Newburgh plans teen youth center with $510,000 state grant

Independent Living has secured a two-year, $510,000 state grant to create a teen youth center in Newburgh for young people ages 12 to 17, giving the City of Newburgh-based nonprofit a new role in the local youth-services network. Doug Hovey, the group’s president, was identified with the project as plans moved forward.

The center is being framed as a place for community resources and activities at a time when Orange County and Newburgh already rely on a patchwork of programs for young people. The Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh says it has served youth in and around the city since 1946 and that about 25,000 children have walked through its doors over seven decades. Its teen center page lists 45 Grand St. in Newburgh, grades 9-12, hours of Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and no cost.

Orange County has also kept youth programming on its agenda through the Youth Bureau, which maintains positive youth development resources and has promoted services such as the Summer Youth Employment Program. In November 2023, the county said it was seeking proposals for a Youth Team Sports grant program aimed at underserved youth, another sign that local officials have treated teen programming as a policy issue rather than an afterthought.

The Newburgh project would extend that network to younger teens, including 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds who may not fit neatly into every existing program. That matters in a city where families often piece together support from school, library and nonprofit offerings, including youth services at the Newburgh Free Library and longstanding programming at the Boys & Girls Club.

The state grant gives Independent Living a defined funding stream for the next two years, but the center’s eventual impact will depend on how much structured time, supervision and practical support it can offer when teens are out of school, looking for weekend options or searching for something to do in the summer. In Newburgh, the question is whether the new center becomes a durable anchor for young people or another well-meaning addition to a crowded but uneven system.