History of the Organization

1969-2005

    Danbury Youth Services, Inc. (DYS) was initially organized in the late 1960's under the name "Danbury Area Unified Social Services, Inc." (DAUSS).  The original mandates of the Agency were "to act as the coordinating agency for all social services in the [Danbury] area", "to encourage and plan for the development of additional and expanded services", and "to act as the sponsor of programs".  The early history of the DAUSS organization can be seen as a long struggle to implement each of these mandates.  Tensions unanticipated at the time of organization between the "planning and coordination" mandates, on the one hand, and the "program expansion and sponsorship" mandates, on the other hand, emerged as the Agency's central long term dilemma.

    Shortly after it's organization, the Agency initiated two major programmatic efforts.  The first ultimately known as "Interchange" was housed in the old City Jail at 80 Main Street, Danbury, and was designed to provide young people with counseling and education in regard to drug abuse.  The second program, known as "Liberty House", was organized as a "group house" for troubled youth unable to live in harmony with their families.  This early concentration on youth services was derived both from the Agency's commitment to offer expanded social services to the community, and from its conclusion, reached as a function of its planning and coordinating mandates, that the Danbury region was then seriously deficient in attending to the needs of its troubled adolescents.  (The late 1960's and early 1970's were, of course, a period of rapid expansion in youth drug abuse, growing dissent over the Viet Nam War, and active revolt among the young against standards and goals of the adult community.)

    Both "Interchange" and "Liberty House" presented DAUSS with a variety of major problems.  By their very purpose they were controversial: they both attempted to deal with youth difficulties outside of the traditional framework of parents, school, and church.  In addition, as both were experimental in nature, they were subject to the manifold difficulties of any new endeavor.  Paradoxically, however, the major problem confronting the two programs was also the problem least perceived, least publicized, and least confronted.  Simply by operating direct social services, DAUSS unwillingly unleashed upon itself, and consequently upon it's program, a dynamic of fierce intensity.  With the emergence of "Interchange" and "Liberty House", the social service agencies of the region which were supposed to be part of DAUSS had become a potential competitor for private and public funds, and, moreover, had developed a possible institutional conflict of interest as to the best possible outcome of "planning and coordination" recommendations.  From that point forward DAUSS' credibility as a neutral party was extinguished, and its corresponding capacity to carry out its "planning and coordination" mandate was effectively reduced to a nullity.

    By early 1977 DAUSS' role in the community had coalesced into a generally acknowledged, though never formally sanctioned, working accommodation.  DAUSS no longer made any but the most perfunctory efforts to plan or coordinate the activities of other social service agencies.   Conversely, the social agencies of the region had come to accept DAUSS as a legitimate provider of youth services.

    With the election of new officers in June of 1977, the Agency's Board of Directors began a searching self-examination that was to have far reaching consequences.  The Agency, for the first time, began to confront directly the conflicts and paradoxes with which it had been plagued from its very birth.  As a result of this examination, the Board embarked on a major program of re-direction and re-organization extending throughout the following two years.  New, highly qualified administrative staff were attracted to the agency.  Financial and record-keeping procedures were overhauled; the Agency contracted for the permanent services of a Certified Public Accountant.  New facilities were secured.  Operating programs were consolidated and streamlined.   Most importantly, the Agency decided to concentrate on its historical interest in youth services and to forego its initial "planning and coordination" mandates.   This action served simultaneously to resolve the Agency's longstanding dilemma regarding its proper role in the community and, at the same time, to focus its efforts where they would be of the most immediate value to the community: the continuation and improvement of the Agency's youth services programming.  As a formal reflection of this decision, the Board of Directors voted in early 1979 to change the name of the Agency to Danbury Youth Services, Inc. (DYS).

    In the late 1980's, the Agency has, indeed, concentrated in area youth services: DYS offered specific youth oriented programs such as, Youth and Family Counseling Program; the Youth Employment Services Program; Hotline; the Youth Shelter Program; the Big Brother/Big Sister Program; Community Information Projects; the Aftercare/Re-entry Program; and the Youth Health and Counseling Clinic.  In addition, the Agency was engaged at the request of the City of Danbury in a city-wide study designed to ascertain the need for and appropriate components of a possible network of neighborhood-based youth centers.  It could be asserted that DYS had emerged as the foremost young-adult services agency in the Danbury community.

    The Board of Directors, after lengthen deliberation voted to continue to sponsor the Department of Correction funded Aftercare/Re-entry Program.  There had been efforts to "spin-off" this program to another Danbury based private non profit agency.   It was decided that this was a needed program that should be continued by Danbury Youth Services, Inc. sponsorship.  Unfortunately, in Fall 2004, DYS was notified that the Aftercare/Re-entry program would no longer be funded through the Department of Corrections.  After an exhaustive effort to save the program, it was eliminated due to lack of funding. 

    In the 1990's the agency has changed some of its programs to include: TARGET (an Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention program at the High Ridge Housing Project), two mentoring programs: TEAM (Teenage Education and Mentoring Program) (Note: TEAM changed to Pregnancy Prevention Education Program (PPEP) in 2005, to include only pregnancy prevention education, excluding mentoring) and One-On-One Mentoring (for foster care youth), Community Life Skills (CLS) Program, After School Programming in the Danbury elementary and middle Schools, as well as to continue Youth and Family Counseling.  Other short term services that were provided by DYS included Peer Leadership Services, Project Eden (a Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Program), Melting Pot Players (a regional teen theatre group), Health Body Image Program, and Children of Chemically Dependent Families.

    Most significantly, the 1990's also saw the agency become an affiliate agency of the United Way of Northern Fairfield County and then as a participating agency.  In 2005, DYS was awarded over $100,000 for its substance abuse, Youth and Family Counseling, and Learning Advantage programs.  In addition, Danbury Youth Services, Inc. became the program operator of the popular Earn-A-Bike Program.  The Earn-A-Bike Program provides youth participants, through instructed sessions, with an opportunity to restore used bicycles donated by local residents and police departments.  

    From 1995 to 2005 the Board of Directors increased it's fund raising from a profit of $1,500 to over $20,000.  Currently, the Board of Directors is working together to develop a strategic plan for the agency and continue to increase fundraising.  The present fiscal climate has made funding for social service agencies challenging, with many funding sources scaling back funds or eliminating funding altogether.  This has made fundraising even more crucial for DYS in the 2000's. 

    Even with some funding set-backs, DYS has added new programs including Learn and Earn and Learning Advantage (a one-on-one math tutoring program).  The Learn and Earn Program is a program that provides 10 youth from the Greater Danbury Area with an employment opportunity.  The Learning Advantage Program is a special project in Danbury Public Schools that offers one-on-one math tutoring to middle school students tutored by Danbury High School students.  DYS is proud of its accomplishments and will continue to work hard into the future for youth and families in the Greater Danbury Area.