PEAK Center
Transforming Teens from a Community Liability to a Community
Asset
The PEAK (Pursuing Excellence and Achievement in Kids)
Center opened in January 2008 to serve teenagers and young
adults ages 13-21 in Mount Vernon. Lessons learned from
serving adolescents at the Coachman Family Center and the
Elm Street Neighborhood Center guide the PEAK Center, ensuring
that we provide the best services possible to meet Mount
Vernon teens' needs.
Services include daily academic support, a full-service
computer lab, college counseling, employment assistance,
gender-specific support groups, culturally enriching activities
and field trips, and the Step Up! youth and police training
initiative.
Although still in its very early days, local teens are
pouring in to the PEAK, as they see that it is a safe place
to learn from supportive, caring adults and where they can
begin to set constructive goals for their futures. Staff
and teens together are making the PEAK prosper. By showing
consistently dignifying behavior toward participating youth,
the staff gain their trust, and are thus able to begin to
empower them to step up to the challenge of allowing themselves
to dream, and assuming responsibility to take the necessary
steps (with support) to achieve their dreams.
The PEAK Center represents an alternative to street life
and gang involvement. Mount Vernon teens are quickly gravitating
to the program as they seek opportunities to improve their
lives and futures. We let every young person who enters
the door know: It is okay to dream.
