Founded in 1990, The Teen Center USA - Elk Grove was formed to communicate the importance of education, public responsibility, and physical fitness for the youth that we serve. The Teen Center has provided the core developmental building blocks for our community's teens' mental, physical, social, and spiritual well-being for over twenty-five years. To achieve this goal, we have focused on supporting our youth through teen empowerment and boundary management. We also have high expectations for the youth that are involved in our program. Specifically, we work to ensure that our program participants use their time constructively, are committed to learning and are building solid values, self-esteem, and most importantly, their character.
The Teen Center has established positive relationships with hundreds of area teens each year, by providing them with a place to gather, sending them a positive message of truth and helping them to change the direction of their lives. The work of the teen center has been possible through partnerships with the City of Elk Grove, the Elk Grove Police Department, and several other community-based organizations in Elk Grove.
Although we are proud of the work we have done, our community educators and civic leaders continue to be concerned about the number of teens at risk in the Elk Grove area. In fact, given the explosive growth of the Elk Grove community, there are many more teens than ever that are at risk. Specifically, more youth in our community are exposed to negative influences such as violent crime, child abuse, drugs, and poverty. As a result, many of these youth feel they are helpless to change their circumstance and feel their future is hopeless. The challenge we face is to find ways to help reduce the impact of these risk factors by identifying programs that can help to protect these children. As a result, we feel our programs are invaluable not only to the youth that we serve but also to the overall Elk Grove community.