DULUTH – Neighborhood Youth Services, a nearly 30-year-old pillar of Duluth's Central Hillside neighborhood, will continue working with kids uninterrupted after another nonprofit stepped in this week to save it from closure.
Duluth's Life House scrambled quickly following the news that the Hills Youth and Family Services was not only ending its residential behavioral health services, but also its day treatment and community offerings, including Neighborhood Youth Services (NYS).
"This is a critical site" for a neighborhood dealing with economic, racial and health disparities, Life House Executive Director Jordon Johnson said of NYS, housed in the Washington Recreation Center, 310 N. 1st Av. W.
"We are still emerging from the pandemic," he said. "To ensure families these services are here no matter what is vital."
NYS offers meals, homework help, counseling, clothing, space to play sports and other life-building resources. Its purpose dovetails neatly with what Life House offers, which includes emergency and transitional housing for teens and adults ages 14 to 24, officials said.
NYS' staff members are like "a second family, and to some, a first family" to kids, said program director Pez Davila. "To provide that stability for them in a place that's safe every day, that's what it's all about."
Aaron Gelineau has worked at NYS for 25 years. Twelve students who regularly use its services graduated from Denfeld High School this month, he said, four of whom were tutored intensely by Davila.
"The ripple effect on the community would have been devastating," Gelineau said, had the organization closed.
