YMCA YOUTH & FAMILY SERVICES                                                                   SERVICES AND PROGRAMS

Community Based Program Centers
Our community based centers are established to provide support for some of the areas more underserved communities. Services include after school programs for children and teens, adult services and classes, community computer access, also community meetings and education.                                                               

                                                          
Out-of-School Time Programs
Our community based program site host an array of out-of-schoo time programs that include: homework assistance and academic enrichment, literacy groups, youth development and life skill activities, sports and recreation, group and coorperative games, multimedia and arts activities, as well as field trips.                

Counseling
We provide counseling for individuals, families, and groups.  Our master's level counselors help build on existing strengths while teaching new ways to cope with today's situations.  Groups are offered according to community and school needs such as: Acculturation, Bullying, Anger Management, Loss and Grief, Parenting Support, and Social Skills.

Horizons
In this therapeutic adventure program, an experiential education model is used to develop trust, promote teamwork, and build self-confidence.  These themes are woven into activities such as games and initiatives, white water rafting, rock climbing, rappelling, caving, and ropes courses.  Through challenging activities, teens learn new ways to handle the personal and social challenges of adolescence.  Horizons also provides a Friday Night Climbing Wall that allows youth and families the unique opportunity to spend time together, strengthening their relationships.

Outreach
Our multicultural and bilingual staff reaches out to make contact with at-risk youth and their parents through local schools and the community.  Through successful collaborations with schools, county government, and community organizations YFS helps address the needs of youth and their families and respond to problems as they arise, such as cooperative playgrounds, bus behavior intervention, and classroom meeting trainings.

Parent Education
Professional staff and trained parent volunteer leaders provide workshops and classes that help parents to be more effective in parent-child and/or parent-teen relationships.  We offer our workshops at libraries and at PTA and school sponsored programs that are tailored to fit the needs of the community.                                                                                                                                  

Youth  Education
Youth Workshops, presentations, and groups are provided through area schools on a range of topics such as stress management, effective social skills, anger management, depression, suicide, substance abuse, and anti-bullying.

Y's Words: Parenting Children and Parenting Teens                                      Workshops and classes are available for parents of preschool through high school age children to explore such topics as bedtime/morning struggles, lying, chores and sibling fighting. Parents will learn to identify the purpose of a child's misbehavior and develop effective discipline and encouragement strategies for positively redirecting these behaviors. These programs offer parents an opportunity to become familiar with the concepts of logical and natural consequences, mutual respect, encouragement, and goals of misbehavior. The group discussion format teaches skills to help improve parent/teen relations, develop teenage self-esteem, and promote responsible teenage behavior at home, in school, and in the community.

CLICK HERE* for the summer 2010 parent education schedule.

School Based Services
Mental health and case management services are offered through a collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services and Montgomery County Public Schools at YMCA Linkages to Learning sites in eleven area schools.  YMCA Linkages to Learning staff work closely with families to improve social, economic, health, and emotional issues that interfere with the academic success of the child.

Service Coordination
Case management, crisis intervention, resource information, and referrals are available to youth, families, schools, and communities.

PROGRAMS
Ambassadors Study Circles
Collaborating with Montgomery County Public Schools, youth will participate in discussions focusing on race and ethnicity and how it affects student achievement. Dialogue and cultural competence will develop among teens from different backgrounds.

After School Activities Project
ASAP is offered to middle school and high school aged youth. ESOL acculturation during and after school; Go Girls, a group designed to target at-risk females and provide programs that improve their self esteem.

Building on Strengths
BOSS students with learning differences improve competency in problem solving and thinking skills.  Youth learn to take responsibility for actions, be considerate of others, and work together to reach individual and group goals.  Parents learn ways to help students become successful.  Volunteer tutors work with students individually.

Community Connections
This program is comprised of three components:
• Recreation (in collaboration with MCPS and MCRD) -- targeting students that are below the 2.0 grade-point average to foster school attachment and decrease truancy
• Academic Support -- addressing academic performance and the achievement gap through tutoring and mentoring.
• Parenting/Community Component -- geared towards increasing parent/community involvement through outreach with programs like "Conquista tus Suensos."

Horizons
YFS delivers on site school intervention programs to address climate issues at the school, specifically bullying, conflict resolution, and integration among groups.  Cooperative playgrounds, bus behavior intervention, and classroom meeting trainings are examples of services provided to schools in order to address the issues of concern to that community.

Linkages to Learning
Mental health and case management services are offered in eleven schools in the Blair, Springbrook, and Paint Branch Clusters.  Linkages staff work closely with families to improve social, economic, health, and emotional issues that interfere with the academic success of the child.

Mentoring Program
This is a multi-agency collaborative initiative among Montgomery County Public Schools, the Department of Health & Human Services, the Department of Juvenile Services, and the Circuit Court of Montgomery County.  The mission is to match court involved youth with adult mentors who would establish a caring, trusted, and committed relationship and provide support, friendship, counsel, reinforcement, and serve as positive role models to the young people. YMCA mentors will help the young people cope with their life circumstances and develop the life-skills needed to make positive choices. If you are interested in becoming a Mentor, please call Ottoniel Perez at 301-587-5700 x2574 or email: yfsemail@ymcadc.org.      

Smart Choices
Middle and high school students, female and male, learn decision-making skills relating to sexual relationships, drugs, friendships, family, and school conflict.  They meet as a group to support each other in the role of parent and a student.  The goal is for the young parents to complete high school and have a forum to discuss issues that may impede their progress.

Sports Mentoring
This program offers young people an opportunity to bond with positive role models while participating in an activity they enjoy.  While competing with a team, participants learn to build relationships with peers.

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