Beyond the taxpayer funds that benefit youth through the public schools—some two-thirds of the entire budget—New Canaan supports its young people by spending some $354,000 each year on its own human services personnel and nonprofit agencies that serve youth, according to the town’s highest elected official.
So the idea that spending taxpayer money on the Outback Teen Center is synonymous with supporting youth here is a “misnomer,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said Tuesday.
“We sometimes think that the Teen Center is the building—it personifies in some people’s minds the commitment the town has [to youth], but it is a private entity,” Mallozzi said at a regular meeting of the Board of Finance, held in the Sturgess Room at the New Canaan Nature Center.
“The misnomer is that if you don’t support the Teen Center, you are not in the teen business,” said Mallozzi, who serves as the finance board’s chairman. “I just want to make sure that we all understand: There are a lot of great agencies out there doing some wonderful things, some with a building and some without a building—whether it’s the churches, the YMCA or the Teen Center itself. And it has just come time that we have to decide where and who partner with and who can deliver the most for teens, and it is very tough.”
The comments come as town officials decide on whether to appropriate $19,000 for Outback as they set the fiscal year 2016 budget (see page 117 here). The funds are contingent on the teen center’s board presenting a workable business plan to the town, Health and Human Services Director Carol McDonald said at the meeting.
According to Mallozzi, Outback has presented a business plan to the Board of Selectmen that’s “comprehensive” and there has been “a lot of talk back and forth with other stakeholders.”
Still, it isn’t clear whether that business plan amounts to a convincing argument that there’s a true need for Outback in a town where so many organizations—such as church youth groups and the Y—provide programs and services for young people.
Outback Board of Directors President Sangeeta Appel in a recent Letter to the Editor said the board wants to re-imagine Outback as a “Youth and Family Community Center”—a sort of non-seniors’ equivalent of Lapham. Appel said that Outback has seen evidence that a programming-driven model works in New Canaan and that there’s demand for it.
She also points to nearby towns’ financial support of teen centers. Others have said New Canaan has supported Outback not only through its annual stipend but also through a generous lease of centrally located property downtown: A private nonprofit group, Outback owns its building and pays no rent to New Canaan.
Appel in addressing the Board of Selectmen during the first phase of this year’s budget had sketched a vision where Outback’s board continues fundraising while the town pays for utilities at the rather cavernous building, as well as insurance and some staffing.
Mallozzi during Tuesday’s meeting said: “The Teen Center has really tried so hard over the last few years to make something of itself, but they are saddled by a building, quite frankly.”
Finance board member Judy Neville said the town has come a long way in its support for New Canaan youth.
“I mean it is hard to believe when I look back that we are up to [$354,000],” she said. “That’s remarkable.”
Mallozzi said New Canaan has “unbelievably good resources ready to go to bat for our youth.”