History
Danbury Youth Services, Inc. (DYS) was initially organized in the 1960s under the name Danbury Area Unified Social Services, Inc. (DAUSS). The original mandates of the Agency were “to act as the coordinating agency for all social services in the Danbury area, to encourage and plan the development of additional and expanded services, and to act as the sponsor of programs.” The early days of the Agency were challenging. Two programs, Interchange, which provided drug counseling to young people, and Liberty House, a group home for troubled youth, emerged from DAUSS with the intent to address the changing needs of youth in the community. At the time they were considered experimental in nature, and therefore, controversial. Both programs attempted to deal with challenges outside of the “traditional” framework of parents, school, and church. In addition, other agencies saw DAUSS as a competitor for private and public funds, and did not support the organization’s early efforts.
With the election of new officers in 1977, the Agency decided to concentrate on its historical interest in youth services and forego its initial planning and coordination mandates. This action resolved the Agency’s long-standing dilemma regarding its proper role in the community and allowed it to focus its efforts on the continuation and improvement of youth services programming. As a reflection of this decision, in 1979, the name of the Agency changed to Danbury Youth Services, Inc. (DYS) and DYS was designated as the Youth Services Bureau for the city of Danbury.
Throughout the 1980s, DYS concentrated on youth services, offering programs such as Youth and Family Counseling, Hotline, the Youth Shelter Program, the Big Brother/Big Sister Program, Community Information Projects and the Department of Correction funded Aftercare/Re-Entry Program which provided ex-offenders with the necessary tools to be productive in society.
In the 1990s, DYS became the affiliate agency of the United Way of Northern Fairfield County which resulted in DYS receiving over $100,000 for its Substance Abuse Prevention Program (TARGET), Youth and Family Counseling, and the Teenage Education and Mentoring Program. DYS also began operating the popular Earn-A-Bike Program and Youth Employment Services while offering a number of new programs including One-on-One Mentoring for foster care youth, the Community Life Skills Program, Peer Leadership services and a Wilderness School Program.