Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pa. opens teen center Downtown
New Pittsburgh Courier- The New Pittsburgh Courier has learned that Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania has opened a “CLUB Teen Center” in Downtown Pittsburgh, at 600 Liberty Avenue. The center is housed in the former Pittsburgh Police mini-substation. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has since relocated to a larger Downtown hub on Wood Street.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania President & CEO Chris Watts said the organization “landed on a partner in the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, who does so much and has done so much for Downtown, the vibrancy of Downtown, but also is a mission-aligned organization that cares about all Downtown users and teens specifically, knowing that unsupervised teens and teens without options are going to be kids. And when they’re kids, there might be things that go on, and programs like the Boys & Girls Club can help address some of that.”
When the next generation is supported, their needs are met, and their dreams are encouraged, things begin to change. Youth-on-youth violence lessens, mental health improves, safe spaces are cultivated, and dreams are actualized. Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania aims to be part of the solution.
The “CLUB Teen Center” Downtown is open from 3 to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday, to kids and high-schoolers attending any school.
Watts and his team at the “CLUB Teen Center” have spearheaded a myriad of programming that Watts said has resulted in a positive impact on the youth.
“Our Boys & Girls Clubs have a signature career works program that helps teach teens the essential skills that they may need to pursue career opportunities. It’s a more curriculum-driven program, but we also bring in opportunities to them in different sectors or experiences that they might be interested in,” Watts told the Courier. “We call them ‘pathways initiatives,’ different pathways that they can explore, whether that’s in healthcare or business or tech, or artificial intelligence or real estate, or design and architecture.”
The center is not a drop-in site; it requires registration. The program manager for the Downtown teen location is Ti’Yanna Risher, who can be reached at 412-745-4810. Risher’s email is: trisher@bgcwpa.org.
“My team is awesome, and the team that runs the teen center really are the crew that keeps us going,” Watts said about Risher and others involved Downtown. Watts said Risher “does a wonderful job of connecting with the teens and facilitating opportunities. You can have a program, but they’re not going to come unless it’s a cool place for them and people that care about them.”
“One of the big things about our teen programming is that we don’t charge our teens anything to participate,” Watts continued. “In fact, we offer them a stipend for participating in programming and meeting expectations and so there’s some commitment that is required to engage, and that’s actually really helped teens in our program because we’re competing with everything. We’re competing with jobs, we’re competing with home life, we’re competing with things that they may feel are more interesting with their friends…”
Watts also said that teens are offered financial literacy classes, along with classes on dealing with peer-to-peer relationships and possible conflicts.
“We were fortunate to receive a grant from Pennsylvania Commission of Crime and Delinquency, PCCD, which is chaired by Lt. Governor Austin Davis, who’s also a Boys & Girls Club kid,” Watts told the Courier. “We’re really fortunate to get a grant from them to help us strengthen our mental health programming for our teens, and recently launched a new partnership with the Children’s Institute, who is helping provide that mental health support at our clubs.”
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