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Organized as a child care
in 1964, Yours Ours Mine Community
Center has grown into a multifaceted
human services organization serving
residents of Levittown and its surrounding
communities. By focusing on the needs
of the community and developing flexible
programs to meet then, Yours has positioned
itself as a leader in youth and senior
services throughout its service area
"Once
a family
becomes
involved,
they
continue
to participate
in other
programs."
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Understanding that in order
to survive, many families had moved
to two-earner households, Yours
expanded its services to be open 14
hours a
day, 250 days a year, significantly
more than the 180 days that most
schools remain open.
In addition, Yours developed
youth programs that were important
to parents, focusing on homework, socialization
skills, evening leisure time activities,
computer technology, outreach, crisis
intervention, individual and group
counseling. These services complemented
the traditional day care and substance
abuse services also offered by Yours.
"We’re one-stop
shopping mall of human services," remarked
Yours CEO Jim Edmondson. "Once
a family becomes involved, they continue
to participate in other programs."
Because Yours is such an
important aspect of the community and
the lives of the children it serves,
the agency’s staff is able to
develop a rapport which makes it easier
to identify individual needs and cross-sell
services.
More importantly, Yours
has been able to establish a fee structure
for many of its services, which has
allowed it to fund programs with diminishing
amounts of government funding.
In fact, when Nassau County
cut funding for youth at risk this
year—cutbacks that put several
other agencies out of business and
reduced Yours’ total funding by
some 10 percent—the agency was
able to survive without any significant
program loss.
This was mainly accomplished
by implementing cost-containment programs
including renegotiating vendor contracts,
putting services out to bid, conservation
of administrative resources and a redeployment
of staff.
By having a multi-service
agency, its programs help each other
get through the hard spots.
"It is important to
keep the programs intact," said
Edmondson. "Many parents see us
as a safety net."
Yours currently services
nearly 700 children and young adults
a year. To complement its youth programs,
Yours developed a series of senior
programs. This enabled it to leverage
its resources as senior services are
provided while many of the youth serviced
by Yours programs are in school.
The agency allows seniors
to set their own activities and rules,
which increases the appeal of the program
to the seniors. As a result, Yours
currently has more than 250 seniors
in its senior recreation and adult
day programs.
The key to the agency’s
success has been its ability to identify
long term trends, develop self sufficient
programs, leverage its operations to
maximize its resources and identify
situations where opportunities exist
to cross sell services.
Yours management understands
a basic business premise, which many
dot.com and technology companies are
learning the hard way. Diversification
is integral to long term survival.
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