Youth Services of Bryan County broke ground recently for the expansion of their facilities at 1105 Lynnwood Drive as their mission continues to serve the youth of the community as the agency has done for more than five decades.
Shawn Young, support service coordinator of Youth Services and program director for Work Ready Durant, said that wings will be added to both ends of the building. On the north end of the building, a large conference room will be added with a kitchen and offices to be used for staff or storage.
On the south end of the building, a large playroom will be constructed that will accommodate both shelter children and community children. That room will have the ability to be sectioned off to create smaller playrooms.
“Youth Services has historically been known as the local youth shelter, but in the last few years, we have tried to become more proactive and started counseling youth and their families in an effort to educate them before they become youth shelter children,” Young said, in an email. “Expanding will give us the opportunity to expand our existing Summer Youth Program. We will be able to accommodate even more youth than we have in times past.
“This expansion will also give us the opportunity and space to start new programs, like an after-school program, for example. We hope to be able to do more outreach to the community with events but have been unable to do that in the past because we didn’t have the space. This expansion will allow us to do so much more than we have.”
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Young spoke of the history of the organization.
Youth Services was established in 1971 when some saw a need for the organization.
Its mission statement is: “To provide, promote, assist and facilitate assistance to youth and their families who have been identified as in need of adjusting to current life situations.”
Young said that since its founding, the agency has adapted to the needs of the community by supplying aid and security to the most vulnerable youth.
“The presence of Youth Services of Bryan County has transformed throughout the years,” Young said. “Outside of homing children across the state, it has also partnered as a juvenile detention center as to cater to troubled youth. While the detention center is no longer open, Youth Services was there to fill the gap when it was needed. As the needs of our county grew, so did our agency’s response.”
During COVID in 2020, Young said the state was in need of a quarantine shelter and Youth Services stepped forward and came through for Bryan County. Not only did they stay afloat, the agency found ways to prosper and the youth of Oklahoma had a safe haven.
“This quarantine shelter was so popular and needed, that it is now a full-time emergency shelter that aids youth in the most difficult time in their lives,” Young said.
Young introduced Courtney Dukes, who is the executive director of Youth Services.
“I’ve worked closely with Courtney for the last year and a half,” Young said. “In that time, I have been motivated, pushed and stretched professionally, making me a better leader and making me desire to be a better servant to our agency. I’ve seen her under pressure that would have broken the average person. I’ve seen her tested and still, she pushed forward with our mission.”
Dukes said that the first shelter that opened was in a house downtown. The shelter off University opened in 1977 and an administration building was constructed in 1994.
“We’ve identified community needs with the help of our community partners over the past 50 years and transitioned our services to adapt to the community needs but our shelter facility still stands even 50 some odd years later,” Dukes said. “Not just one shelter, we have residents that live here with us and we have residents that live across the street that started out as the COVID shelter.”
In the fall of 2021, the agency learned about COVID relief dollars and statewide, a proposal was put together by Youth Services of Oklahoma that ultimately would be used for capital improvement projects.
“It was with the vision of the legislatures through the state that we were able to do the things that we’re getting ready to do today,” Dukes said. “OYS put in a collective request and we were one of the largest requests that got awarded. It ended up being a little over $30 million that youth service agencies was awarded through these COVID relief dollars. I think it was around 22 agencies received these dollars and our request out of that $30 million was $1.1 million, so we’re able to do this project, a little over a $1 million project to our building.
“I want to thank our local legislators just for their support, saying man, ‘Youth service agencies in Bryan County is responsive and we need them to have these dollars to continue to support families in our community.’”
