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The successful Bay Area Teen Challenge center is raising money for a 1,000-square-foot addition.
By JULIE CHURCH
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 22, 2001
EAST LAKE -- Tucked between the gated communities along northern East Lake Road is a substance abuse treatment center that boasts an 86 percent success rate.
Bay Area Teen Challenge was built in 1998 on 2 acres of donated land about 1.3 miles north of Keystone Road. The non-profit organization is part of an international organization started in 1958 by David Wilkerson, who worked with drug addicts in New York City. The facility is one of 18 Teen Challenge centers in Florida and South Georgia.
In Pinellas, the 3-year-old program has worked well enough to experience some growing pains. Directors have embarked on a fundraising campaign to build a 1,000-square-foot addition to its current 6,000-square-foot facility. The new structure will be used for a library, offices and a mentoring center.
Director Mark Romano estimates the cost of the addition will be $40,000 to $45,000, but he anticipates getting many supplies and much of the labor donated from the community.
Although the program is called Teen Challenge, the 20-bed facility is designed for men who have been unsuccessful in other treatment programs. It is a strict, Bible-based, almost military-style approach to substance addiction that seems to work in Pinellas County, Romano said.
Romano, a 40-year-old former Assemblies of God minister, says what makes the program successful is the way it looks at the individual. He hesitates to use the word "holistic" but says it is a word that adequately describes the program.
"We take a three-fold approach to treatment that includes love, dignity and respect," he said. "Many of these men have not treated themselves or others with that in the past."
Men stay at the facility for up to four months before moving into a job-training phase of the program in Sanford.
Through work and study, eating right and exercise, the students, most of whom are 18 to 40, learn to respect themselves and others and to stay away from drugs and alcohol.
"We like to say we can lead a horse to water but we can't make it drink," Romano said. "But we can give them salt."
Every man in the program must work. There is laundry duty, kitchen detail and yard work. Many of the program participants also work outside the facility washing and detailing cars.
Challenge Car Care of Tampa Bay was started as a way for participants to supplement the more than $500 per student cost to complete the program. The mobile auto detailers work on individual vehicles and the business also has contracts with several local businesses, including the St. Petersburg Auto Auction.
Jim Van Allen learned of Bay Area Teen Challenge when he had his car washed by the group. For the past six months he has worked as a volunteer marketing the detailing business, raising funds and also washing cars. It gives him an opportunity to get to know the men in the program.
"It's amazing," Van Allen said of the students' progress. "In a month you see a completely different person. Their complexions change, their mannerisms change and you can see their self-esteem being built."
Romano said approximately 25 local churches contribute to the agency on a monthly basis and there are countless individuals and businesses that help by providing supplies and funds.
Romano would like to start construction on the new addition in the next 30 days, but has allowed a three-month window to break ground.
"We're ready to move ahead," he said.
For information on Bay Area Teen Challenge, call Mark Romano at (727) 937-1033.