1 Community Youth Center

Youth Community Center

Sarah Hollenberger
NIU University
English 104
C. Sturgeon
4/11/15

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Abstract
This paper, will introduce the idea of what a youth community center is and what they are
known for contributing to the community in which they reside. Along with it will go over the
history of modern day youth community centers and how they developed to the youth
community centers or clubs that we know and may have participated in. Including the potential
Cons that would arise when attempting to start a youth community center that would consist of
prices of necessities and other needs along with the need for volunteers to work the youth
community center. Finally going over the potential Pros that would come once a youth
community center is built and functioning with helping adolescents achieve academic success
and provide them with a safe environment for them to grow and flourish in the NIU campus area
and other towns and cities who need a youth community center.

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Introduction
What would you do when going home after school would mean being alone for hours on
end till your parents got home? What would you do when home was not the safest place to return
to? What would you do if you wanted extra help with homework when school is over? All those
questions could be answered with a youth community center when run correctly and well
supported through the surrounding town or city it resides in.
Through years of research, many who specialized in child development and education
conclude that youth community centers are beneficial to academic success for children along
with providing a safe environment for them to learn and grow. This would be beneficial to both
the children and the parent(s) depending on how the situation at home is physically, mentally, or
financially for the family. A youth community center would provide a safe place from a harmful
home for children, a place to enhance what was taught in school, and provide a location for
children to go if they needed to be watched after school if the parents were unavailable to take
them home or watch them due to extra work to support the family.
This paper, will run through the history of youth community centers by going over what
they are today as well as what they do for children compared to the use and conditions that were
provided from different organizations that provide youth community centers from their
beginnings, the cons of starting and running a youth community center at NIU that would greatly
determine the success or failure of what could be a thriving center for children to turn to, and the
pros of running and providing a youth community center that would be the place to go for
children who are in need of it for years to come in Dekalb.

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History/Background
In the past, many organizations had similar timelines of growth though out the ages to
develop into the successful youth helping organizations we know today, such as Boys and Girls
Clubs and more. For example Boys and Girls began 1860 with three women in Hartford,
Conn.: Mary Goodwin,Alice Goodwin and Elizabeth Hammersley. Believing that boys who
roamed the streets should have a positive alternative, they organized the first Club. (Boys and
Girls Club, 2015). With that action and years later, they affiliated with many other groups to gain
a national standing for a non-profit organization. Along with changing their name to
accommodate all genders do to the changing times and knowing they would help more children
when expanding their reasons for taking children in when they were in need. Because of this
Boys and Girls Clubs and many other organizations that sponsor youth community centers have
also gained many awards for the selfless acts they have done through the U.S or through which
ever country they are stationed in.
What youth community centers are today
Today most similar organizations still have the same goals as the original. Such as
teaching children values and in general keeping them off the streets that could potentially lead to
some poor choices to eventually an unsafe lifestyle. Other goals such as: Having a safe space for
youth, Promoting open youth-to-youth communication, Multicultural bridge building, and
Enhancing leadership development among young people (Establishing Youth Organizations,
2014)
With those ideals the creators of the youth community centers would hope to better the
community with each child that enters though their doors.

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What you community centers do to this day

Even to this day they still expand though the US and other countries to help any child in
need. There are even major cities that dont have enough youth community centers to get every
child off the streets or out of an unsafe environment. Many centers even result in great changes
in academic success and work ethic within children and teens who partake, such as stats of
93% of High School Non-Seniors were promoted to the next grade, 93% of High School
Seniors graduated (compared to Chicago Public Schools 60%), 72% of Graduates
enrolled in college, 91% of Elementary School youth (non-eighth graders) were promoted
to the next grade, 94% of 8th graders graduated elementary school, 196 Core Group
Youth were placed in employment, 60 Core Group youth were placed in an internship
(BUILD Chicago, 2015)
With success like that the children that go through youth community centers would develop their
self-confidence to continue to the next grade or onto further education and to be successful at
getting a job with a steady income.

Con Rebuttal
Naturally one would not think there would be any cons to helping children though their
development to adulthood. But the cons are directed to the center itself due because it would be a
nonprofit organization that would supported by volunteers along with a few other problems.
Price

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The amount of money to keep a building open or even get a center built in the first place
would cost a lot of money. Being a nonprofit organization it would be difficult to support such a
facility without donations or support from outside funding. Most of that money would also have
to either come from loans, if necessary, or though supporters that would fund the project
depending who contribute to the center. So people who would want to start a youth community
center or support it would have to find money through outside sources and to do that you would
need to use money from the creator of the center pocket to make some sort of attention come to
them. That attention would come through by Get[ting] out in front of a crowd via public
speaking about the topic, Sign[ing] people up though petitions or through email subscriptions,
Harness[ing] the power of film which would cost a lot of money for the equipment and for
other supplies for the filmed message to be made, and Network[ing] on the social Web (The
Habits of Highly Successful Outreach Programs, 2014)which one would have to pay for a
domain for or for having someone create it for the organization which would put a huge hole into
the budget and would either have to be paid out of pocket (2014). There would also be other
reasons for spending money on a youth community center, such as food for snacks or even meals
for children and workers. If there are any professional councilors for certain cases, likely for
possible child abuse and so on and so forth, would need to be paid for them to come regularly,
other professionals who would possibly be needed from time to time such as repair crews if
something were to break, along with other supplies to keep up to specifications that would have
to be kept in check from time to time to not face closure due to being poorly kept.
Support
Another potential problem would be finding enough people to staff the youth community
center. This does tie into the idea of working with a potential budget, but not unless the staff are

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mostly volunteers. They would work for free, but finding enough people that are willing to work
with children for hours on end without pay could be troublesome to some people with certain
mindsets thinking it would be like babysitting. Though
Being an insider (someone the local young people know and respect, such as a popular
teacher) can make it much easier to start a youth organization. Insiders often find it easier
to plan activities that are interesting to youth. They know the area, know the kids, and
know what's likely to work. (They also may have a better idea of what students will
probably just think is "lame.") Also, young people might be more attracted to programs
started by insiders because they know and trust them. If the adult sponsor is from the
same area or ethnic group, the young people might feel that they have a better chance of
the adult understanding what they are going through, and the circumstances that they
have to deal with on a daily basis. This is especially true when groups are involved in
sensitive issues, such as drug abuse, violence, or teen sexuality. (Establishing Youth
Organizations, 2014)
Developing a new youth community center within a town or in portion of a city that the center
would be set up in, or even workers with gang and/or street experience would work with best
with adolescents who come from a gang (Developing a Successful Street Outreach Program:
Recommendations and Lessons Learned, 2009). Along with anyone that would have a relatable
story to children and teens that would be arriving to the center for help.
Pros
This is pretty much a given when it comes to something that would benefit the welfare of
children of different ages, races, and any other background that could affect a childs current and

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future standing in life. The pros are directed along the lines of the results that are achieved after a
child goes through a youth community center in time and shows promise in development and
change.
Academic Success
This is only one of the main goals of any youth community center to fulfill to help
children when they need it. After school tutoring is one of those ways a center helps children
along with giving them other information that would pertain to a specific childs needs when
they come to a youth community center for help. This can be expanded upon to a wider spectrum
of teachable matters according to Durlak (2010) any
after-school programs that seek to enhance the personal and social skills of children and
adolescents indicated that, compared to controls, participants demonstrated significant
increases in their self-perceptions and bonding to school, positive social behaviors,
school grades and levels of academic achievement, and significant reductions in problem
behaviors.
These can be provided though teachers, tutors, parents (that volunteer for the cause), and other
members of the community that wish to guide the children and tell them about what they should
or should not do that could lead to the wrong choice and help them gain a better understanding
on what school gives them in home work and other projects. Or simply enough they give
students the motivation and concentration levels of young people [that are] much higer in
informal youth programs then they were in school suggesting the untapped power in youth
development programs can positively impact school performance. (The Impact of Youth
Development Programs on Student Academic Achievement)

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A youth community center can also a place of sexual education that would not be well
provided through schools that only teach the abstinence method which may or may not go into
detail as to what is happening in a body going through puberty. Without that information that the
adolescents would need to otherwise make the right decisions before becoming sexually active or
at least knowing how to practice safe sex would be lost to them and they would just dive right in
without knowing the possible results. The statistics on how uninformed teens can be are quite
staggering, such as
young people aged 10-24 bear a significant portion of the burden of sexual ill health
along with at least one-third of all new HIV cases worldwide occur among those aged
15-24. In the developing world, 13 million adolescent girls and women younger than age
20 have unintended birth each year, and significant unmet need for contraceptives exist
among both unmarried and married adolescents(Zuurmond, 2012, pg.1).
Along with statistics for abortions that are forty-one percent of [them are] unsafe abortions in
developing regions that place among young women aged 15-24; 15 percent are among those
aged 15-19 (Zuurmond, 2012, pg.1).
That is too much and too soon for so many adolescents to be having to face that at an
early age. Education would not lead to such actions. This is what a youth community center
could provide when given the right material to provide help for those who may have been ill
informed or are in a situation that would cause them to be cast out due to their current condition;
such as teen pregnancies, rape victims, STDs, and other information that would be a preventative
to more incidents that would increase those statistic if not taught or was given a way for those to
never happen in the first place.

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Safe Environment
Another pro is that a youth community center provides a safe environment for children
and teens. This would have to be a given since without being in a safe location because nobody
would want to come to it if it was in an area known for terrible acts of violence and other crimes.
Without safe conditions the center would be potentially a health hazard for anyone who work
there and come there. There is another form of safety that would also be provided for any who
come for help, such as from parental abuse and more. Many of which are known for working
with the police for such things, for example from The Habits of Highly Successful Outreach
Programs
In collaboration with its local sheriffs department, Florida Keys Childrens Shelter will
roll out a new program in which officers carry a tip sheet in their car to help them know
what to do when they encounter runaway youth, and in particular situations in which
young people have been abused. Brower also has trained police so they know which
youth are eligible for her organizations services. (The Habits of Highly Successful
Outreach Programs)
Which give the police proper information about each person instead of making some mistake of
assuming they are apart of some gang or know that it would be wiser to send them to a youth
community center before sending back home which cause them to leave and be a runaway again.
This would also work in the other way around, by having the youth community center provide
information to the police when it comes to cases of parental abuse is very apparent upon a child
or teen. With that information the police and Child Services would be able to step in and take the
child or children out of the custody of the abusive parent or parents and have the children enter a
safer and more welcoming home for them to live a happy life away from their abusers.

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In addition to needing be a safe environment for children and teens, youth community
centers can provide necessities that may be sometimes or not at all provided at home depending
on economic standings or how they are cared for, or in a not so serious sense they can also
provide materials that would spark potential hobbies that could grow into a future career. Such as
a center [could] offer showers, activities like art, sculpture, and music, and a safe place to be
(The Habits of Highly Successful Outreach Programs). It could be the only place that would
provide them with a way for them to obtain a good hygiene or even health checkups if the
practice is provided through a youth community center.
A youth community center can also be a place of safety, it would be a place for a child to
be who they want to be without any judgement and worry about a bully or someone forcing them
to change to something or somebody they are not. It would be a great place for a child or teen
with a disability to either get extra help with school work that may or may not be provided or
obtainable due to more money needed through programs in school that they go to on a regular
basis. It would also possibly be a place for a child or teen dealing with their identity or sexuality,
such as a child discovering they are not comfortable being the gender they are and would like to
become the opposing to learn that is becoming a transsexual. Or in another situation where there
is a teen that is constantly bullied over being homosexual at school or even tormented by their
parents that try to have them turn heterosexual though abrasive means, the center could easily
become a place for them of refuge and help. A youth community center that is well adapted to
current issues is a great youth community center because it would know how to treat each
situation with the greatest amount of knowledge and understanding without possibly becoming
another place where an adolescent would be turned away for way they are, what they believe in,
and what they love.

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Conclusion
Do you feel safe now? Better educated? If a child would say yes to those, you would
know that they were treated well by a youth community center when they needed it most. Youth
community centers are more beneficial for children than anything else, especially when there is
an easily addable building for them to come to. Youth community centers produce a welcoming
environment that help children and teens succeed in school, surpass struggles, and overcome
hostilities that could arise at school or at home. Knowing this, it would be more than likely these
would spread to more cities and towns that would need a youth community center within for its
adolescents for years to come.

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References
BUILD chicago. (2015, January 1). Chicago Youth. Retrieved March 1, 2015, from
http://www.buildchicago.org/programs
Developing a Successful Street Outreach Program: Recommendations and Lessons Learned.
(2009, October 1). Retrieved March 19, 2015, from
http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/8054
Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., & Pachan, M. (2010). A meta-analysis of after-school programs
that seek to promote personal and social skills in children and adolescents. American
journal of community psychology, 45(3-4), 294-309.
Establishing Youth Organizations. (2014, January 1). Retrieved March 19, 2015, from
http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/implement/provide-information-enhanceskills/youth-organizations/main
The Habits of Highly Successful Outreach Programs. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2015, from
http://ncfy.acf.hhs.gov/features/serving-youth-economic-downturn/habits-highlysuccessful-outreach-programs
The Impact of Youth Development Programs on Student Academic Achievement. (n.d.).
Retrieved March 19, 2015, from
http://nationalassembly.org/Knowledge/documents/SchoolSuccessBrief.pdf
Our History. Boys and Girls Club, (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2015, from
http://www.bgca.org/whoweare/Pages/History.aspx
Zuurmond, M., Geary, R., & Ross, D. (2012). The Effectiveness of Youth Centers in Increasing
Use of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services: A Systematic Review. Studies in
Family Planning, Vol. 43(Is.4), 239-254. Retrieved March 23, 2015, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23409221