What We Do
Community Center Recreation
Youth At Heart offers a wide variety of activities at nine Tulsa Housing Authority community centers. Community Center Supervisors do a tremendous job recruiting participants of all ages to attend activities. They work with YAH Enrichment staff and community volunteers to make each center a safe and encouraging environment. Relationships are built that give confidence to the youth.
Youth learn cooperation during free and supervised play at the centers. Their creativity is also stimulated when they complete a variety of art projects. Center activities include:
• Arts and crafts
• Board and table games
• Dance, aerobics and drill teams
• Group games and creative play
• Health, safety and nutrition classes
• Movie time
• Special holiday events and social gatherings
YAH partners with other United Way agencies and service providers to deliver a variety of wholesome programs. Community center partners include:
• Boy Scouts of America
• Girl Scouts of America
• 4-H (curriculum and club material)
• Modern Woodmen of America (curriculum)
• One Accord Drill Team
• Tulsa Public Schools (summer lunch and snacks)
Education and Enrichment
Kids Club, teen mentor training, and tutoring are key programs run by the Education and Enrichment Department.
Kids Club is a weekly activity where children receive character training and life skills through inter-active instruction, games, music, and crafts. Self-discipline, respecting diversity, integrity, and service to the community are the four character principles emphasized throughout the year. The principles are further reinforced on bi-monthly field trips and regular service projects.
Teens attend weekly Teen Mentor Training to learn leadership skills, and about opportunities for higher education and promising careers. Enrichment staff and mentors provide students interactive classroom instruction, field trips and opportunities for service learning.
Youth attend weekly Tutoring Sessions to receive help with home work and to improve their skills in Math and Language Arts. YAH teams with a host of community partners to offer academic assistance for the children and teens during the school year. Faithful volunteers and instructors provide students individualized instruction and encourage them to be successful in life. Current partners include:
• Asbury United Methodist Church
• Christ United Methodist Church
• Friendship Church
• Osage Christian Church
• Victory Diagnostic Learning Center
• Tulsa Community College
• Tulsa Dream Center
Sports Program
Youth At Heart offers a year-around sports program that provides our youth valuable physical training and the opportunity to improve their skill level in a variety of sports.
Youth develop confidence, and have fun while playing. They also learn teamwork and good sportsmanship from coaches and mentors who teach them character lessons during practice sessions, game time, and other outdoor sports activities.
Youth participate in the following sports and outdoor adventures:
• Baseball and T-ball
• Basketball
• Bowling (recreational)
• Fishing
• Golf
• Overnight Back Packing
• Soccer
• Swimming (recreational)
• Tennis
Youth learn leadership in the sports program by serving as junior coaches and referees.
YAH collaborates with a number of partners to provide our youth the optimum sports challenge. Partners include:
• Baseball Tomorrow
• First Serve of Tulsa
• First Tee of Tulsa
• Junior League of Tulsa
• My Long Walk
• United States Junior Olympics
• United States Tennis Association
Summer Camp and Missions
Each summer YAH participants take a few days to escape from city life and experience overnight camping at an area camp site such as Shepherd’s Fold Ranch in Avant, OK, and Camp Tulakogee in Wagoner, OK. Horseback riding, canoeing, swimming, and team games are just a few of the activities that are offered. Youth also make crafts and attend character-building workshops.
YAH teens get a number of opportunities to help their fellow man. Over the years they have joined student groups from partner churches like Asbury United Methodist Church and First United Methodist Church on trips to impoverished areas in the United States and Mexico. The mission teams usually spend Spring break or a couple of weeks in the summer repairing homes, cleaning up neighborhoods, feeding the homeless, and working with community children.