Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Among the 12 Saratoga youth commissioners are (clockwise from top) Alex Scordelis, Tannaz Altafi, Alison Chang, Sheeva Ghassemi, Jennifer Chang and Sarah Adolphson.

Cost Effective

Teens say time and energy are worth the price for a place to call their own

By Sarah Lombardo

Architectural drawings for a project to turn the attic of the Warner Hutton House into a study center have been completed. Although right now they are only sketches on paper, the drawings represent a huge step for Saratoga's youth commissioners.

Convinced of the need for the study center, they took on the project even as they faced the prospect of additional funding cuts. That likelihood reared its head just as the commissioners had finished an exhausting campaign of fundraisers just to keep the center open.

The teen center, located near City Hall on Fruitvale Avenue, was first opened at the Warner Hutton House in 1992 but was closed in 1995 because of budget constraints. Youth commissioners approached the council later that year and asked that it be reopened. But the commissioners wanted not only to reopen the center but to alter the program so the center would be free to any teens who showed up after school. The previous center originally charged a $65 flat fee for participation. Then that was changed to a fee of $2 per hour. Commissioners argued that the center's declining attendance was the result of a pay-per-stay system that made teens feel like they were in day care.

As a free drop-in center, youth commissioners said, the center would feel like a place the teens could call theirs, a place to hang out with friends.

The council agreed to reopen the center--but only if the teens raised half the money needed to fund the program. That meant the teens were responsible for raising $8,450 of the $16,900 operating cost.

The teens took on the challenge and proved they were up to it. And then some.

While the city was still wincing from the loss of the utility-users tax and preparing to enter what would turn out to be six long months of budget hearings, the youth commissioners announced in December 1996 that they had reached their goal.

Then they surpassed it, raising almost $13,000 through a series of fundraisers, including a golf tournament and a night out at Fresh Choice. A fundraising letter to the community also helped.

And then they proposed the attic renovations, telling the City Council they hoped to make the hot, musty, humid storage area into a study center, complete with computers, printers and individual study areas. On the council's advice, they took their request to the Parks and Recreation Commission, which granted them $5,000 out of the Park and Recreation Development Fund to commission drawings for the project.

While the drawings were in the works, the commission worked with city staff to form a nonprofit group, the Friends of the Warner Hutton House. Commissioners said they discovered during their fundraising efforts that businesses might be more inclined to donate money for the center to a nonprofit group than to the city. Nonprofit status was filed, and the City Council appointed a board of trustees (comprised of adults only).

It's been a long road for the Warner Hutton House and the 12 commissioners, but they say the fundraising effort was worth the time and energy it required. The center has become a place where teens can hang out with friends; there's a pool table, free video games, a television and a small computer lab. The ongoing effort is also worth it, they say, for what the experience provides for them.

"I see it more as a challenge that can help us grow more," said Sheeva Ghassemi, who turns 15 this month. "The City Council does a lot for us, and I think it's fair to make us pay half. The council has put kind of a weight on our backs to teach us to motivate ourselves and make it work."

Commissioner and high school senior Sarah Adolphson, who plans to minor in political science in college, said she finds the work good practice and experience for the future. "I got involved because I'm really involved in my high school, and I wanted to do something," she said. "We feel that we've been challenged by the council, so it makes it worth it."

Besides, the commissioners say, it was important to them that local teens have a place to go. "Teens aren't very welcome in downtown, and we can't hang out at the library," Adolphson said. "Now we have a place to feel comfortable."

And that place is close by, where teens can get to it. "A lot of teens in Saratoga have the money, but don't have places to go or the transportation to get there," Ghassemi said.

The Warner Hutton House, within walking distance of Redwood Middle School, Sacred Heart School and St. Andrew's, made it possible for teens to have somewhere to walk after school to visit with friends, do homework or just hang out until parents got home.

The center hosts an array of supervised craft and kitchen projects, and sometimes even boasts a local teen band event on the weekends. In the next few months, the commissioners hope to plan a girls' "lock-in," similar to a slumber party, at the center and host a local version of MTV's "Singled Out" dating game, in addition to a golf tournament to follow last year's successful tourney.

Commissioner Alex Scordelis is working on organizing a number of concerts for local teens. One concert, already scheduled for April 17 at the nearby city community center, boasts a number of the Bay Area's hottest up-and-coming bands, such as The Hi-Fives, Slow Gherkin and Red #9.

But funding for the teen center and programs is not certain. According to recreation director Joan Pisani, the Youth Commission and the Warner Hutton House together receive about $75,000 a year. It's a significant sum until you consider that the money pays for supplies for the commission and the center, repairs to the house, games, crafts, staff time and salaries for the part-time employees who assist with the commission and the house. And it's a drop from the almost $100,000 teen services used to get from the city.

Because of budget cuts, Pisani said, the teens have had to cut music events such as Togapalooza and Music Fest, the open gym program and the ski trips and have had to reduce the Warner Hutton House's hours. And with the Recreation Department's budget still under scrutiny and under pressure to reduce expenses, the department may have even less to spend on future teen services.

"It's an awful position to put youth in," recreation supervisor Beverly Tucker said of the cuts made to teen services.

Even though they enjoyed considerable success taking on their fundraising challenge, commissioners admit the cuts in teen services have been a little disheartening.

"It's really hard to get motivated," Adolphson said. "I think with all the budget cuts, it's kind of like you get the feeling when you come up with something new, it's going to get cut, too."

Scordelis agreed, saying that he got involved in the Youth Commission after attending one of the program's music events and wanted to paticipate in the music scene. Shortly after he was appointed, the funding cuts came down. But he said he still wants to organize concerts for locals.

"This concert was why I really joined the Youth Commission," Scordelis said of the April event. "And I wanted to get involved in the community."

Tucker said she thinks the teens are doing well against the financial odds.

"They are rising to the challenge and trying to make [the Warner Hutton House] more fun," she said. "They are trying to get past the feelings they had with all the programs getting cut. That was a big hurdle for them to overcome."

And participating in the community is why many of the commissioners said they joined and stayed in the Youth Commission in the first place, budget cuts or no. It may sound too simple sometimes, but commissioners said it's true. So do the staff members who work with them.

"This year, we have a really strong group," Tucker said. "They are self-motivated and self-sufficient. They come up with the activities they want to do on their own."

Youth commissioners said the commission also provides them with the opportunity to show residents another side of teens, a side that bucks the stereotype. Reopening the Warner Hutton House and living up to the council's fundraising challenge did that.

"We just wanted to show the city there was a Youth Commission," Adolphson said, "and we can get things done."

"I feel like I need to be on the action side because sometimes adults think teens are so rowdy, and we're not," Ghassemi said.

Sometimes, however, the Youth Commission does fall through the cracks in the process. Commissioners are still smarting from the passage of a curfew ordinance that went before the council without their input.

"The teens were mad that they didn't get to look at the ordinance," Tucker said. "Their feeling was that this was a teen issue, and they should have been asked for input."

Then again, Tucker said, the incident was a good lesson. "That's what happens with commissions sometimes," she said. "We try to teach them the reality of being involved on commissions. I think that's one very valuable part of this."

On the other hand, when councilmembers heard about the commissioners' frustration, they apologized, saying it hadn't occurred to them to ask for input. Next time a youth issue comes to them, they say, they'll remember the Youth Commission.

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