Latin American Youth Center
3045 15th Street, NWWashingtonDC20009202-319-2225202-462-5696

Program: Arts for Prevention and Development Year Started: 1968 Focus: Multidisciplinary Arts Youth Served: 500 Ages: 11-21 Budget: $35,000 The Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) provides youth in a predominantly Latino neighborhood of Washington, DC, with a range of services, including social services, health education, outreach and prevention and skills training and employment services. It also offers youth a variety of arts experiences. Through the arts, youth at the LAYC explore their heritage, build critical thinking skills and develop work and personal skills. The LAYC's Teen Parents program meets 3 days a week for 2 hours to promote good parenting skills and to prevent repeat pregnancies. Young women in the program have created self-portraits, woodcuts and prints, as well as baskets. These arts activities help to keep the teens active in other components of the program, such as counseling and general equivalency diploma preparation. Participants in the ongoing Gang Prevention program recently completed a video called Que Pasa, which reflects their view on Latino stereotypes and documents their challenges and hopes for the future. The video is being shown at schools, universities and conferences as a way to promote cultural understanding. The Youth Center, in conjunction with a Washington, DC, youth employment program, operates a 6-week daily summer art project that engages students in theater, photography, creative writing or mural painting. These arts activities address such topics as diversity, immigration, cultural values and other issues important to youth.