Safe Space, a nonprofit founded in 1921 to care for troubled children in New York City, takes on some of the city’s biggest challenges: its teenagers.

The organization’s new chief executive, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, is willing to jump right in and give hope to at-risk youth. “The teenagers come to us pretty jaded and cynical about what we can do and can’t do. To engage them in a positive way, we have to change the way we deliver assistance,” she said. “The bottom line is, we can’t give up on them. Kids can change; they’re malleable.”

“They’ve been through negative experiences in the criminal justice system, they’ve had very early awakening in their sexuality, and they’ve had bad experiences in the school system.”

The agency operates a mobile assistance unit – a Winnebago – that roams the streets giving teens counseling, food, and shelter. It also runs a Teen Resource Center that offers tutoring, counseling, and other support services.

“We’re dealing now with a lot of kids whose parents were crack addicts,” she said.

But at the helm of Safe Space, Ms. Barrios-Paoli intends to develop more early intervention programs, to help protect children from some of those tough teenage experiences. Prenatal care for pregnant teenagers and family support that keeps children from entering foster care are two examples of early intervention she would like to expand. “The sooner you engage a child when they’re young, the better the outcome will be,” she said.

In just a few months at her new job, the slim Mexican woman with cropped gray hair has found her stride – despite the fact that she “never wanted to run anything” growing up. The nonprofit with a $25 million annual budget offers a complex array of programs, including residences for foster children and HIV-positive teens, mental health clinics providing intensive therapeutic treatment, and counseling centers. There are more than 30 Safe Space locations, primarily in Queens.

Ms. Barrios-Paoli was well prepared to take it all on. For the past six years, she oversaw funding and technical assistance for hundreds of nonprofits at the United Way.

“It was great experience,” she said of her time there.” This is more rewarding. There’s a feeling you have for really running something, that you don’t have when you’re just funding people to do it. Friends have said I look and feel much happier. I think they’re right.”

Her confidence in Safe Space also comes from a long acquaintance with the agency. Twenty years ago, she served an 8-month stint as acting commissioner of the department of child welfare. She also worked closely with the agency over the past three years,

“We always knew Safe Space was a good agency and did good critical work,” she said.

In her post at United Way – her title was chief executive of agency services – she helped Safe Space’s previous executive director get through a “very tough time” addressing some financial difficulties. “Part of why I did want to come here is that I knew the problems and we dealt with them,” she said.

The agency is in the black now and Ms. Barrios-Paoli wants to keep it that way. “I want a good administrative structure that shows we’re being accountable, transparent, and all those good things,” she said. “You also have to look critically at your services; it’s attractive to go after the RFPs [requests for proposals] that come out, but do you have the infrastructure to support that growth?”

“And you have to look at scale in your staff. If the preventive program needs counseling for some of the kids, the first phone call is not to hire a counselor but to see if a counselor within the organization can provide those services.”

When money must be raised or funding sustained, Ms. Barrios-Paoli knows where to look, having served as a commissioner at four city agencies (the Human Resources Administration, the Department of Housing and Preservation and Development, the Department of Personnel, and the Department of Employment). She was also executive director of Literacy Volunteers and of Lincoln Hospital.

Yet Ms. Barrios-Paoli knows she cannot rely on government funds alone if she wants to deliver quality services. “Government pays for bulk, but you need to have private monies in the blend, otherwise you get into a deficit very quickly,” she said.

Before devoting her career to public service, Ms. Barrios-Paoli received a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the New School and taught at Rutgers. Her dissertation was on the difference between enculturation and formal education in immigrant schoolchildren: She noted that nearly half of the children served by Safe Space are recent immigrants.

“It’s a great opportunity to try on the front lines what I’ve been hypothesizing in terms of what makes families and children thrive,” Ms. Barrios-Paoli said.

Ms. Barrios-Paoli is an immigrant herself. She came to America to attend graduate school from Mexico City, where her family remains – and where she will return for Christmas.

Her work in the public sector has left little time for vacation or travel. Before she began at Safe Space, she started to make up for that. She spent three weeks in China and Tibet with her sister’s family – her longest vacation ever.

“It was just an incredible experience. The growth that China is experiencing is amazing. The amount of development and energy is incredible. Tibet was really magical.”

While in China, Ms. Barrios-Paoli observed after-school programs for gifted children as well as an orphanage. It gave her some perspective on the issues she faces at Safe Space.

“They still have orphanages, unfortunately. It’s not a good way to grow up. We’ve gotten away from it, thank God, in this country. But foster care is not necessarily a great way to grow up, either. Staying with parents is what every child wants. The key is how do we make those families healthy enough to make the child’s experience a good one.”

For relaxation, Ms. Barrios-Paoli, who is single and lives on the Upper West Side, takes long walks and has a “network of friends who have been very supportive and to whom I appeal for advice and help and sanity.”

She enjoys her native cuisine at restaurants in her neighborhood, Fleur de Mayo and Mama Mexico. For home meals, she buys from Fresh Direct and cooks American “It’s healthier; I broil a lot.”

Her sister is trying to talk her into going to Egypt in May. Will a private sector job with a few more weeks of paid vacation ever tempt her?

“To me, meaning is very important, meaning in life, meaning at work. I just have to know I’m making a difference in somebody else’s life. I’ve chosen to make a difference for poor people for families and children.”