Dr. Anthony Evans retired last month after more than 20 years as executive director of the Cattaraugus County Youth Bureau.

“It took a little bit of adjustment, but I’m getting used to it,” Evans said of his retirement.

He spent 21 years as head of the department and when he stepped down he was the county’s senior department head. But it’s not as if he has slowed down too much — as mayor of Portville, Evans has his hands full with municipal matters these days.

And after he retired, Evans, his wife and son contracted COVID-19. Evans, who had been vaccinated, was achy, but his wife was sicker and their son had a mild case. All, of course, were quarantined for the requisite 14 days.

Evans succeeded Kathy McGoldrick as Youth Bureau executive director in 1999.

He said one of the smartest things he did was establish a professional and personal relationship with then-state Sen. Catharine M. Young and, later, Assemblyman Joseph Giglio.

“Their support was essential to our success,” Evans said. “They were very helpful.”

Evans established social capital connecting groups and organizations and people who didn’t know each other, but had similar needs and goals. “From Portville to Pioneer and Randolph to Gowanda and a lot of communities in between,” Evans helped build those relationships.

Groups that didn’t know each other connected through this networking. Their goals were to establish goodwill and benefit the entire county. It was the notion of social capital that paid off in connecting groups, Evans said.

“We got very good at grant writing and fundraising,” he said, noting that led to a lot of positive movement — from new youth programming to playground equipment for municipalities across the county.

“Kathy McGoldrick left me with a good staff,” Evans said, while explaining that he tried in subsequent years to hire “knowledgeable, caring individuals” and establish new programs.

One program Evans was proud of was the Youth of the Week program, photos and biographies of high school seniors that run weekly in The Salamanca Press. Those students and their parents have been invited to an annual dinner at Holiday Valley in Ellicottville with awards and a featured speaker, although those events were canceled in 2020 and this year. The dinners were paid for from grant writing and donations, not the taxpayers, he added.

One speaker, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, called Cattaraugus County’s Youth Bureau the gold standard of youth bureaus because of its innovations, Evans recalled. It was established as a way of celebrating bright examples of contributing young people throughout the county.

Another program that has helped hundreds of youth over the years is Youth Court, where trained peers give youth a chance to redeem themselves after a juvenile offense and stay out of Family Court.

“It’s a wonderful diversion to keep kids out of the legal system and give them a chance to redeem themselves with their peers,” Evans said. “It is a highly trained bunch of community-minded kids.”

They fill the roles of judges, lawyers and law enforcement and are a sanctioned part of the state’s Unified Court System.

An offender might get sanctions that include writing a letter of apology and community service. The charges can go away afterward if all obligations are met.

“Hopefully, the kids have learned something and we have kept them out of Family Court,” Evans said. “Ninety-eight percent of the kids do not re-offend.”

The Youth Bureau also monitors youths who run afoul of the law, including electronic monitoring. Measures have been moving away from incarceration programs that take kids away from the family and out of the community.

Meanwhile, a program that’s rarely talked about is the one for children with special needs, Evans said. That is a $4 million line item designed to get physical and other therapy and services needed by about 400 children. The special needs children include those with Down syndrome.

“We tried to help them as best we can,” Evans said. “Kids with disabilities and special needs became near and dear to our hearts.”

Over the last three years, the Youth Bureau received around $600,000 from member items secured by Young, the former state senator. Those funds were used to buy playground equipment for communities across the county.

“I was so proud of the staff,” Evans said in looking back on his years at the head of the bureau. “We dealt with thousands of kids who were at their most vulnerable in their lives.”

To learn more about the youth bureau, check out its website at cattcoyouth.org.