Teen Health Café Launches with Great Success!

The Teen Health Café is a youth-led initiative that aims to provide a safe haven for teens to interact, learn and become active in their communities. Located at Penrose Recreation Center (12th & Susquahannah), the Café also seeks to become a hub for other organizations that wish to serve youth and the community. As such, the Café will feature numerous events designed to attract youth and other community members to the Penrose Playground.

The first event took place on Friday February 13th. It featured a workshop on healthy relationships, led by a guest speaker from Women Against Abuse. The youth prepared games and other fun activities designed to encourage youth to socialize in a safe, welcoming and informative environment.

In support of the National Girls AIDS Awareness Day the Teen Health Café is partnering with St Christopher’s Hospital to host a workshop on HIV prevention with special conversation sessions for girls and boys. The event will take place on March 10th, from 4:30 to 6:30 at Temple University, in the Women's Studies Lounge, 8th floor of Anderson Hall, 1114 W. Berks St. The next Teen Health Café is scheduled for March 20th at Penrose Playground, 12th and Susquahannah, at 4:30pm.

The Teen Health Café emerged from a series of conversations between the UCCP, Temple faculty, Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education and Greater Philadelphia Federation of Settlements. Under the guidance and mentoring of UCCP staff and Temple students, youth participants from these organizations have been meeting weekly to develop the Teen Health Café. As part of their planning process, they met with students from the Fox School of Business at Temple to gain a better understanding of business plans and sustainable business practices, visited farmers’ markets, spoke with the vendors, conducted research on other similar initiatives, and identified possible funding sources.

For more information, contact Catalina Gonzalez at catalina.gonzalez@temple.edu.