VYDC

Our Approach and Programs

With a 25-year history of providing culturally competent services to Southeast Asian youth, VYDC possesses the knowledge, resources and expertise to develop effective programming for the Southeast Asian youth community. We have created many projects and programs to inspire youth to address the lack of community leadership and involvement, cultural pride, academic and career development, interpersonal relationship and intrapersonal relationship skills, as well as provide recreational activities. A 1997 publication of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and National Endowment for the Arts recognized our program as a model for community building and prevention.

VYDC is greatly invested in the youth development approach and its principles. In the past few years, VYDC had an opportunity to re-evaluate our program strategies within a standardized youth development framework. This process served to affirm the validity of basic approach, which was developed over 15 years ago. The best practices implemented in our program include: utilizing both structured learning and experiential activities to create a broad range of skills building opportunities for youth, having a low staff to youth ratio, providing youth with opportunities for leadership and meaningful participation, developing a caring and supportive environment through adult staff and artist-mentors, and recognizing that the growth and success of youth and communities are interconnected. These techniques allow us to connect with the youth in a non-threatening and supportive manner. Through this connection we are able to influence them to become strong leaders and role models in their community and neighborhood.

Currently, of the 12 staff members, half were former youth participants. We have staffs that are multi-lingual in most of the Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander languages. All of the staff stay updated on the many issues of youth development, substance abuse, education, and juvenile justice issues, just to name a few.

The core of VYDC's approach is to:

• support and value young people;
• promote their strengths and talents;
• advocate for opportunities through which they can become effective leaders and contributors to the larger community; and
• reinforce the worth of culture, tradition and diversity.

Over the years, VYDC has grown to serve an increasingly diverse population of immigrant youth from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos — from refugee children who fled war-ravaged regions of Southeast Asia to arrive in a new country that was little more prepared for them than they were for it, to a new generation of American-born children.

Programs and Activities

VYDC fosters the development of healthy individuals, healthy families and a healthy community by offering a program of integrated youth development services:

• employment training
• case management
• mental health
• substance abuse prevention
• delinquency prevention
• educational counseling
• tutoring
• after-school services
• leadership training
• recreational activities
• arts and media programs
• school-site support service

We serve over 650 youth each year, providing constructive activities that effect positive change in their world — at home, at school, in their neighborhoods.

More on our programs »

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