Development of the Indiana Youth Services Association
At the beginning of 2003– our 31th year -- IYSA has 34 member Youth Service Bureaus in 31 Indiana counties. The Indiana Youth Services Association (IYSA) is the only organization of its kind in Indiana. The community-based Youth Service Bureaus that make up the Association serve over 75,000 young people and their families with direct services each year.
Member agencies offer assistance to young people from all walks of life. No other youth-serving organization in the state approaches a range of services as broad as the Youth Service Bureaus. These range from crisis access and residential care to recreational programs and alternatives to probation for teen first offenders. All Youth Service Bureau programs are based on local needs and local conditions.
In 1972, leaders of Youth Service Bureaus throughout Indiana came together to form the Indiana Youth Services Association (IYSA). By banding together they are able to establish accreditation standards for Bureaus, gain statewide representation, share expertise and assistance, and have. a forum for discussion of needs and problems.
In 1975, the members saw tangible benefit from their ability to speak with one voice: The State of Indiana, for the first time, funded Youth Service Bureaus. All member agencies share equally in the state funding. In 1985, IYSA was able to have its first paid State Director with grants from the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and the Indiana Department of Human Services. The Association now funds the position of director through membership dues and private sector sources of funding.
Other programs obtained or managed by IYSA for the members include:
- A 1987 grant from the Indiana Department of Human Services to establish a crisis access program called Project Safe Place.
- Assistance of the Indiana Department of Human Services to make the Safe Place program a line item in the Department’s budget in 1988.
- A contract with the Indiana Department of Mental Health, Division of Addiction Services to establish a delinquency prevention program called Teen Court in seven communities in the state. (Although the state’s Teen Court contract ended in 1991, five Bureaus obtained local funding to continue it.)
- The 1997 grant from the Lilly Endowment for electronic telecommunications and youth development
- The 1998 grant from the US Department of Commerce for an Electronic Youth Advisory Council (EYAC)
The Association continues to provide its members with networking and collaboration, orientation and training, advocacy, development, and outreach.
IYSA itself is supported by membership dues, participation in the annual Children First Benefit, federal funding from the National Network for Runaway and Homeless Youth and the Department of Commerce, state funding for administration of Project Safe Place, and private sector sources. These have in recent years, included the Moriah Fund, the Lilly Endowment, the Hoover, West and Moore Foundations, Resorts Condominium International, Boehringer Mannheim Corporation, and individual contributors.
|
