PROGRAMS WE OFFER
In a survey of 40 LHYC students conducted in April, 78% of the students said they have one or both parents addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.
Youth Development
The Life House Youth Center is completely free for all students that are enrolled at our facility. We want them to feel safe as well as grow in tangible soft and hard skills. The goal of this program is that our students would discover their gifts and unique abilities, learn a new skill or hobby, and learn goal planning.
Our students are also constantly growing in there inner character and respect that they show to others in the lives. Our "number one form of payment to be at the Center is Respect" so we teach our students that it is important to respect themselves and others.
The students learn how to build good character through the rules and staff at the LHYC helping them learn the true importance of respect. Students are actively taught the importance of accoutnabitliy. Students also learn how to cope with situations in their lives and we have specific programming to help them abstain from underage sex, alcohol abuse, and illicit drug abuse. In order to obtain this we have art projects, money management classes, cultural considerations, life skills classes, etc...
Student Leadership
Our goal of the Student Leadership Program is that our students will learn responsibility, compassion, accountability and how to be good leaders. We have developed an extensive Student Leadership program where we train older students to be competent leaders and train them to help lead and guide our younger students. Students take specific classes on how to be an effective leader and they use that to help lead different areas within the Youth Center.
Healthy Living
At the Life House Youth Center we are focused on our students being able to become comfortable with their surroundings by becoming comfortable with themselves. We are dedicated to uplifting our students and teaching them skills to take care of themselves. We do this by giving free opportunities to go to Sullivan CrossFit and get in a good sweat because we believe that fitness helps in more ways than one. We also have an amazing cooking program where our students learn how to prepare, cook, serve, and cleanup for a meal. They learn the basics of the kitchen so that they can help out at home and cook for themselves as they get older. Students are offered this program nightly at the LHYC.
Mentoring
The LHYC does not simply offer mentoring within our facility, we are a mentoring facility. We desire that all of our students would have a mentor with a trained and consistent adult. We train our mentors how to be a mentor and that true change happens with appropriate, intimate and intentional relationships. We build lasting and healthy relationships with adult mentors and students. Mentored youth will feel a sense of empowerment and create a positive identity. Youth will increase their constructive use of free time, academic performance in grades, and have better school attendance.
Community Outreach
At the LHYC we want our students to know the importance of serving their very own community. We offer our students and volunteers the opportunity to once a month serve the community in which they live. We have gone to local churches to help with setup for big events, we go to personal residents of people who need help with various outdoor/indoor work, we pickup trash within our community to help make our city more beautiful. We do this so that our student have the opportunity to feel ownership in their city and take pride in where they live. Students also learn kindness, courtesy, and compassion which encourages them to stay a positive part of their own community.
Tutoring
At the Life House Youth Center we are dedicated on making sure that our students have the best chance for success. We believe that education is the vehicle to the future. The understanding is real that students statistically have trouble with math, science, and history and in order to fill this gap LHYC has a mandatory 30-minute reading/homework time. The goal in this time is that our students can work for or sustain a 2.0 GPA in their grade in turn boosting their individual confidence and giving them a deeper desire to go to school and get to prepare for the future. We offer daily in house tutors to help our students achieve this goal. The LHYC provides tutors on an "as needed" basis.
"Between 2011 and 2017, the number of cases involving drugs has increased by over 500%" -Sullivan PD