By Chris Munzing
Now, 35 years later, what started as a grass-roots organization dedicated to getting kids off drugs, operating out of a tiny storefront on Park Avenue, has become a multi-faceted organization providing kids and adults alike with a host of services, from a massive office on Park Avenue.
The journey, Executive Director Dr. Joseph Smith said, has been one of ups and downs, but one of success. "We can look at the success of what we've done, and what it means to believe in kids and to see them succeed," he said. "It speaks to the commitment, the dedication, and the professionalism of the staff here.
"REACH was started by people with a lot of faith in young people," Smith said, adding that the era tested that faith. "Drugs were a real problem, especially here. It was the end of the '60s. People had very real concerns about it."
"The kids needed a place to go for help," said Project Director Gloria Miller. "That's what REACH tries to provide."
The organization's initial purpose was to provide young people with treatment options and counseling. It provided school outreach programs, which it continues to this day. Smith said that the first years were full of small successes, as more and more people began to take notice of what REACH was doing.
In 1971, the organization started Nightwatch, a crisis hotline that is still in existence. Nightwatch provides 24-hour service to people in trouble, in need of counseling or just looking to talk. "It's a place where they can get immediate help," Smith said.
One of REACH's most successful programs, the Court Liaison Unit, was formed in 1972. The unit provided attorneys and judges with alternatives to incarceration, like counseling and treatment for young people. "It was a way to intervene on behalf of these kids," Smith said. "To find out what led them to the criminal justice system in the first place."
"It gives the courts a picture of what's going on in their lives, and gives social and psychological reasons for their behavior," Miller said, adding that courts frequently just look at the charges instead of the person charged.
Smith described a cycle of failure that linked dropping out of school, getting involved in drugs and alcohol, and getting into trouble with the law. "If we could get them into treatment and out of that cycle, we could help," Smith said. "It was the recognition that all of these things don't operate in isolation."
An alternative school, now known as the Harriet Eisman Community School, opened in 1972 with the hope of stemming Long Beach's alarmingly high dropout rate. "Long Beach had one of the highest dropout rates in Nassau County at that time," Smith said. "The school was started as a youth-development project, giving kids an alternative."
Created separately from REACH, the school and the organization officially merged in 1983. "It just made sense," said Smith, who served as the school's director in the 1980s. "It was a lot of the same people involved, and we shared an identical focus and vision."
Since the school's founding, hundreds of students who would have ended up as high school dropouts now have diplomas. Many of them, Smith said, still live in the area and remember what the school did for them. "I'll still see graduates from 1975, and they talk to me about their experiences with vibrancy, and it was 30 years ago," Smith laughed. "The school's had an incredible impact."
School Director Juli-Anne Sabino said the students all relate to one another because of a common bond. "Every kid has their problems, every kid's got a story," she said. "That creates a bond between them. And they realize that there are people here who really do care about them and want to see them succeed. It builds up their confidence."
The organization is supported largely by state and federal funds, grants, private donations and its annual October fund-raiser. Miller said that funding occasionally falls through for certain programs, like the Horizons program in the Long Beach City School District, but that REACH keeps going.
REACH also has programs dedicated to helping pregnant teenagers, education programs for young mothers, and a new program for new Long Beach High School students who have trouble adjusting to ninth grade and attend the Community School during the day.
Today, the organization that started as a grass-roots campaign has morphed into one of the most respected not-for-profits on the South Shore, with more than 4,000 people participating in its various activities. Despite cuts in funding and the loss of programs, Long Beach REACH has continued to help those who need it. To do any less, Smith said, would be to turn one's back.
"Given an opportunity, people are capable of incredible accomplishments despite the obstacles in their path," he said. "You've got to invest in hope."
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