Rossville Teen Center will remain open until June when the state will re-evaluate its future.
The Rossville center opened in March 1999. Earlier this year, the state targeted closing centers across the state, while keeping open five pilot centers, teen center manager Janice Pardue said. Now the state is funding 30 centers.
The teen center offers programs to combat problems at-risk teens face, such as dropping out of school, becoming pregnant and drug use.
“Thirty (Georgia) teen centers will receive $150,000 through the end of the fiscal year of July 2005,” Pardue said. “The (state) Department of Human Resources board has adopted some new policies.”
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The board adopted the policies on Sept. 22, she said. The department would like teen center programs and activities to be based on programs that work for teens.
“New policies include abstinence education, which our teen center has done from day one,” Pardue said.
“Fifty percent of our programming must be devoted to abstinence education.”
For more information, call the Rossville Teen Center at (706) 858-6965 or write to P.O. Box 716 Rossville, Ga., 30741. The teen center’s street address is 109 Bryan St.Another mandated policy is parental involvement in education, and the Rossville’s center has already been conducting programs for the parents, she said. The center recently held a meeting to teach parents to spot the signs of methamphetamine use among teens