By Luis Chacon
If you are from Boyle Heights and you’d like to experience what it feels like to belong to a family that is all over the world and that cares for each of our little members, type "after school programs near me" in your search engine and as soon as you see Salesian Family Youth Center.
This is not just another after school program that exists in Boyle Heights, this building is a home where we share more than space and time, we share the Salesian educational model where education is a matter of the heart. We firmly believe that we must not only offer after school activities, but also offer a family environment where each one of the participants in the after school program becomes a co-responsible member of the family.
In this after school center we offer them a protected space where we invite each of the participants to be themselves and follow their dreams and goals in life. In this after school program, students have tutors trained to solve all the academic challenges that have been presented to them at school. They also have a space for organized play and recreation where students can further develop their social-emotional skills.
The schedule of our after school program begins at 1:00pm when we pick up the students from their schools while other students walk themselves to our center. They have recess until 2:30pm and then we meet to give thanks for the food. After that we engage in a motivational discourse (every day), we call this practice “good afternoon”. After lunch we have time to do academic homework; then we have a workshop (cooking workshop, art and crafts, dance, etc.). In the end games are organized by members of our staff and other times they are organized by the students themselves.
Within our after school activities we give students the opportunity to exercise their leadership skills by organizing various educational activities. We know that the key to changing the world is through love and education. For this reason we use our Salesian educational model where we educate with the heart and we not only love our students in a fraternal way, but we ensure that they feel and know that we care about them. Our after school program helps with academics but we also emphasize on the development of social-emotional skills and discovering and working towards their goals in life. Have you registered your children for the Salesian Family Youth Center yet? Come meet us!