Greenwich Citizen

( Friday, June 18, 2010 ) GREENWICH CITIZEN "All Grown Up" by Jessica Strasser

Kyle Silver, executive director at Arch Street, has been with the teen center for 14 years. The Greenwich Citizen talked to Silver recently about Arch Street, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the fall, its role in the community, its future and about Silver's role in providing a drug- and alcohol-free place where teens can gather to hear music, play games and just hang out.

What is the goal of Arch Street, and how do you try to reach these goals?

Arch Street is currently the longest running -- this year is our 20th year anniversary -- non-profit, privately funded youth facility of its type in the country. Our primary goal is to provide a drug- and alcohol-free facility where teens can create and feel a sense of ownership and pride with the events that we produce. We do an amazing job in keeping our programming and weekend events fresh and geared towards providing our Greenwich teens with a safe positive and productive social outlet. We are constantly canvassing the local teen demographic for ideas, as well, as they continue to reach out to me with their own ideas for events.

There's a perception among high school students that there haven't been as many events lately as there have been in the past. Is this the case? If so, why? If not, what events have there been recently?

If you compare our calendars over the past three years, you will see an equal number of weekend events for high school students. We have faced certain unforeseen challenges this year that required us to postpone two events. These were due to the unfortunate storm that put the entire town out of commission for nearly a week -- as without power, it wasn't possible to proceed with a dance or weekend event that we had on the calendar.

What are the hours at Arch Street? Are these the same hours as always? Less? More?

Arch Streets hours are as follows:

Monday through Wednesday from 3 until 8:30 p.m.
Thursday - Reserved For Community Service
Friday from 3 p.m. until Midnight
Saturday from 3 p.m. until Midnight
Sunday - Reserved for Community Outreach

What are the biggest challenges facing Arch Street going forward?

My greatest challenge is nurturing a sense of social and community responsibility in our Greenwich teens. This is not an easy thing to do while they balance the extreme pressures and stress levels placed upon them. In the 14 years that I have served at Arch Street, our teens have been subjected to dealing with many nationwide tragedies. They have had to endure and make sense and find peace with tragedies that we as teens growing up never had to face. This is all on top of the expectations that our community presses upon them with achievement and goal-setting initiatives.

The town of Greenwich provides every teen living within it the "roots" of an amazing life and lifestyle. We live and work in one of the most fortunate and providing towns in the world. Our community services and transportation, as well as our parks and recreational activities are top-notch.

It is how our Greenwich teens grow from here that will determine how widespread their reach will be to their families, schools and religious affiliations -- to live their lives in a way that circles back to a sense of purpose and personal fulfillment as well as social responsibility.

I constantly remind them that no matter what socioeconomic system your family finds themselves in, the fact that they live in Greenwich allows them opportunities that extends to them extremely fortunate situations. Sometimes it's a struggle to understand this until you leave it to find that the rest of our world doesn't live this way. As while your "living it," it's not always easy to "see it".

What are your hopes for Arch Street in the future?

Now that we have received an extension on our lease with the town, I would like to see us achieve a state-of-the-art environmental-friendly facility. We are already doing the small things, such as recycling and composting, reutilizing our rain-water, and maintaining a facility that is as cost-efficient as possible by simply changing our light bulbs to be more energy efficient.

Arch Street has a very dedicated adult board of directors who are all experts in their professional fields, and without their support we would not exist. The town of Greenwich graciously extends to us the facility, but the operating budget is completely fundraised by our adult board of directors through their initiatives. We also appeal annually to parents and community corporations for their support. This year's annual benefit will take place in October, and I would love to see everyone there in support of our 20th Year Anniversary -- and our teens!

Jessica Strasser is a senior at Greenwich High School. She will be attending Skidmore in the fall.