European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 14, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday october 14, 1987 the stars and stripes Page 3 is photo by l. Emroll Lewis or. Recreation aide Cindy Gaskin is on hand to give assistance to youngsters playing Bingo at the popular youth activities Center in Worms Germany. Usa eur to tackle Latchkey problem from Page 1 result More children arc being led alone storm said. The army decided in i98s to address the problem of children being left alone after a defense depart ment official travelling through Europe commented on seeing  children in housing areas storm said. The same year rep. Patricia Schmo Cdr d-colo., introduced a Bill in Congress on the Issue of Latchkey children in general. Children left alone after school in army communities in Europe have had a place to go since usar eur s child development services opened development centers about six years ago. But the More recent army level concern resulted in funding specifically for a Latchkey program in 1986. The program came in so fast last year that communities were having to write Job descriptions and hire their Latchkey program specialists at the same time said Lee Morrison youth program coordinator for Usa eur. It s stalling to move out now he said. I think it is a Good  in Many communities the responsibility for Latchkey children is being divided Between youth activities and child development services. The program received$1.5 million in fiscal 1987 to pay for staff and supplies for 96 youth activities centers and 130 child development services centers. One of the first communities to hire a Latchkey specialist was Baum older Germany. Sue Morris was hired in March 1986, even before army funding was available. We found out what the children wanted and what the parents wanted and what the parents would pay for she said. Among parents top concerns were safety location of children and supervision by adults. Parents wanted activities like dancing Reading arts and crafts and tutoring started but they did l indicate they would be willing to pay for those pro Grams Morris said. The Community has built its program around he findings. High school students were surveyed separately. They wanted their own teen Center and the Community will open one next to the High school nov. 1. Other communities among them Worms Germany have tailored programs to suit their local needs. We started planning for the program last october said Kathy Reed Worms youth activities director. It started programs in february. Youth activities has Between 25 and 30 children from 8 to 12 years old enrolled in its program Reed said and the child development services has 20 Chil Dren from 5 to 7 years old  the children Are picked up after school by a staff member and kept until 6 30 . At the youth activities Center or until 5 30 . At the child development Center. Activities for the kids include swimming Bowling Tennis and trips to the Library or museums. Guc i speakers such As firefighters dentists and doctors have been invited to talk to the children about their work. The Cost is $80 a month and includes nutritional snacks and fees for the Field trips and activities. The air Force does not have a formal Latchkey pro Gram for its youth said Linda Brunei Safe child development specialist. But it docs have alternatives tothe Latchkey problem. For five or six years we have encouraged special programs for after school hours at our youth centers and also through our child development centers she said. Despite the command wide attention being paid the Issue there is no Usa eur regulation on How old a child must be before he or she can be left alone. We did try to come up with a regulation last year because some children had died in a tire in Mannheim after being locked in their apartment and no one could get to them storm said. We wondered though How Usa eur would enforce that kind of regulation so we decided to let the Community commanders come up with their own policy. I m sure the age is different throughout usar  example the policy for the Worms military Community slates a child under 12 cannot be leu alone. At Vogel Weh in  the age is 10. As in the army air Force base commanders Are encouraged to set a policy determining the age at which children can be left alone Brunei said. Tomorrow teachers express their views on Latch key kids in Europe for housing there s no place like Wuerzburg office byte Boivin Wuerzburg Bureau Wuerzburg Germany As if coming up with a new program to offer soldiers More choices in their housing was t enough the Wurzburg housing office faced another Challenge when the 8th in. 43rd air defense arty deployed to Gic Belstadt. The housing office had 60 Days this summer to find local housing for the entire battalion. The problem was to identify hous ing because we did t believe that we were going to be Able to uncover Romany dwelling units in an area that is Rural like Gic Belstadt said Nickolas Crossi chief of the housing office. The Normal housing office staff was augmented by six German speaking soldiers from the Wurzburg Community he said. They hit the bricks looking for housing. We had to visit a lot of places. It includes 94 municipalities including cities towns villages and even income cases  Crossi said. Another help was $12,000 in Advertis ing in local newspapers. Trossi said that while some people May be critical of spending that kind of Money on Advertis ing he feels it was Well Worth it. We raised some eyebrows Crossi said. We spent $12.000 to put a big Eye Catcher in the local newspaper that we were looking for dwellings. People thought that was excessive but it was t. It was for two months three times a week. If we figure How much it costs the government to accommodate one family in a hold you see that was actually a very Good  Crossi is proud of his staffs efforts. We were very proud that we were Given a Challenge and came put win ners Crossi said. We did House within 60 Days the entire required fam ily housing and Bachelor housing for the battalion. That accounts for 240 families and 25 to 30  soldiers in the battalion were All housed within 21 mites of Gic Belstadt. A Kossi said even though army regu lations state that the were allowed to House people As far As 35 Miles away