3 nonprofits to pick up counseling programs

Three local nonprofits have been chosen to pick up Islip's town-run drug and alcohol counseling and education programs when they are dissolved Nov. 1 as part of a cost-cutting measure.

The town board will vote Tuesday to enter into memorandums of understanding with the Family Service League, Outreach and Youth Enrichment Services, each of which will receive state and county funding to run the programs.

The Huntington-based Family Service League will take over the 401 Main St. location of Access, an outpatient substance abuse counseling service in Islip hamlet run by the town since the 1980s. Queens-based Outreach will take over Acceso, the bilingual branch of Access located on Suffolk Avenue in Brentwood. The Islip chapter of YES will pick up education and prevention campaigns in local schools.

Outreach president Kathleen Riddle said earlier this month the agency hopes to retain five of Acceso's full-time staff and 10 of its part-timers in clinical and administrative posts. "A number of the Islip staff have been trained by us to get their credentials," Riddle said. "The staff are familiar with us, they know us. It's not like some unknown entity coming in. They know who we are and I think that's kind of a sense of relief to them."

In April, the cash-strapped town announced plans to dismantle its human services department effective Nov. 1. The reorganization was projected to save $1.6 million in 2013 and will result in 57 layoffs, officials have said.

But the most controversial part of the plan meant Access/Acceso, which cost the town $540,000 annually, would revert to Suffolk County to be contracted out to nonprofits. Critics who spoke out during hours of testimony at town board meetings said employees would be laid off and clients would lose services.

"Every one of those dollars you're trying to save, you're probably going to ruin someone's life," Acceso founder Jose Chamberlain said at an April town board meeting.

According to the town board resolutions, Outreach will receive $423,406 from the state and $172,261 from the county annually, the Family Service League will receive $173,188 from the state and $61,728 from the county, and YES will receive $144,644 from the state and $43,607 from the county.