CITY MULLS NEED FOR UMBRELLA PLAN TO GUIDE YOUTH SERVICES.

Byline: Usha Sutliff Staff Writer

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE - The city is looking into creating a program that would coordinate the efforts of local youth service providers.

A youth master plan would align the agendas of the Roger Barkely Community Center and other groups to best meet young people's needs, said administrative intern Betsy Dolan, who has been working on the project.

``It's very collaborative, a lot of people working together to figure out whether the needs of the community are being met,'' she said.

City Councilman Anthony Portantino said he suggested the council should come up with such a plan after learning about the idea at a League of California Cities conference.

``You can't do too much for the youth of your community, number one,'' he said. ``But you also need to assess what you're doing right and what you're not doing.''

Portantino said that while the city has many organizations with programs for youths, the plan will be a way to coordinate those efforts.

``As a small-town City Hall, if we can identify projects then we can go out and find creative ways to fund them,'' he said.

Dolan presented the City Council with an overview of what it would take to put the plan together at Tuesday's meeting, and will present it next to the Youth Council and Parks and Recreation Commission.

If those groups decide that creating a plan is feasible, the City Council would then decide whether to move forward on the issue.