Teen & Young Adults

Access For Young Women

For over 20 years, Access for Young Women (AFYW) has been providing valuable leadership opportunities to young women ages 12-18. The program has demonstrated proven results in increasing girls’ self-esteem, academic performance, leadership skills, and knowledge of gender issues.

AFYW provides an intensive 30-week leadership development curriculum that includes training in public speaking, problem solving, goal setting, and critical thinking. The young women also address important issues affecting their lives such as body image, identity, global issues, relationships, and social media. The program culminates with an Annual Youth Leadership Conference organized and facilitated by the young women to educate their peers and spread awareness on issues of importance to them.

Beacon Programming

Beacon youth programs are designed to help participants acquire the skills and attitudes they need to succeed in school and give back to the community. The program is intended to build:

• Academic Enhancement: tutoring, homework help, reading clubs, and financial literacy
• Life Skills: activities designed to increase personal responsibility, self-esteem, and confidence.
• Civic Engagement/Community Building: leadership skills, community awareness, and civic responsibility.
• College/Career Guidance: exploration of post-secondary educational and career opportunties 

QCH operates three Beacon programs:

• J.H.S. 190 (Russelll Sage)
• M.S. 210
• P.S. 149

All three locations provide free, year-round programming for youth ages 6-21, with specific programming for teens offered Monday-Friday evenings.

Generation Q LGBTQ+ Center

Generation Q is an after-school youth center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth and allies, between the ages of 13 and 21. The program offers LGBTQ youth a friendly, safe environment with a wide variety of educational and recreational opportunities, as well as social and emotional support. Through the program, participants are connected with meaningful opportunities for advocacy and activism, peer education, community building, and leadership. Generation Q also offers workshops, support groups, counseling, field trips, art-based programming, and more.

Evening Teen Drop-in Centers

QCH has an Evening Teen Drop-in Centers at two locations: our Forest Hills Community Center and Pomonok Community Center. We provide youth development-focused athletics, recreation and educational activities to engage young people in safe, supervised, and structured activities during evening hours. Primary activities include pick-up athletic basketball, volleyball, and soccer, fitness and art activities including boxing classes, gaming, and field trips. The groups promote teen issues, life skills, critical thinking, decision making and pursuit of higher education and lifelong learning. Youth are also connected to QCH’s various youth employment and college access services.

Youth Development Center at Newtown High School

This school-based program offers high school youth a variety of year-round activities, including individual and group counseling, academic enrichment, and credit-bearing classes. This program supports 9th & 10th graders in their transition to high school and in their promotion to the next grade level.   

Summer Video and Photography Program

The Summer Video & Photography (SVP) Program introduces young women ages 11-18 to a form of the visual arts through which they can explore creative expression. Each week, participants explore themes matched with the basics of photography. Participants learn about composition, lighting, flash modes, vantage points and abstract photography. All of the techniques and skills are then used in activities and on field trips around the city. Participating girls come up with a theme at the start of the summer which then carries through all trips and activities and culminates with a public art exhibit at program's end.

Food Justice Youth Leadership Program

The Youth Food Justice Leadership Program (YFJ) is a comprehensive after school food justice program grounded in activism, critical thinking, and community service. Complete with leadership training, gardening, cooking demonstrations, taste testing, and opportunities to make new friends and make an impact on our community, YFJ has something for everyone.

YFJ is centered around a 24-week curriculum that promotes understanding and solutions to food access issues among middle school and high school youth. Building off the curriculum, action projects are used as platforms for learning and to empower youth as agents of change. YFJ seeks to:

• Provide opportunities for youth to learn about food systems and the importance of eating healthy
• Build a corps of youth who are able to think critically about food access in their community and to act as advocates and leaders to improve healthy eating in their neighborhoods;
• Provide experiences of growing food to urban youth who would not otherwise have access.