The Redding Teen Center was established in 2022 to support the youth in the City of Redding and outlying areas. The Teen Center serves teens ages 13-17 (and 18 if still enrolled in high school). The Teen Center engages youth in activities that contribute toward their growth into responsible and caring members of the Redding community. Through their programs, teens learn to identify their strengths and build upon those strengths when making decisions and personal choices. The Redding Teen Center provides a second home to many youths in our community, offering leadership, recreation, artistic and education programs and activities. The Redding Teen Center is a program of Pathways to Hope for Children (a Teen Center in Anderson was also established by this program in 2001). Activities offered at the Redding Teen Center: • Free snack every day • Cooking classes • Peer Support Groups • Computer Access • Board Games • Video Games • Air Hockey • Pool Tables • Job readiness and application help • Financial literacy classes • And Much more! Hope Park Pathways to Hope for Children recruited older adult volunteers (60+) that agreed to participate in high adventure activities, meaningful engagement with teens, and commit to staffing the teen center from the hours of 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. with a minimum of four hours a week. All older volunteers were required to complete a volunteer academy with a minimum of 20 hours of training that included: mental health first aid for youth, suicide awareness, motivational interviewing, mentoring, healthy relationships, teen dating violence, sexual assault prevention and intervention, domestic violence awareness, mandated child abuse reporter training, the 40-Developmental Assets, Hope theory, and much more. The volunteer older adults also agreed to a background check, were fingerprinted, and cleared through the National Sex Offender Registry before interacting with youth. The teens and older adults will participate together in high adventure activities such as whitewater river rafting, high-ropes course, hiking, boating, and more. These shared experiences will create a bond that will allow for each generation to benefit. Michael Burke, Executive Director of Project Hope for Children, expressed a need for a multi-seated passenger van to transport students to and from the teen centers in Redding and Anderson, and also to transport students to the high adventure activities listed above in the Park Hope Project. It is the intention of Redding Rotary, partnering with Anderson Rotary, and Riverview-Sunset Rotary to purchase a multi-seated passenger van for Project Hope for Children.
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