From the classroom to the outdoors, from inner-cities to suburban communities, Sylvia Fuerstenberg has found purpose and growth working with youth and family.

It is her calling.

“There could be no better thing to be doing with my life than this kind of work,” said Fuerstenberg, Auburn Youth Resource’s newly hired executive director. She succeeds the retired Jim Blanchard.

“It’s rewarding to help people change lives,” she said. “We never do any of this alone. We do it together as a community and as a staff, and we have a lot of success at it. Sometimes we do things that are not quite as successful as others. We adjust our direction. We learn.”

Fuerstenberg is a pragmatic, energetic, results-oriented woman who is deeply committed to the cause. She welcomes the challenge of guiding AYR, a large multi-services, nonprofit agency.

AYR, established in 1973, has become a regional leader as a mental health and substance abuse counseling, youth and young adult residential center serving South King and North Pierce counties. AYR provides treatment and prevention, homeless housing and support services, and child care and Head Start services through ACAP Child and Family.

“I’m very impressed. The board is very supportive,” Fuerstenberg said of her new position. “I was inspired by the people I met.

“It just felt right.”

Fuerstenberg is a visionary leader with 30 years of executive leadership experience who has excelled in a broad range of human services endeavors – juvenile rehabilitation, wilderness adventure programs for delinquents, inner city programs for teens in New York City – and has for the past 30-plus years, built a career on promoting support for people with developmental disabilities in communities.

“Sylvia brings a fresh outlook on what we have been doing at Auburn Youth Resources,” said Michael Jackson, AYR development director. “The staff has welcomed her with open arms and is excited to see what lies ahead for all of us.

“The futures of the youth and families we serve are what is important, she gets that and seems anxious to be a significant advocate for their well being,” Jackson said. “All in all, we are headed in a great direction.”

Fuerstenberg previously worked for seven years as executive director of The Arc of King County, an advocacy, education and support organization for people with intellectual and development disabilities, and a leader in disability rights.

‘Outstanding leader’

According to Joshua Brothers, Arc trustee, Fuerstenberg was an “outstanding leader for our organization and a dedicated advocate for our mission and the people and families that we serve.” … She left the organization in a “much better place than when she arrived in 2008,” he added.

Fuerstenberg means to help AYR take the next step. The agency is experiencing growing pains at a time of great need and limited federal, state and local financial support.

“It’s a challenge. It’s a difficult time to be a nonprofit,” Fuerstenberg said. “Everybody is rethinking what they’re doing, with their money … all governments have been pulling back their funds really since 2008, ’09, ’10. That really hasn’t stopped.

“People think the economy has recovered and money is flowing, and that’s not true,” she said. “The needs are greater and the funding streams are changing.”

Fuerstenberg plans to do her part, ushering in a new era at AYR behind her strengths as a manager, supervisor and leader.

In many ways, Fuerstenberg has come full circle. She began her career in youth and family services, a path partly influenced by her mother, a compassionate leader who was an elementary school teacher and a Head Start program director.

But Fuerstenberg went off to school with the intention of becoming an environmental scientist. She spent time in the wilderness, affiliated with a life-and-Outward Bound program as an instructor, working with adjudicated, troubled teenagers who had came out of the court systems of Chicago, St. Louis and East St. Louis. Staff spent time with teens, up to six weeks at a time, in the wilderness as a therapeutic approach to helping them discover themselves and inspire their true strength of character.

“From that experience, I decided it wasn’t the science and environment side that I was going for,” Fuerstenberg said, “it was really the social stuff that intrigued and motivated me.”

From that point on, Fuerstenberg’s work focused on youth and families. She built an extensive career that took her to Manhattan and Boston, and eventually to the Puget Sound area.

She came to the Pacific Northwest with a newly minted masters degree in social work in hand, and interviewed for executive director jobs of smaller agencies. She studied management, group work and policy making, and wanted to make an impact on a larger scale.

That opportunity came at the Arc, and now at AYR.

Fuerstenberg, a wife and mother of two grown children, took some time to have a hip replaced. She plays the guitar, sings, and enjoys reading, skiing and hiking.

She looks forward to leading AYR into a new era at a time of great need. The challenge, she said, is to stay relative in the throes of complex times, changing demographics and few funding streams, and to “be proactive in our change and growth … ways to serve our community better.”

It will take a collaborative effort to become more efficient and responsive as an agency, Fuerstenberg said.

“We all do this together,” she said. “I’m so excited to be (here) at this time.”