December 12, 2009
New facility at Stanford Settlement will serve more teens
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Bishop Jaime Soto blesses the new Carl R. Hansen Teen Center in north Sacramento during a dedication ceremony Nov. 24. Luis Gris/Herald photo
Nearly 200 supporters of Stanford Settlement Neighborhood Center in Sacramento joined Bishop Jaime Soto Nov. 24 to dedicate the new Carl R. Hansen Teen Center.
Standing on the gleaming floor of the teen center’s new basketball court, Bishop Soto reminded the crowd that that the building’s blessing and dedication are also an occasion to recognize and bless the dedication of the many people who worked hard to make the teen center “a comfort and shelter for so many children and young people.”
The increased capacity of the new facility at 450 West El Camino Ave. has doubled the number of youths who can participate in the teen center’s daily programs, and Stanford Settlement officials expect more teens to follow.
“In the old building, we’d have 20 to 25 kids at a time, but now we can have 50 to 75 in a day,” noted Sister of Social Service Jeanne Felion, longtime executive director of Stanford Settlement, a neighborhood-based multi-purpose social service agency serving the Gardenland-Northgate, north Sacramento and Natomas neighborhoods.
The recent economic downturn has greatly increased the need for social services in these neighborhoods just as funding has been cut to many service-providing agencies, Sister Felion told The Herald. Stanford Settlement typically serves 100 to 150 teens in a year, but Sister Felion believes that the new Carl R. Hansen Teen Center will allow the neighborhood center to increase its outreach to 200 to 300 teens per year.
The new 10,600-square-foot facility includes an indoor basketball court, computer lab, kitchen and activities room. It replaces a 1,000-square-foot building that had housed the teen programs since 1978. The old building, part of an abandoned elementary school, had been built in 1939 as part of the Works Project Administration.
The new teen center is named for Carl Hansen, a member of the family that owned a local dairy company, Crystal Cream and Butter. Hansen was a member of or affiliated with Stanford Settlement’s board of trustees from the 1970s until his death in 2002, Sister Felion said.
“Carl was a very gentle, very calm man who developed a strong commitment to helping young people,” she said. In the 1990s, Hansen spearheaded the efforts to buy land for the new teen center, and started an endowment fund for keeping teen programs running, she said.
Sister Felion singled out Sacramento city councilmember Ray Tretheway as a supporter “who has been on our side every step of the way.”
Tretheway identified sources of funding for the teen center, which included a $1.7 million grant from the city of Sacramento, and helped the agency connect with other supporters, Sister Felion noted.
Tretheway, who noted at the dedication ceremony that he moved to a part of the neighborhood 31 years ago, said that at the new teen center, “our youth will have their own special place where friendships grow, homework happens and healthy, safe activities thrive every day.”
The teen center is part of Stanford Settlement Neighborhood Center, which has been providing services to neighborhood children, teens and seniors since the early 1960s, according to Sister Felion, who began working at the neighborhood center in 1975.
Programs for teens include after school healthy snacks, help with homework and arts and crafts, as well as social skills building, counseling and crisis intervention. Senior services include lunches, transportation, counseling, blood pressure checks and referrals.
The neighborhood center also donates 700 Christmas baskets locally each year. At least one staff member speaks both Spanish and English, which is helpful in ministry in the surrounding traditionally Latino neighborhoods, Sister Felion noted.
“What we need now is the funding to staff more programs and to staff longer hours for existing programs,” Sister Felion said, explaining that after school programs run until 7 p.m. on school days and only to 5 p.m. on non-school days. “We have the facilities,” she said. “Now we need more programs for the kids.”
