SCO Off To College Program Holds Teen Wellness Expo

SCO’s Off To College program held its first Teen Wellness Expo in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Off To College engages seventh graders – college students, including GED students, in community service projects, career awareness, and college and other learning advancement preparations.

The program partnered with New Yorks Edge and Brownsville Academy High School, who hosted the event. The theme for this year’s Teen Wellness Expo was Inspiring Youth Toward Healthy Living.

A lot of care went into the planning and preparation of the event, so it would focus on the needs most relevant to the young people attending. Youth Leaders discussed a variety of challenges faced by pre-teens through young adults in their East New York, Brownsville, Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Bedford-Stuyvesant communities, and how these challenges impact their growth and development.

Once the areas of need were determined (Physical and Mental Health, Healthy Relationships and Healthy Ways to Cope), they sought community partners with expertise in those areas to share resources and facilitate workshops.

Partners included:

• Planned Parenthood of Greater New York – facilitating Healthy Relationship and Enthusiastic Consent workshops
• K’s Dance Academy – facilitating Afro/Caribbean Dance workshops
• Locs & Lit – donating books for reading
• Vanessa Moore, Master in Art – facilitating Paint & Sip workshops

Off To College Leaders served the dual role of organizers and participants of the event. Students and faculty of the Brownsville Academy, participants of the SCO Beacon at MS35, SCO Madonna Heights RTF youth, and teens from the surrounding communities attended the Teen Wellness Expo.

As the program’s last Community Service Project before the Summer, the Teen Wellness Expo provided the opportunity for the Leaders to strengthen relationships with their fellow Leaders. Current college students were able to serve alongside middle and high school Leaders. Some of the Leaders will be graduating high school and be off to college themselves in the fall, attending SUNY Oneonta and CUNY Hunter.