Teenage Kicks

As part of our goals for the teen center Shawn, Mike, and Erik have been holding monthly events outside of regular teen center hours. This month's event was a party, organized and mostly run by the teens themselves. The party was highly successful, but as we debriefed afterward and found that most of the attendees were male, ideas came up about trying to have afternoon or earlier events for those teens with early curfews.

Here's a short recap from Mike about the event!

"This past Saturday, we had our second teen center party. Much like the first, the teens planned and prepared all aspects of the party- invitations, DJ, music equipment, cover charge, and advertising. An addition to this party was a rifa, or raffle, in which we provided a ticket to every person who paid to enter the party. The hard work of the teens paid off, as we had more than 30 people come and pay, as well as a number of new people to the Teen Center. Special thanks go out to Christian, for getting the music equipment; Dario, for helping Erik with the rifa; and Pammy, for keeping everybody in line. "

The 'auditorium' all set up for the party (pictures courtesy of Christian)

Mike and Pammy pause for a photo

Christian and Grace jam out to the DJ

Other teen goings on include an after school homework help (apoyo escolar) for math and reading run by two of our most active teens, Christian and Pammy. As library attendance drooped this month, parents informed us that their kids need to focus on school and that we don't offer enough scholarly activities outside of English class. Simultaneously a couple of teens wanted to get more involved in the centro, and so far these study sessions have been going really well. Eventually, we'd like to try and fuse some of our teen trips and kid's paseos together to encourage interaction and give the kids some good role models outside of the library.

youthfully yours,
Jackie