Funding committed for Youth Services Director

Hays County committed funding toward a Youth Services Director as a part of the City of San Marcos’ Youth Master Plan. 

The Hays County Commissioners Court voted to approve funding not to exceed $20,000 for the Youth Services Director during Tuesday’s meeting. The funding is a part of a “Core 4 Partnership” between the county and the City of San Marcos, San Marcos Consolidated ISD and Texas State University. 

“As a member of the Core 4 Partnership, I vowed to implement and help fund the youth services director position, which is directly tied to our Youth Master Plan,” County Judge Ruben Becerra said. “I’m also proud to collaborate with the City of San Marcos, San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District and Texas State University. I am genuinely proud of our representation on the school board. I am genuinely proud of our representation in the city council … It is nothing that just happened yesterday. This is something that has been going on for a very long time. Lots of work has gone into this and it’s an opportunity to say thank you to all the people that have been there for so long.”

The Youth Services Director will be hired by Community Action, Inc with funding coming from the Core 4 Partnership. The City of San Marcos will fund 50% of the position’s salary with funding coming from the other three entities.

The Youth Services Director’s roll will be to research programs that produce mental health outcomes in young people,  collect relevant social  statistics, and develop indicative longitudinal metrics to gauge efficacy of programming; establish best practices for working with youth around the intersection of mental health and school safety; pilot a juvenile diversion program that incorporates preventative mental health programming; and local research on issues pertaining to mentoring, poverty, family, at-risk youth and children.

Anne Halsey, chair of the San Marcos Commission on Children on Youth and SMCISD trustee, said the Youth Services Director position requires professional experience to convene people, lead the initiatives needed and seek grant funding necessary to build infrastructure to implement that commission’s goals. She added that it will help with two efforts identified in the Youth Master Plan that haven’t come to fruition yet — creation of a community-wide mentoring program and creation of a mental health initiative for young people. 

“The city is now working on a contract with Community Action to oversee and house the position,” Halsey said. “We envision this person will first work with the commissioners to create a community-wide youth mentorship program and a youth mental health initiative and hope the position will be filled this spring.” 

The county’s funding is for two years, in which Halsey said it’s envisioned that the Core 4 will assess the position.  

“We would greatly appreciate the continued partnership with the county and further building out of these life-changing opportunities for our youth,” Halsey said.  

With the county’s approval, the City of San Marcos will be taking Memorandums of Understanding to the city council for all of the funding agreements with each entity, said City of San Marcos Assistant City Manager Stephanie Reyes. 

Reyes added that a formal MOU will be brought back to the commissioners court at a later date.