Dr. Maurice Brooks is not your typical retiree.

While most retired people spend time golfing, traveling or taking up a hobby, Brooks, 61, is on call 24 hours a day, providing volunteer counseling for youths and families.

Brooks, an ordained minister who holds doctorates in electrical engineering and psychology, also spends four to eight hours a day volunteering at the Shaka Franklin Foundation for Youth.

"I look upon this as my payback time," said Brooks, who recently was honored as the foundation's volunteer of the year. "I've had an awful lot of help along the way...from friends and strangers who didn't really have to help...Now it's my turn to give back what I can as long as I can.

"I enjoy the kids. They keep you laughing. As bad as they can be sometimes, they are still wonderful."

Brooks, who retired from his position as engineer at General Dynamics in California, is on permanent disability because of failing sight and high blood pressure. He started working with the foundation in February 1991.

The youths he counsels all have his home telephone number. "They can call me any time," he said. "I get calls as late or as early as 1,2,3 o'clock a.m."

He works with suicidal youngsters and those "who are involved in self-destructive behavior acts."

"Suicide is high among today's youths," he said. "It goes hand in hand as to why there are gangs. They(gangs) are serving a purpose that society is not."

To help youths, adults need to let them know they care about them.

"We just can't separate and isolate ourselves from them and leave them out there to fend for themselves,"; Brooks said. "They are not capable of that. They are babies. They are kids. They don't have the tools or wisdom, or the understanding and experience to handle all of the kinds of crises that they have to manage in today's society."