ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996               TAG: 9601260078
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-13 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER 

JUVENILE SERVICES LACKING IN MIDDLE RANGE, SOCIAL WORKERS SAY

Social workers who concentrate on juvenile offenders say the range of treatment options - from counseling to incarceration - lacks a full middle range.

Two local agencies are trying to add to the options by establishing a new program involving supervised foster home care.

The idea, explains Paul Little of the local Court Services unit, is to give nonviolent youths a stable domestic environment, and avoid the high cost of long-term residential treatment.

Court Services and DePaul Family Services, a private, nonprofit foster care agency, are joining hands to create the program. They say there's no shortage of potential clients who could benefit from it. All they need are people willing to open their homes to them.

Sue Bentley of DePaul Family Services identifies potential foster homes as containing either couples or single parents living in their own houses or apartments. For now the new program is being limited to residents of Montgomery County and Radford.

Program clients mainly will be youths who have experienced trouble with minor property crimes or have been removed from their natural homes because of abusive situations.

Foster care providers will be paid about $1,200 monthly. They must be willing to undergo extensive training.

The youths will benefit from living in a stable, supervised home, perhaps for the first time in their lives. Little and Bentley say the public will benefit, too, from the comparatively lower cost of this form of care.

Any potential care-giver interested in participating in the program should call Bentley at 381-1848.

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