Fun and games fail to hit the teen target

As a techno beat began thumping from a stereo, the girls - and one boy - stepped, turned, and kick-ball-changed to their dance routine.

The mood was starkly different in an adjacent room at the Vine Street Community in Center in Roxbury, where three older boys slouched in their chairs with a severe case of the doldrums.

“It’s boring here - just a bunch of little kids,’’ griped Tyronee Biggums, 14, of Roxbury, despite the nearby pool table and air hockey machine. “I’d rather be out with my friends.’’

Thirty-five years after the founding of Boston’s neighborhood centers, the gulf is widening between the teenagers the city is hoping to lure there and the adults charged with getting them through the doors.

As city officials scramble to tailor programs for an increasingly picky crowd, older youths are shunning the centers in exchange for other after-school hot spots where their friends gather - such as the Forest Hills MBTA Station and Downtown Crossing, where merchants complain of loitering, scattered fights, and theft by local youths.

A recent shooting inside the Marshall Community Center in the Four Corners section of Dorchester has also raised questions about security at the facilities. City officials said security remains a top priority and, despite the shooting, the centers are still a refuge for all youths.

“This was a brazen act,’’ said Daphne Griffin, who heads Boston Centers for Youths and Families. “The commu nity center will always be viewed as a safe haven.’’

How to lure youths into the city’s 46 community facilities is part of a debate that resurfaced during the recent mayoral campaign and that has been dogging neighborhood leaders.

“I think there are a number of things that are going wrong,’’ City Councilor Charles Yancey said. “There is a major disconnect between the young people and the centers.’’

Observers fault organizational, leadership, and systemic breakdowns at the facilities, which are overseen by the Boston Centers for Youth and Families, a group that celebrated its 35th year Nov. 16.

They say the centers’ governing councils lack a unified vision on how best to reach teens and keep them interested.

“Depending on the neighborhood and the board structure that is running it, you have different outcomes in different parts of the city,’’ said Jorge Martinez, a community leader. “Given the resources that are not available . . . most of the community centers are not functioning as they should be and the programming is not up to par.’’

Griffin, the former head of the Boys and Girls Club, concedes the agency could do more to draw teens into its programming, but the agency needs help from everyone - parents, community leaders, anyone who sees an idle teen on the streets.

“It’s a shared burden in how we do outreach,’’ she said. “It should not be the sole responsibility of just one agency.’’

The agency, which has a staff of 400, saw its budget drop by 2 percent this year to $21.7 million because of the city’s fiscal woes. Twenty-eight positions were eliminated. The city pays for staffing and building upkeep, while the individual governing councils raise private money to develop programming.

The agency’s centers, which differ in size and scope, are scattered throughout the city. More than 4,600 youths ages 14 to 17 pay $10 to $15 for yearly memberships, according to the agency’s most recent figures, though officials say many more teens participate - free of charge - in numerous center-run programs such as writing, basketball, and leadership building.

Griffin said that to successfully attract more teens, Boston Centers is first focusing on getting its house in order.

During her two-year tenure, Griffin said, the agency has strengthened ties with local libraries, the public health commission, and schools - where half the centers are located - to provide a stream of afterschool resources.

It has also established a systemwide set of standards that assess youths and programs in four key areas: arts, civic engagement, education, and sports.

“This work is not cookie-cutter,’’ Griffin said. “We need to make sure we have some common values.’’

The agency also trained its staff on its strategic plan, covering topics such as improving customer service and creating innovative programming. In addition, Griffin said, the agency will soon launch its first electronic system to track members and what they do while at the centers.

By most accounts, diverting teenagers from the lure of the streets is a tall order. Some teens don’t go to the community centers because they want jobs, not a game of basketball. Others say many centers miss the mark by focusing too much on sports and not enough on academic, civic, and leadership skills. And some say that regardless of what the centers do to improve programming, such places as Downtown Crossing will always be alluring to teens looking for a reprieve from school days filled with rules and expectations.

“Here I get to shop, buy food, chill with a girl, see mad people,’’ said William Edwards, a 19-year-old from Mattapan motioning to his vast playground outside the Orange Line T station at Downtown Crossing late one afternoon. “To me, this is a community center.’’

Richard Gray, a youth worker at the Grove Hall Community Center, said he spends many after-school hours in the Burger King parking lot on Columbia Road in Dorchester, handing out fliers that urge teens to stop by the center.

They come, he said, though not directly after school.

“I do know that the kids do go into town to hang out,’’ said Gray. “But I also know that they come back.’’

Louise Sowers, a program director at Vine Street, said it’s tough to gauge what teens really want.

“We always ask the teens what activities and programs they would like to see offered,’’ she said. “But when we offer it, they still want to be on the streets.’’

But some centers, such as a newly renovated facility in Hyde Park, are learning how to tap into what teens demand.

“They have open mic on Thursdays,’’ said Shena “Shay’’ Diaz, a 17-year-old from Hyde Park who frequents the center. “I get to sing, rap, dance - everything.’’

Word is still trickling out about the new Grove Hall Community Center, a small facility where the staff is trying to wean teens off their basketball dependence by offering Capoeira, a Brazilian dance; girls’ night out; and tennis clinics.

Sounja Bynoe, program supervisor, was the only one in the center around 3 p.m. one recent day, though she said 60 kids come in daily.

When she talked, her voice echoed.

“Right now it’s quiet because school is not out yet,’’ she explained. “But if you come here about 4 or 5 o’clock, it’s a madhouse.’’

By 6, about two dozen teens - some in ankle bracelets - were playing ball or jumping Double Dutch in a school gym, which the center uses.

Tony Turner, the athletic director, said more should be there.

“Some people say that if we can get one of them, then that would be enough,’’ he said. “But I’m greedy. I want all of them.’’

Meghan E. Irons can be reached at mirons@globe.com