Educating our Future

Educating our Future is a project that became my passion upon taking the job as Adolescent Program Coordinator at the West Side YMCA. Working with teens and having been a teen not too long ago myself, I realize the need for programs that are geared toward educating teens about life. Teens need direction, they need to understand why it is important to stay in school, to pursue higher education or some sort of secondary training, they need to sex education and awreness training, they need to understand the affects of drug and alcohol abuse. Seeing these areas of concern made me start reaching out and educating the young people that are our future. I have put together numerous college fairs, career weeks, sex ed workshops, community service projects, awareness and counseling services to help educate our youth. We have collaborated with New York Cares, The Door, MTV, Oxygen television network, ABC, and others to help educate our young people here at the YMCA. I have seen an increase in our teens attendance at school, when I last collected their report cards most of them have made drastic imporvememts, and they are all taking a safer approach when it comes to sex. Educating our future is truly my passion and my cause!!