The new building in Bristol Township is really about the hours after school, before bedtime, when a lot can go right or wrong for a kid. According to LevittownNow‘s Oct. 7 report and a Sept. 9 item on the county’s news release page, Neighborhood First has opened a 2,300-square-foot modular facility beside Silver Lake Nature Center in Bristol Township after years of squeezing into a smaller county-owned space on Bath Road.

That sounds like one more ribbon cutting. It is, but it is also a nuts-and-bolts county story. More room means more kids can be seen, families can meet on site again, and staff do not have to run a growing program out of a building that had plainly gotten too small.

Neighborhood First outgrew its old Bristol Township space

According to the LevittownNow report and Bucks County’s Sept. 9 release on the expansion, Neighborhood First was founded in 2001 by James Wells, a retired deputy director of the Bucks County Juvenile Detention Center. The idea was straightforward: if a young person gets in trouble or starts drifting in a bad direction, the county has a better shot at turning that around when the child stays in the community instead of being sent away.

LevittownNow reported that the program mainly works with youth from six local school districts, along with several alternative and charter schools. The routine is built around evening supervision, education, life-skills work, and a place that is structured without feeling like lockup. Wells told LevittownNow that kids are assigned to the program, staff stay in touch with families, and the work is meant to happen close to home.

The growth numbers explain why the old building stopped working. According to Executive Director Walt Mims, as quoted by LevittownNow, Neighborhood First had 14 participants in 2014. By July 2026, that had climbed to 61 active youth, with 128 served since the start of the year. Rachael Neff, the county’s human services director, said the old space had gotten so tight that even family birthday celebrations had been pushed aside for lack of room.

The new setup is a lot more practical, according to the county release. It includes staff offices, an 800-square-foot classroom, open program space, dedicated education areas, a restroom, and a break area. Outside, the project added parking, stormwater controls, a rain garden, LED perimeter lights, landscaping, and more than 20 newly planted trees. None of that is glamorous, but those are the pieces that let a program run every night without tripping over itself.

Bristol Township approvals took four years

Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said in the county release that the expansion had to work through land development, zoning, and municipal approvals over several years. She pegged the wait from 2022 to 2026 as a long one, and that tracks with how these local projects usually go. Even a modest building can spend years in the permit pipeline once site work, drainage, lighting, and parking enter the picture.

According to LevittownNow and county officials, the project cost about $1.4 million. The money came from American Rescue Plan Act funds and opioid settlement dollars. That funding mix tells its own story. One-time pots of money are often the only way counties can get a building project done without tearing up the regular budget, especially for programs that sit somewhere between public safety, youth services, and education.

Bucks County General Services Director Bernard Griggs said the county viewed the project as a way to put county resources to work for residents. That is the unflashy side of local government people usually ignore until something breaks. In this case, county government owned the site, handled the project, and helped give a longtime program a building that finally fits the size of the job.

What This Means for Bucks County Residents

The easiest way to put this is that a bigger Neighborhood First gives Lower Bucks families and local agencies another place to send kids before a bad stretch turns into something worse. Wells told LevittownNow that detention can cost upward of $300 a day for months at a time. By contrast, this program keeps young people in their own neighborhoods while staff work with the child and the family. That is easier on taxpayers, and it is usually easier on parents too.

It also means faster help. Bucks County Children and Youth Director Rob Yokum told LevittownNow that a child can be referred on a Monday and in the program by Wednesday. For families who are hanging on by a thread, that speed is the whole ballgame. A program that can move quickly is a lot more useful than one with a nice brochure and a waiting list.

There is also a local politics angle here, even if nobody at the ribbon cutting said it that bluntly. Bucks County spends plenty of time talking about arrests, court cases, and public safety. This is the less dramatic side of the same problem. If the county wants fewer young people winding up deeper in the system later, it has to pay for places like this earlier. A bigger building does not solve everything, but it gives staff room to do the work they were already being asked to do.

For readers in Bristol Township, Levittown, and nearby towns, this is the kind of story that can get buried under louder headlines. It should not. A program that can absorb more referrals from schools, probation officers, and child welfare staff changes the day-to-day picture for a lot of families in Lower Bucks. If you follow our Levittown-area coverage, you already know how often county systems show up in ordinary family life, whether residents asked for them or not.

Neighborhood First is taking younger referrals now

One detail from the LevittownNow story stands out. Gary Bodenschatz, a Bucks County Children and Youth supervisor and the county’s main contact for the program, said the age of the kids being served has dropped over time. Years ago, he said, taking a 12-year-old was a tougher sell. Now, many of the cases are 12-year-olds and sometimes even younger.

That is not a small shift. It suggests the county is seeing family strain and behavioral trouble show up earlier, and that Neighborhood First is being asked to step in earlier too. The new building will not change that trend by itself, but it does give the program more room for classroom work, family meetings, and staff coordination.

County officials also used the opening to present Mims and Neighborhood First with the John Thomas Bevivino Award, according to LevittownNow. That award came from Bucks County Children and Youth and recognized the group’s work with youth and families. Mims said Wells deserved credit for sticking with the expansion until it finally happened, and he described the evening hours as the gap the program is trying to fill for kids who need structure after school.

Families usually do not find Neighborhood First by strolling in off the street. According to LevittownNow, referrals tend to come through schools, juvenile probation, and Children and Youth. For updates on county projects, watch the county news page and more local stories on Bucks County Blog.

Sources and Further Reading

• LevittownNow – Lower Bucks news outlet that published the original report.
• LevittownNow Oct. 7 report – Article detailing the Neighborhood First expansion and county comments.
• Bucks County news release page – Official county page for news and press releases.
• Bucks County Sept. 9 release – Official county item on the Neighborhood First expansion.
• Bucks County government – County homepage with departments and public services.
• Bristol Township – Official township website for local government information.
• Silver Lake Nature Center – Official site for the Bristol Township nature center next to the program.