STAR program seeks community support

With no grant funding this year, a program for at-risk youth and their families is carrying on, but seeking community support and dedicated board members.

S.T.A.R. (Strengthen to Achieve Respect) began in 1991, and in recent years the program based in Highway Park has received annual grants of $65,000.

The grant was not approved this year.

There was a technical problem with the state grant, so the program is seeking other grants, according to S.T.A.R. project coordinator/prevention specialist Theresa Williams.

Williams told members of the Drug Free Highlands coalition on Wednesday that "the grant in 1991 was for the community to become self sufficient, so that in these times we are living in now we will be able to operate regardless of grant funding.

"Where we are at now - we are not getting enough support from the community."

The program has a volunteer advisory board with about seven members who range in age from 65 to 70 years.

It doesn't matter what age they are, as long as they are committed, Williams said. Also, they don't necessarily have to come from the Highway Park area.

"A lot of people come in with ideas and then they leave," she said. "I tell a lot of people 'we need bodies' we need a working committee that is committed to children."

In lieu of grant funding, the program has carried on with the small number of advisory board members pitching in to pay the monthly bills.

Williams said she is not getting a salary and is volunteering her services.

The program's advisory board needs to be a committee of people who is serious about children and supporting it financially as well as physically being there, Williams said.

Among the S.T.A.R. programs, "we continue to do the All-Star program that started in 1991 with at-risk kids with behavioral problems," she said. The program includes tutorial and recreational components.

For more information or to make a donation, contact the S.T.A.R. program at 465-8131.

The next S.T.A.R. advisory board meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the S.T.A.R. Center, 141 Josephine Ave., Highway Park.