County approves agreement for youth services

The Hays County Commissioners Court unanimously approved an agreement for youth services, relating to the county’s partnership with the City of San Marcos, Texas State University and San Marcos Consolidated ISD for a Youth Services director. 

The county previously gave a thumbs up to the joint funding for the Youth Services director during its Jan. 21 meeting. The agreement approved during Tuesday’s meeting laid out the director’s responsibilities. 

“(The director will be) working with our youth of San Marcos and just helping to be college ready,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe said. “There are other programs involved to help the overall education of our youth. I think it’s a great program … These are our future generations that will grow up and hopefully do some of the things that we are doing. So, I look forward to the positive results of this program.”

The Youth Services director will be responsible for collaborating with the Core 4 partners for the following: 

• Develop out-of-school time programming focused on building a college-going and career-ready culture and increasing levels of post-secondary educational attainment among teenagers throughout Hays County,” according to the commissioner’s agenda. 
• Develop and implement a sustainable, community wide mentoring program for teens focused on goal-setting and educational achievement grounded in research and best-practices.”
• Provide quarterly progress reports on deliverables, budget, research metrics and program implementation to members of the Core 4 entities.
• Work with Texas State University faculty in conducting research on programs that produce positive mental health outcomes in young people, collect relevant social statistics and develop indicative longitudinal metrics to gauge efficacy of programming.
• Work with Core 4  partners to establish best practices for working with youth around the intersection of mental health and school safety.
• Work with Hays County to pilot a juvenile diversion program that incorporates preventative mental health programming and creates pathways for post-secondary success.
• Provide opportunities for Texas State University faculty to conduct local research on issues pertaining to mentoring, poverty, family, at-risk youth and children.
• Work with the Early Childhood Coalition of Hays County to promote kindergarten readiness.

“I am grateful for the Core 4 because it is an opportunity for us to come together in the most useful manner, specifically because I am a lover of efficiencies,” County Judge Ruben Becerra said. “I think efficiency and when you come together for organizations such as these, it’s an opportunity to not create redundancies. And the more we work together, the better.” 

Precinct 3 Commissioner Lon Shell said the county is fortunate for the services the Youth Services director will provide. 

“I believe that’s why we should participate in efforts like these with many, many children that live in the county that call San Marcos their home,” Shell said. “I believe if we work together, we can provide some efficiencies and be able to serve a very broad cross section of the youth in Hays County. 

Both Becerra and Ingalsbe gave praise for the inclusion of mental health programming on the list of responsibilities for the youth services director.

“If we can do what is essentially an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Becerra said. “I believe that this is squarely sitting in a place that’s most useful for our community … Very often we have people in our jail because of mental health issues and it’s an opportunity for us to catch it before it goes there, which costs us even more money. And so, I think we’re doing good on many fronts by doing this.” 

The City of San Marcos will fund 50% of the Youth Services director position, while the other three entities will equally fund the balance. The cost for the county, Texas State and SMCISD is not anticipated to exceed $20,000 per year.