Pomona Youth and Family Master Plan Community Board members last week took the first steps toward establishing a resource center where young people and their families can get help dealing with the social and economic problems that lead to risky behavior.

The board approved creation of a committee that will have a year to report back on what's needed to set up a permanent center.

Coming as it does more than three years after a 16-year-old shot a California Highway Patrol officer in Pomona - the galvanizing event that spawned the Mayor's Youth and Family Task Force - the board's decision has many wondering how long it will take for something concrete to emerge from the city's Youth and Family Master Plan.

"People want stuff now because people are dying," Councilman George Hunter said Tuesday.

City residents need a place now where they can find help with their concerns, said Hunter, who has advocated using the Pomona Armory for a resource center and as a space for various groups and organizations to offer youth-related programs and services.

"You need to get started, and it can start there," Hunter said.

The resource-center concept is something that's going to evolve and grow, he said.

The armory can serve as a temporary site for a resource center and become the testing ground to identify needs before making a substantial investment in one or more more permanent locations, he said.

Some Community Board members who have signed up to serve on the committee say part of their work will probably take a year to complete, but another part won't.

Nancy Matarrita said she sees two things coming out of the committee.

The first is establishing one or more resource centers that would only need to serve as a place where parents can get information on dealing with a child who is involved in gangs or who needs tutoring.

The second is addressing whether one or more centers are needed and what additional programs and services can be offered - such as youth-oriented activities.

"That is going to be the big one," Matarrita said. "A lot of legwork is going to be needed."

Locations, agencies willing to join the project, as well as staffing and operating such a facility will all be addressed by the committee, she said.

Like others, Matarrita said it may be possible to work with schools, churches and other organizations to start a center.

In the short term, Matarrita said, she would like to see a resource center established by the start of the school year or soon after.

Victor Caceres, another committee member and executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Pomona Valley, said it may take a little longer to establish a temporary resource center. It may be early January before a center is ready to start welcoming people.

Caceres said he plans to propose working with organizations that are already established, provide services in line with the master plan and have space to accommodate growth.

Organizations that can either provide staff or volunteers will bolster the services available and offer a means to start working with residents, he said.

"You start by hanging a sign and marketing the resource center," Caceres said.

Community Board member Anne Henderson proposed establishing the new committee and has signed up to serve on it.

She, like others, said many concepts for a resource center exist now. Even within the Community Board, people have different notions of what such a center can be. The committee is going to have to gather those different ideas and shape them into a proposal, she said.

However, whatever concept the committee comes up with, it can't be rushed into implementation, she said.

The plan has to be thought out to provide an effective service where "we help each other help people better," Henderson said.

Mayor Norma Torres said she thinks a year is a reasonable amount of time to come up with a plan for a center.

Torres said the key point is that whatever shape a resource center takes, those staffing it have to be able to provide the necessary assistance to residents.

The center must be welcoming enough to have people use its services and be staffed with "somebody who cares enough to see how (clients) are doing," Torres said.

While work to develop a center is taking place, people can begin getting assistance using an Internet-based system that is expected to go into service this summer and offer up-to-date information on services available to residents, she said.

Staff writer Monica Rodriguez can be reached by e-mail at m_rodriguez@dailybulletin.com, or by phone at (909) 483-9336.