Helping Youth by Providing Education
Helping underserved populations. Teen HYPE prides itself on its inclusion of ALL youth. Selection criteria is not based on academic achievement but rather the premise that all youth bring assets on which to build. Teens are selected through an interview process to become peer educators. Simply put, peer educators are young people who help fellow youth help themselves. They provide mentorship, education, and support through the Teen H.Y.P.E. program.
Youth learning through leadership. Using theatre, our peer educators fuse innovative form with relevant content to create these educational and entertaining productions. Performances include a series of scenes and music that employ humor and address commonly experienced youth pressures and challenges. Past productions have explored career aspirations, positive decision-making, violence, healthy relationships, HIV and sexually transmitted infections.
Each year, peer educators complete a variety of community projects that promote learning and active participation. Youth learn about an issue in their community and then work strategically on a project to address the issue and impact change within our community.
Providing developmental opportunities. Teen HYPE provides activities geared to stimulate knowledge of the world in which we live & those social issues that put youth at risk. We believe that learning about behavior that leads to success as well as behaviors that lead to failure are essential to healthy development.
Peer educators are exposed to field trips and guest speakers that encourage the development of citizenship and cultural competency.
Educational Achievement. Our youth driven model empowers youth to realize their full potential and be successful adults through achieving academic, personal and professional goals. Utilizing innovative education, service development and support services, selected peer educators develop competency-based skills through trainings outside of regular school hours.
