YOUTH CENTER

CSC has come a long way in providing the growing population of Chinatown youth with programs that guide them towards positive endeavors and further them in their development as confident and contributing adults. In August of 2001, CSC formally opened a Youth Center facility across the street from our main offices, in order to give youth a place of their own. This comprehensive Youth Center is a place where youth can come to develop leadership skills, enrich themselves educationally, and empower themselves economically and politically in order to improve their own community. The Youth Center also provides a much-needed space in Chinatown for youth to hold weekly social events, as there was no such venue in Chinatown for youth to gather at prior to this.

The CSC Youth Center provides an array of workshops and activities. They center mainly on preparing our community’s youth both for higher education, for entering the workforce and for community involvement. Current CSC Youth Center programs include:

• Homework Hour – Youth get assistance on schoolwork and have computer access to research for their paper.
• Job Skills Workshops – youth learn required skills necessary in obtaining and keeping a job including resume writing, interviewing skills, career planning, and working with employer expectations.
• Operation Read – formal 40 hour of literacy tutoring program for high-risk youth in partnership with L.A. County Probation Department.
• Los Angeles Chinatown Youth Council (LACYC) – youth take an active role in determining the guidelines for the Youth Center, and in planning and hosting social and recreational events and interacting with other youth serving agencies.  Current projects include:
  • Bridging the Gap which enables local youth to learn about and appreciate the major Chinese and Latino cultures in the area. The goal is to have ouryouth to reach out to Latino youth and promote working together.
  • Student producers of and with the KCET Departures: Chinatown interactive documentary series, learning how to use multimedia tools for self exploration.

Click HERE to view segments of Lawrence J. Lue, CEO of the Chinatown Service Center, speaking on Chinatown and CSC.
Click HERE to view Individual segments about CSC Youth Center youth.
Click HERE to view Individual segments about about Chinatown, created by CSC Youth Center youth