Youth Center

PORTSMOUTH HOUSING AUTHORITY RISK AND PREVENTION PROGRAM

The role of the Portsmouth Housing Authority Recreation program goes above and beyond the regular duties of an average recreation program.  Close observations of the serving communities has allowed us to determine the strengths and struggles of the serving families.  Daily social tasks can be hindered or negative influenced by the effects of poverty.  Most of our youth struggles daily with day to day decisions.  Dysfunctional behaviors arise out of frustration and luck of coping social skills.  Luck of intervention resources and absence of family support has created a chaos in the community life.  Upon the above observations we have been proactive to tailor a program unique to the needs not only for the children of the community, but the entire family unit.  Capitalizing on the strengths of each participant we are taking a more holistic approach to the entire matter. We invite children to participate in our programs, and with great care and respect we teach them the basic social skills of life.  Furthermore, high expectations and goals are continuously addressed to the children as tools of success.

Our primary goal is to reach out to the individual families and support them through their transitional housing period.  Parallel to the above, we strive to empower our youth and expose our families into educational, social and recreational opportunities which subcontionally going to enhance their decision making in life.  By planting the seed, we are hoping to awaken the spirit.   By supporting the entire family we are scaffolding a level of trust and success for their child who is at risk.  By supporting the entire nucleus family we allow each person of the family to witness the level of trust and care about their existence and their struggles.

We look at the strengths of the community and realize the full potential.  One of our main goals is to teach the family how to have, “ownership of their destiny.” By personally reaching out to each family, we allow ourselves to develop personal relationships which are so beneficial in every aspect of making a difference in the community.  It is through this great rapport that we have been able to support our community members. Our risk and prevention interventions entails a multifaceted program.  Targeted programs address the immediate needs of the community.  These targets are: drug and alcohol addiction, teen pregnancy, juvenile shop lifting, truancy, family values, mannerism,etc.  All our programs operate after school hours and on weekends.

Our focus is to educate the individual not only academically but socially too.  When a child has aquired all the nessacery social and academic skills to compete in the world, then the child and the family will be more successful.  Our goal is to provide opportunities for our youth to experience the beauty of the world, to set attainable goals and set steps for accomplishing these goals.