How old is too old at the Schaumburg Teen Center? 20-year-old seeks leeway
A longtime participant at Schaumburg's Teen Center who's now 20 years old is asking the village to be less literal in its definition of the program, but officials are holding fast to efforts to keep the center to its original mission.
Zac Scalafini, who hopes The Barn on Civic Drive can be regarded more generally as a "youth center," also questions officials' use of the term "special needs" to describe him and nine others who have been visiting the center beyond the age of 19, including a 30-year-old man who uses a wheelchair.
He recently was joined in that criticism by Steve Isackson, a retired teacher and chairman of the Teen Center's advisory board who has been volunteering his time to the program since its inception in 1979.
Scalafini says he disputes the label, as he is not low-functioning.
But Village Manager Brian Townsend said the term is not meant in a technical or therapeutic way. The request for services at the Teen Center by individuals beyond high school age is a "special need," he said, one the program was never established nor authorized to provide.
Scalafini said he believes the decision of when attendance should be cut off should be made jointly by participants and Teen Center staff members, with the latter given final say.
"It won't be 18, 19 or 20 years old," he said. "That's a hard time in people's lives. I go there to relax, better myself and better the community. Let us enjoy our time there while we still have it."
The village's Health & Human Services Committee recently endorsed plans to seek outside programs to transition existing overage participants and create expectations that 19 is the oldest permitted age at the Teen Center.
Townsend said it is possible for the village to change the scope of the program, but that is not the direction elected officials are providing.
Schaumburg Trustee Mark Madej, the chairman of the village's Health & Human Services Committee, said the program's staffing and training were never intended for adult clientele.
"This is a sensitive situation and we're trying to manage it in a sensitive way," Madej said. "There are other facilities outside the village. It's not like we're dumping them out in the cold."
Scalafini said he and the other overage participants are being allowed to continue a monitored attendance while a transition plan is being forged.
"We're in limbo right now," he said. "We're allowed to go there, but that could change any day."
Renewed emphasis on keeping the Teen Center a safe place for the junior high and high school students also recently led to requiring all adult volunteers being fingerprinted for background checks, even those who've been there for decades.