The nonprofit closed after 50 years as a source of support and guidance for area youth, but others have stepped in to fill the gap

By Elaina Bedio-Granite State News Collaborative

Editor’s note: This is another installment in our Nashua Nonprofit Spotlight Series highlighting some of the Greater Nashua area’s approximately 365 nonprofit organizations and the meaningful work and crucial services they provide. Each article in this series features a different Nashua nonprofit.

On June 30, The Youth Council of Nashua permanently closed its doors after 50 years of serving as a resource for school-aged minors, with programs focused on youth guidance, counseling and intervention.

The nonprofit organization placed student assistance program counselors in Nashua's middle schools and high schools as well as at Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua and Merrimack High School – six area schools in total. The goal was to ensure that students had access to mental health resources and professional counseling. Additionally, its Project Succeed program provided behavioral health and counseling services for students who were either suspended or facing suspension.

The other important service of the organization was its juvenile court diversion program, one of 18 similar accredited programs in the state. These programs offer minors an alternative to formal court proceedings for minor offenses through a program of services. Research shows that juveniles who have successfully completed a diversion program have decreased rates of recidivism.

“The agency has been longstanding and has had a significant impact on the community in a variety of programs,” said Casey Caster, former executive director of The Youth Council. “But we faced a lot of financial sustainability issues, which have also led to staffing capacity issues.” By that point, the writing seemed to be on the wall and the difficult decision was made to develop a strategy for the organization's closing.

Caster said it was decided that ending operations at the end of June would make the most sense. “The majority of the work that we do is tied to the schools, within the school year. We looked at planning, giving ourselves time to transition programs into, hopefully, other schools, other locations. We really wanted to make sure that we were able to do that and have our programs last through the end of the school year,” she said.

Contination of crucial services

The Youth Council is moving through the necessary administrative requirements to dissolve the agency. However, a major point of focus for organizational leadership was to ensure that the crucial services it provided did not simply disappear. To them, it was imperative that the area's youth would continue to have access to these programs, said Caster.

“The board and I really looked at what was most important and it was very clear that continuing the programs was the top priority. Our hope in doing this in a proactive way was to look closely at who in the community might be able to take on these programs,” she said.

State grant funding will allow the Nashua and Merrimack school districts to hire the Youth Council's student assistance program counselors as school district staff. This means that students previously receiving The Youth Council's counseling services in school, will not experience any significant change in those services. But, due to a lack of funding, the Project Succeed program, which was only in its second year, will no longer be available.

The Youth Council has been supporting area young people for 50 years, and in that time it has had a significant impact on the community, says Casey Caster, former executive director of the organization. (Courtesy photo)

The court diversion program, however, will continue to operate under a new organization, the Nashua Police Athletic League.

At the time the decision to close was made, said Caster, “we immediately met with the director of the Juvenile Court Diversion Network, which is a statewide network that accredits all the programs, and talked through some options. Then we approached a few community organizations to discuss whether or not it would be a good fit for them to take it on after we close, and the Nashua PAL stepped up. It took over operations on July 1.” The program is “based out of their agency and with our staff,” Caster added. “We have one full-time staff member who runs that program, and she'll be able to go right to that agency and it will still be supported by all of the grant funding that we've had in the past.”

And Caster herself continues to serve and advocate for the state's youth in her new role as director of resource development at the Bedford-based Granite State Children's Alliance.

The Youth Council's sustainability issue is by no means unique. Nonprofits are struggling across the board. The fate of The Youth Council should serve as an example as to why it is important to support local charities that provide much-needed services in the community. They cannot survive on service fees and grants alone.

The Youth Council's leadership showed how to handle a most unfortunate circumstance. They sought guidance, spoke to their employees before the decision was made public, and secured new homes for the services they provided so as not to leave a gap in resource availability. For 50 years, they put people and mission first and the fact that the programs will continue to benefit the area's youth in the absence of the organization itself is The Youth Council's legacy.

Even with The Youth Council gone, there are several Nashua organizations that continue to support at-risk youth and intervention in the area. Besides Nashua PAL, there are the YMCA of Greater Nashua, Waypoint, Girls Inc. and Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua.

This article was produced in partnership with Nashua Digital and Nashua Ink Link and is being shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.