So I was reading the Readers Digest thread and a question came to mind. Are teen centers ever successful? I've seen several tried and none succeed. To me it seems obvious why, but perhaps I'm missing something. Any thoughts?

When I was in high school the teen center was the Yellowstone Tavern.

Heavens, yes! Why there is no drug use, no crime, no teenagers having sex, in a community with a place for kids to play ping-pong and hang out in brightly lit rooms supervised by adults. From reading what is written by the supporters of the teen centers, I am surprised to know that there is any crime, sex or drugs in big cities with indoor pools because I thought they prevented such naughtiness.

The Harmony Hangout was initiated in about 1947. The teens of MC wanted a place to go just for them and put together the idea of the Hangout. They secured adult sponsors and opened in the former American Legion hall where the ROCK organization now exists.

It soon became too small for the Hangout's purposes by 1949, and a move was on to expand. I suspect the Legion was wanting their building back too. Anyway, the kids were given the engineers' shack from the site of the new VA hospital and began doing things to earn money for the relocation of said shack to land donated by the county.

The big project for earning money was a carnival streching almost the length of Main St. with booths selling all kinds of things. Of course the street was closed off to vehicle traffic for the one day and activities extended into the night.

The point of this story is that: the kids did it themselves with adult encouragement and support, it was their own thing and evolved into a legal corporation of the Teenagers of Miles City, and they managed it themselves. The only program in the state so run.

And it lasted for twenty years! But - times change as does the nature of entertainment, etc.

[This message has been edited by Bill Zook (1/12/2011)]

They are not financially successful. They fail because there was not a realistic plan to FUND it. There has to be an attraction within the facility that will draw ALL citizens, not just teens.
I'd like to invite all Miles Citians to come and play at the Summit. Please let me know if you need an explanation as to what that is, what goes on there, who might enjoy it, where it is, etc. It might be just a little beyond what you have experienced elsewhere. Being funded by a hospital, it's fail-proof. There is something for everyone there, ESPECIALLY for those who never thought they'd need it.

There has to be an attraction within the facility that will draw ALL citizens, not just teens.

Just figure out a way to put the word "hot" into the title, and you should have no problem drawing more citizens to the teen center - admittedly of the 40 year old male variety, but they've got the most money anyways...

Anyway, the kids were given the engineers' shack from the site of the new VA hospital and began doing things to earn money for the relocation of said shack to land donated by the county.

So the building behind the courthouse, which is where I remember the harmony hangput being, was moved from the VA?

I am a board member for the local teen center where I live. It has successfully been open for the last year. In the month of October, we serviced over 145 students. We offer activities such as Wii tournaments, pool, computer access, movie nights, open mic nights, art walks,etc. This is a non-profit organization that is funded by groups or individuals within the community each month. Ours is successful in a town similar in size and social background as Miles City. Why can't it be successful in Miles City?

http://tinyurl.com/5rd3xgx

Why can't it be successful in Miles City?

It could be successful but it won't solve the problems of drug use, teen pregnancy or any other number of ills. I am endlessly annoyed by the folks who seem to think if we had an indoor pool, all sorts of troubles would vanish. They wouldn't. They would stay the same but some folks, who weren't inclined to drug use, etc. would be able to swim in the winter time if they could afford it.

The question that begs to be asked...

Would the teens who would actually use a teen center be the ones out getting into trouble? I would hypothesize that the very teens a center would propose to "save" wouldn't step within 100 feet of an organized teen center.

But, I could be completely wrong.

Hammer, meet nail head. What she said.

I guess the concept of a teen center has always bothered me. When you're a kid you spend most of your days in a fantastic "teen center" called school, and for the most part it's pretty lame. When anyone spends their day confined by schedules and deadlines, they crave freedom whenever they can get it. Miles City is a town that caters to freedom. It's easy to get around, you have acres of fantastic natural recourses at your fingertips, it's full of friendly people, and it's fairly safe for kids to roam unattended. My point is, that there are enough ingredients there for kids to figure out what to do on their own. Their recreation isn't something that needs to be provided for them in such a structured way, it's already there somewhere. They just need to find it.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I've always taken the notion of a teen center or a rec center as a bit of an insult towards Miles City. They are usually presented with the mind set of "Miles City has nothing for kids". I couldn't disagree more.

Yup, the problems you're wanting to "fix" with a teen center started long ago, with the parents (or possibly the lack of them). And there won't be 100% success. I'd be happy with ANY degree of betterment, wouldn't you?
However kids who participate in healthy activities such as sports and, in my experience, especially swimming (as in Swim Team) want to do this by the age of ten, and commit themselves to it with a fervor unrivaled. By swim team I mean kids who work hard at swimming efficiently and quickly as a form of competition, truly a tough workout nearly every day, some twice a day, believe it or not.
I deal with up to eighty of them daily, except sometimes Saturday and Sunday when I only have two, my own...
A "swim dad" (who is also a middle school teacher) and I discussed just last night what differences we tend to see between most of "our" kids and "the others" that he teaches and I see at the mall and elsewhere. Besides physical attributes, things like discipline, grades, morals. The conversation continued into how many swimmers from our team got a college scholarship, just that we know of, in recent years.
Hey, our Glacier High Wolfpack Boys are undefeated so far this season, they could actually take a state championship. We're pretty sure that none have been arrested recently or would test positive for anything more dangerous than chlorine. The girls, on the other hand, don't have the numbers to dominate any meets. None are with child, visibly at least. All of them, boys and girls, have good grades, my 15yo has straight A's. Yup, I'm quite proud of all of them.
I doubt that MC will improve upon this whole issue in time to affect any present teens, but I do encourage forward progress on the effort to get something going eventually. Miles City is a great community, nobody doubts that!

Miles City is full of children who have never been arrested, never been caught with drugs (I say this because no one, including the parent, truly knows what even the best child is up to in secret), never been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant, who get great grades, participate in sports all throughout the year, take music and vocal lessons (many with multiple instruments), volunteer their time, show respect, support community events, fund-raise, do their chores, babysit, and hold down part-time jobs, just to name a few. This situation is not unique to your community, Jeff, and is obviously possible without the benefit of a swim team.

Now, would I love to see an indoor facility? Absolutely! Is it practical? That remains to be seen. What is known, absolutely and verifiably, is that such a thing is not necessary to produce great kids, as our town repeatedly proves, and it is not the end-all and be-all solution to the problems that we do have.

I have said this before and I will say it again, probably until the day I die....those who say there is nothing to do in this town, I say b.s. We are home but a few nights in the week, and never seem to have enough of that precious commodity, time, for all the things that we would like to do. If you cannot find something to do, regardless of your age, you are not looking very hard, as Rafe outlined earlier.

One of my clients saw the need for a teen center here and modified his tattoo and piercings/skateboard/head shop biz into a hangout. It was win-win, right? Teens need a hip place to hang, and they are fresh canvas, in his eyes. Well, what do you know, it backfired horribly. It attracted the worst of the worst, it was nothing but trouble. Got him evicted from his nice Main Street location, I don't think that's ever happened before. The activities reported in the alley, and even on the sidewalk in front were just outrageous. And it's sad what the spending priorities are of those kids. Rolling papers and condoms were a hit, pizza flopped. So then at the next location, to hang there you had to be 18. Bad idea again! The majority of problems were not the younger ones after all. It was the homeless 18-25 year olds. Pretty desperate souls in this economy, no jobs, no schooling, no hope. They need help the most, they had screwed up their lives as teens and were paying for it. They used the place as a warm up hut and bathroom. Didn't spend a dime, 'cuz they didn't own one. The Dragon's Den has recently changed and moved again, now just a small tattoo shop, what it started out as.
Just saying, no matter what, you can't solve the big problem, just hope to reduce little aspects of it. And I don't think you'll sell it to your citizens if you call it a teen center. It has to be for everybody. Sounds like the YMCA, huh?

If there had been a place to play pool that wasn't a bar when I was in high school, I probably would have used it, but it wouldn't have kept me from trying to acquire beer on Friday nights. As it was I played pool at the Tavern, where I have to this day never consumed an alcoholic beverage, so I'm not sure it would have been much different.

I would hypothesize that the very teens a center would propose to "save" wouldn't step within 100 feet of an organized teen center.

Maybe they need a neet center.

Richard: To answer your question re: the building currently housing the Drop In Center. Yes, originally it was smaller but enlarged in the 1960s and later I believe, when the senior citizens took over.

Where I live there are "Boys and Girls Clubs" and an indoor sports complex at the YMCA for kids and teens to go to after school and although I don't have any statistics, I know from word of mouth that the kids that go there are less likely to drop out of school or have a baby when they are 15 or 16. There are a LOT of good college bound kids in Miles City that would choose a teen center over spending their afternoons smoking pot and making out on the couch of their boyfriend/girlfriend's working parents house. There are also kids (here, there and everywhere) who wouldn't go anywhere near a teen center, so I doubt it would be too helpful for them, but at least this way there would be an alternative.

I'm way too young to remember the Harmony Hangout, but the story I know so far is interesting. So, some kids from my folks' generation wanted something badly enough to work together, (key word being WORK) to get it. That's cool, but not unusual for that generation, right? I'm gonna have to assume that they had a little help and encouragement. Wow. Hey, I recently heard an interesting comparison between them and us, and then our kids. One of the things we had that they didn't was POT. Now it's my understanding that today's pot is even better, and Spice is awesome.
I really think our kids need help even worse than we did. I'm sure many parents will agree and work as hard as I have to give my kids a better start than I had.
By the way, what happened to our white lines on the highway, up on the Kinsey Road? They were exactly a quarter mile apart. I noticed they were missing last year.
Back to the Harmony, I see a comment about it eventually being taken over by seniors. How ironic. When? Get used to it, huh? We baby boomers are becoming the old fogeys, we outnumber everybody under thirty. We rule.
Sorry kids. You're on your own, I fear. The bright side is, you may grow up and then you can move away, too.

it double posted

[This message has been edited by Jeff Denton (1/13/2011)]

Teen centers have been tried a couple of times in Forsyth. They failed. Here are a few things I deduced from watching the goings-on:

1. Many of the teens are too busy with sports, jobs, schoolwork and such to have any time to "hang out" at a teen center.

2. Providing there are enough kids not covered by (1) above, what do kids like to do with their leisure time? Watch movies. But you can't have that activity at a teen center because it's illegal to play movies "in public" unless they're licensed, which gets expensive.

3. Many of the kids who are out causing trouble, doing drugs, etc who would most benefit from a teen center would not want to hang out there, because their favorite activities would not be allowed. If there's anything teens hate, it's "being supervised" in their leisure time.

4. For a teen center to be successful, it needs to make money by selling snacks, games and so on. But every teen these days has a refrigerator, a DVD player and a Wii or a Kinect or an XBox at home, none of which costs money, plus the couch there is more comfortable too.

Not trying to be a wet blanket here, but I've never heard of a "teen hangout" that worked.

Thanks Bill. I learned something new today.

The one attempt in Bozeman thirty years ago folded after a very short time because the problem kids took to hanging out in the parking lot and getting in fights with the good kids who attended. Plus the owner wasn't making any money so he turned it back into a bar.

I know there was one brief attempt here about ten years ago that never got past a couple of meetings. Infighting, I guess, did it in.

Kids who do drugs and have sex won't go to a teen center. I was a good kid who never did drugs and had sex and I wouldn't have gone to a teen center because I was too damn busy and had no interest in foosball, the main attraction of teen centerish places in my youth.

Teen centers do not solve problems any more than indoor swimming pools solve problems. The kids who can afford an indoor pool and want to swim would go. The poor kids or the kids who weren't athletic wouldn't go. The kids who wanted to do drugs and have sex would do drugs and have sex.

Grants Pool Hall was a teen hangout??

Here we once had an idea to help get teens interested in a fun sport by inviting them to be members of the stock car racing team. This plan didn't get very far when it was pointed out that the typical racer's public behavior, morals and ethics just weren't real admirable... oops. Sorry kids, you're on your own again. Get your own car and come and learn it the hard way.
Did anybody see "Drag Race High" on TV, a series a few years ago about school shops building and racing a dragster? Again, this is targeting just a handful of kids, but if it positively affects the future of just one of them it was worth it.
Yeah, a teen hangout won't help the naughty ones. Just a few of the good ones who might be on the edge of running with bad boys. I wonder if anyone can theorize just how many paying customers a teen center in Miles City would have. Just put a number out, let's analyze this right.

Is there a teen center and an indoor pool in Tucson? If so, why was the young man so disturbed? Surely a teen center and an indoor pool prevent these problems.