASE: February 4, 2000

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Gov. Whitman to Expand Programs for Teens

CAMDEN – Gov. Christie Whitman has proposed a major expansion of a nationally acclaimed New Jersey program that helps keep teens in school by offering a range of health, employment and social services at their own schools.

Human Services Commissioner Michele K. Guhl announced today that Gov. Whitman has included $3.75 million in her fiscal year 2001 budget to expand the School Based Youth Services (SBYS) program in New Jersey. The proposed funding will create about 15 new sites that will provide up to 13,000 youth with easy access to health and social services.

Commissioner Guhl made the announcement at Camden High School, where she toured its highly successful SBYS site and met with students who participate in the program.

SBYS programs provide school-based, comprehensive services to those students who, without assistance, would be the most likely to end up in costly public assistance programs, institutional care and the criminal justice system. All programs provide a set of core services including mental health, health and employment counseling, pregnancy, substance abuse, and violence prevention services as well as recreational, informational and referral activities. There are currently 30 SBYS programs, with a budget of $7.8 million, serving about 25,000 students per year.

New Jersey's SBYS program has received national recognition for its effectiveness in helping adolescents. It won the Ford Foundation/Harvard University Kennedy School of Innovation Award, the American Public Welfare Association Successful Projects Initiative Award and has been featured by Bill Moyers in his "All Our Children " program and in numerous governmental and foundation news reports and articles.

"With this expansion, we hope to save more children from the perils of substance abuse, depression, gangs, juvenile delinquency and unwanted pregnancy," said Commissioner Guhl.

The Camden SBYS program is considered to be largely responsible for a 29-percent drop in teen birth rates over the last eight years-- nearly twice the national average for the same period. In addition, students in the teen-parenting program have experienced a nearly 100-percent drop in the rate of repeat pregnancies. The program is also credited with about a 25-percent drop in student absenteeism in Camden over the last couple of years, and a marked decrease in student violence.

"We would like to use the funds to replicate successful programs like this one -- those that have been extremely successful in helping students deal with problems and stay in school," said Commissioner Guhl.

The success of the Camden SBYS program, with sites at both Camden and Woodrow Wilson High Schools and at East Camden Middle School, is due in part to the partnerships it has created with community social service organizations. And the support and matching funding of the Camden Board of Education has enabled the SBYS program to expand to both Camden High Schools and one middle school.

Through the School Based program, students benefit from the services of community organizations that have expertise in dealing with issues that underlie problems of youth. Commissioner Guhl described the SBYS program as the "hub of the wheel of social services that can benefit Camden's teen population."

The Department of Human Services launched the SBYS program in 1987. This was the first statewide initiative in the country to integrate a range of services for adolescents in one location at or near schools. By creating partnerships between schools and community agencies, the program sought to provide youth with problems the services and supports they need to complete their education, obtain employment skills and lead a mentally and physically healthy life.