MISSION:

Our mission is to provide a safe, supportive, fun environment that promotes leadership, empowerment, personal growth, and social change by and for low-income, multicultural, and/or at-risk youth, ages 12-17.

HOURS:

• Monday & Friday: 3:30 - 7:30pm
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 3:30 - 5:30pm

Nuestro Lugar/Our Place Teen Center is run by and for low-income, multicultural, and/or at-risk youth with the supervision of adult volunteers and staff. Youth empowerment and development is woven into every fabric of the center’s existence. Our center provides a range of activities at no cost to young people to develop the education, awareness, and self-confidence needed to end oppression and change the world.

GOALS:

• A place where young people are accepted and diversity is appreciate.
• A safe, positive, drug-free environment where teens can spend free time with friends and make new ones
• A staff that serves the needs of young people while keeping the atmosphere safe and empowering
• Increase self-esteem
• Improve leadership skills
• Develop cultural awareness
• Enhance mutual respect
• Promote healthy choices
• Reduce juvenile delinquency
• Promote community action
• Provide educational & job opportunities
• Education about oppression, empowerment, and social change

ACTIVITIES:

Current:

• Leadership training
• Education on oppression and social change
• Academic Support Program: how to get to college, educational classes such as English, Spanish, tutoring, and help with homework
• Non-violent communication
• Peer tutoring
• Peer mediation
• Youth newsletter
• Computer lab with video editing classes, web design, and computer classes
• Apprenticeship program to create teen jobs and financially sustain center

Future:

• Nutritious & low-cost cooking classes
• Range of athletics from basketball to dance and martial arts
• Individual and group counseling
• Music room and quiet reading room
• Cooking classes and meals from on-site kitchen

LOCATION:

• 965 Oak Alley in Downtown Eugene (between 10th & Broadway and Oak & Willamette. Behind the Downtown Athletic Club and under the Overpark Parking Garage)

What we are working to prevent:

1. Criminal activity
2. School Dropout
3. Drug Abuse
4. Suicide
5. Risky Sex
6. Violence
7. Gangs

Who can use the Center?

Low-income:

Families/teens who qualify for or receive: Federally assisted housing, OR Trail Section 8, OHP, SSI, St. Vincent's, Free/Subsidized Lunch. Also: families/teens who are homeless.

Multicultural:

Multicultural includes ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, transgender identity, and disability and the teen and family chooses how they identify.

At-Risk:

• Isolation
• Divorced/Separated parents
• Abuse (past & present): sexual, emotional, physical
• Substance abuse in home
• Negative peer pressure
• Absence of adult support/role models
• Depression
• Trauma as defined by Trauma Healing Project
• Lack of support at school - as decided by the teen
• Language barrier
• Unhealthy relationships
• Undocumented
• Parent/guardian in jail or prison
• Teen parent
• Foster care - past or present
• Past or present participation in what we are working to prevent: criminal activity, school dropout, substance abuse, suicide, risky sex, violence, gangs