A fresh start: The Bridge moved from Fox Chase to Adams Avenue in Northwood in March. The program, started in 1971, helps adolescents with truancy, mental health, substance abuse and other problems. The 25,000-square-foot one-story building is new and is designed to look like a school. A grand opening ceremony will be held Sept. 18.
Members of the public this week will get their first look at a facility for troubled teens that opened in the Lower Northeast in March.
The Bridge will open its doors at 1100 Adams Ave. to the public on Thursday, Sept. 18, so people can see the “bright and airy space,” said Michael Ogden, program director, during a grand opening. The 9-acre property is in Northwood with the Frankford Creek at its back, and is pretty much where Frankford, Northwood and Juniata Park all come together.
The 25,000-square-foot one-story building is new, but The Bridge isn’t. It started in 1971 with a mission to help adolescents with truancy, mental health, substance abuse and other problems. It was most recently located off Pine Road in Fox Chase on property owned by the Medical Sisters of Mercy. The program moved to Adams Avenue in March, Ogden said.
The building “was specifically designed for our needs,” Ogden said during a Sept. 3 phone interview. “It is an open and airy space that is both secure and visually appealing. … It has the elements that provide for education and a comfortable campus.”
Up to 40 young people can reside at The Bridge’s new facility, Ogden added. Forty is the current cap, he said, but added that the new building was set up to be able to expand.
Most “clients” are sent there by the courts, he said, although some come there voluntarily. They range in age from 14 to 18, he said. Almost all are boys, Ogden said. The program previously served only adolescent boys, he added, but the city asked The Bridge to begin helping girls, too. Six girls now reside at The Bridge.
Although the facility is for kids who have trouble or have been in trouble, it is designed to look like a school, Ogden said, which he feels might surprise some people.
Education is part of the program, Ogden said. Typically, because of truancy, the teens at The Bridge are behind academically. In the four to nine months they’re at the facility, they improve their reading and math levels, Ogden said.
The typical Bridge resident is a 16- or 17-year-old boy who needs to catch up academically, Ogden said. That typical resident has family issues and possibly, mental health symptoms. Most residents are at The Bridge from four to nine months and then are helped with the transition of going back to their homes, Ogden said.
Class sizes are very small, no more than 10 teens per class, Ogden said. “We get them back up to speed academically. … This is really no different from a school,” he said. “It’s for a kid to get an opportunity for a fresh start.”
NEW BEGINNING
The Bridge operated on the nuns’ property for about 40 years, but the sisters needed the land themselves and asked the program to find new digs. In 2011, The Bridge settled on a trash-strewn vacant property that neighbors said attracted drug users. The land was industrially zoned, so Ogden and other program representatives visited area civic associations to ask for their members’ support of a zoning variance to allow a residential facility.
In February 2011, Ogden made his pitch for the Northwood Civic Association’s support. Barry Howell, then the association’s president, told members The Bridge was not a drug rehab program, but aids juveniles who have drug problems.
“Before they get there,” Howell said on Feb. 15, 2011, “they have to be clean and sober.”
Some Northwood residents said they had doubted The Bridge would be a good fit for their neighborhood, but they visited the program at 8400 Pine Road and left impressed.
A teen named Andrew who was a Bridge resident told Northwood residents the program turned his life around. The Bridge is not a jail, he told residents. And that, he said, “makes me feel more like a human being than a caged animal.”
The Northwood association backed The Bridge’s variance application.
Ogden sought the Frankford Civic Association’s support at the group’s April 7, 2011, meeting. It was not a quiet session.
Brian Wisniewski, then the association’s president, clearly was opposed. He said The Bridge was a drug rehabilitation facility and added Frankford had enough of those. Besides that, The Bridge wants to help teens with drug and alcohol problems just a few blocks away from corners notorious for drug sales.
“Whatever you want, you can get three blocks away,” Wisniewski said.
During that meeting, Ogden said The Bridge is licensed for up to 70 outpatients, but had much fewer. Wisniewski said he was concerned about the program’s outpatient services because it would mean more people would come through the neighborhood, and added that he thought The Bridge would adversely affect Frankford’s property values.
Jorge Santana, then state Rep. Tony Payton Jr.’s chief of staff, countered that the Adams Avenue property was used by kids who shot up drugs. How does that affect property values, he asked Wisniewski.
Several others said they supported The Bridge. Howell brought a map that showed the property was within the boundaries of Northwood, and said his group supported the program’s relocation. The Frankford association, despite all the passion of the meeting, decided not to vote on The Bridge.
In the end, The Bridge got its variance. It does not own the property, but has a 20-year lease. Because of that, Ogden said, The Bridge didn’t have to invest a lot of money to make the move. ••
The Bridge will open its doors for a grand-opening ceremony of its new facility at 1100 Adams Ave. at 10 a.m. on Sept. 18.
A fresh start: The Bridge moved from Fox Chase to Adams Avenue in Northwood in March. The program, started in 1971, helps adolescents with truancy, mental health, substance abuse and other problems. The 25,000-square-foot one-story building is new and is designed to look like a school. A grand opening ceremony will be held Sept. 18.
A fresh start: The Bridge moved from Fox Chase to Adams Avenue in Northwood in March. The program, started in 1971, helps adolescents with truancy, mental health, substance abuse and other problems. The 25,000-square-foot one-story building is new and is designed to look like a school. A grand opening ceremony will be held Sept. 18.
A fresh start: The Bridge moved from Fox Chase to Adams Avenue in Northwood in March. The program, started in 1971, helps adolescents with truancy, mental health, substance abuse and other problems. The 25,000-square-foot one-story building is new and is designed to look like a school. A grand opening ceremony will be held Sept. 18. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTOS
