Glendale Teen Support Center

At the end of the month, a simple filing of paperwork will make legal an unpleasant reality for youth in Glendale: The Glendale Teen Support Center is dead. "It was one of the first programs, I felt, that asked the youth what they thought they needed," said Don Sweetnam, president of the center's board of directors, who voted last month to end the program because of a lack of funding and community support.

At the end of the month, a simple filing of paperwork will make legal an unpleasant reality for youth in Glendale: The Glendale Teen Support Center is dead. "It was one of the first programs, I felt, that asked the youth what they thought they needed," said Don Sweetnam, president of the center's board of directors, who voted last month to end the program because of a lack of funding and community support.

Officials of a Glendale teen center are working frantically to keep the program alive just five months after opening its doors. "We're having an extremely difficult time getting cash donations," said Glendale Teen Support Center founder Sheila Ellis, who began working on the idea for the nonprofit center more than four years ago when two of her teen-agers complained that there were no drug-free places to hang out after school.

Community leaders have rallied to the aid of the Glendale Teen Center, which closed earlier this week due to lack of funds. Founder Sheila Ellis said she has received numerous calls from individuals and organizations wanting to donate time, space and money to the 16-month-old center, a nonprofit facility that provides a place for teen-agers to come after school to socialize, study and participate in a variety of programs.

Community leaders have rallied to the aid of the Glendale Teen Center, which closed earlier this week due to lack of funds. Founder Sheila Ellis said she has received numerous calls from individuals and organizations wanting to donate time, space and money to the 16-month-old center, a nonprofit facility that provides a place for teen-agers to come after school to socialize, study and participate in a variety of programs.

The long-awaited Glendale Teen Support Center will open Monday, offering high school students a safe place to get together after school. The center, in a 3,100-square-foot brick building at 115 E. Lexington Drive, includes a recreation room with a Ping-Pong table, a pool table, a television room, a study room, a soda fountain, a jukebox and a raised stage for aspiring stand-up comics.

Otto H. Kilian, Southern California architect whose projects included the Forum in Inglewood, has died at age 70. Kilian died Sunday in Glendale of a heart attack. A native of Glendale, Kilian earned his degree in architecture at USC. At the time of his death, he was president of his own firm, Kilian Associates Architects. He previously was vice president and assistant general manager of Charles Luckman Associates.

The board of directors of the Glendale Teen Support Center has asked the city for a $20,000 contribution toward a $100,000 fund needed to reopen the center. The City Council will consider the request on June 6 as part of a daylong budget review session. Don Sweetnam, board president, said the council should contribute to the center because it was the only facility of its kind in the city where youngsters could drop by after school to talk with one another and with counselors.

After three years of searching, the Glendale Teen Support Center has finally found a home. Supporters say the center, planned as an after-school hangout for high school students, should open in the fall in a brick building at 115 E. Lexington Drive, in the downtown central business district. "It's very exciting, we are now finally getting on the move," said Stephanie Bell, 20, one of about 25 youth organizers of the program.

Officials of a Glendale teen center are working frantically to keep the program alive just five months after opening its doors. "We're having an extremely difficult time getting cash donations," said Glendale Teen Support Center founder Sheila Ellis, who began working on the idea for the nonprofit center more than four years ago when two of her teen-agers complained that there were no drug-free places to hang out after school.

After shaping the Glendale Teen Support Center's operations for nearly a year, founder Sheila Ellis says the next step will be to extend services for youths in the community. "We have spent the first year of operation really learning how to walk on our own," Ellis said. "We had a mission. We had objectives, and we were right on target with the things we wanted to do.

For a few minutes Monday night, Glendale already had a teen center. It was on the west side of town in a warehouse on Glenoaks Boulevard. It was well-appointed, with everything a teen-ager would need--a soda fountain, a pool table and Ping-Pong table, a study room, a TV room and a conversation room. It had two adults on staff--a director to work with the teen-agers and an administrator to keep things shipshape.