Financial Literacy

AAYCC will implement the ECONOMIS program which takes the mini-economy to the next level with an online portal similar to online banking where the youth will manage their own bank accounts with Learning Center dollars and utilize a personal ATM card to check their balance and make purchases in our store.

Throughout the entire year, we encourage the youth’s achievements and good behavior with a mini-economy system at our Learning Center. Each youth has a weekly job at the center to help everything run efficiently.  The youth earn Learning Center Dollars for completing their jobs and for exemplifying good behavior, and they must pay dollars when they do not follow the rules or obey their teachers and mentors.  At the end of the week, the youth can use their dollars to purchase items in our store or they can save it for something that costs more than they currently have earned.

Programs for Families

 A component of the AAYCC mission also includes gaining the trust of the parents and building a bridge between the youth and the family, as well as between the family and the community.  We realize that while the students spend four hours each day with us, they spend a disproportionate amount of their week in households that often possess negative influences.  In order to bridge this gap and strengthen their home life, AAYCC offers ongoing programs and relationship-building events for the families of the youth attending the Learning Center including: Thanksgiving Feast, Christmas Celebration, Mother’s Day Dinner, financial management seminars, and effective parenting sessions. These events along with regular parent-teacher conferences function as powerful tools for community-building that allow us to connect with the families of the youth at the Learning Center.

AAYCC will:

• Strengthen families through collaboration and coordination with community support.
• Use family members and their support system(s) as equal partners in the decision-making process.
• Integrate interventions with family supports and other indigenous community-based services.
• Facilitate cooperation and dialogue of professionals and other community-based resources.
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these services.
• Establish a well-defined collaboration with Site Based Management.
• Provide working residents with assessable services through extended evening hours once a week.
• Provide Crisis Intervention to those families in immediate need of services during non-traditional hours

The family participates as a full partner in all stages of the decision-making and individual service planning process.

This interactive program is designed to give parents a gateway to understanding and visualizing their role as parents and focus on the needs of their youth.  By using a psycho-educational approach, our Parenting Classes focus on enhancing the youth’s ability to function within his/her family and how to improve the parental relationship to provide a nurturing non-threatening home environment. Classes are suited for all parents, stepparents, grandparents, or others that directly or indirectly influence decisions about youth.

Benefits youth by:

• Creating respectful attitudes
• Teaching independence skills
• Building high self esteem
• Creating a more relaxed home atmosphere
• Assurance of safety

Benefits parents by:

• Providing life management tools designed to help families
• Teaching effective communication skills
• Fostering sensitivity to the youth’s needs and feelings
• Creating discipline that works
• Establishing the long-term benefits of parenting
• Establishing structure for the family
• Create a foundation to be the example for their youth

Classes will cover:

• Building self-esteem
• Communication skills
• Depression
• Discipline issues
• Effective parenting
• Parenting issues relating to specific developmental stages
• Stress

Teaching youth responsibility

AAYCC’s goal is to assist the target audience in becoming responsible and respected members of their communities. The aim is to decrease the high-school dropout rate and increase the rate of employment by providing individuals with a solid educational platform and the skills necessary to gain control over their own lives and environments.