Lagos Youth Centre
To God Who Gives Joy and Purpose to My Youth
Our Lagos Youth Centre is a vibrant creative space where young people can access free educational, social and recreational programmes and activities. It is a positive and safe environment that serves as a ‘home away from home’ for our Youth Centre members. Here, they can hang out with friends, have a nutritious meal and participate in the enriching and developmental programmes and activities on offer.
Programmes at the Youth Centre run during the school term for 3 hours after school, with extended hours during school holidays.
OUR ACTIVITIES
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Our Health and Wellness classes are focused on introducing students to health topics that directly affect them. These include diet and exercise, mental health, sexual health, drug and alcohol abuse amongst others. We work with the Barack Obama American Corner to celebrate United Nations special days such as World AIDS Day and also provide special sessions open to member’s families.
EXTERNAL EXAM PREPARATION CLASSES
To support our Youth Centre members in the attainment of their educational goals, we run intensive exam preparation classes in a range of core subjects for students taking WAEC, NECO and JAMB examinations. Our Youth Centre members find this extra tuition invaluable and they consistently achieve better results than they ordinarily would have.
MUSIC & DANCE CLASSES
These fun classes allow students to build their self-confidence and discover hidden talents. We work with music teachers who instruct members in the wide range of instruments available at the Youth Centre. Dance classes are provided by fully qualified instructors from Society for Performing Arts in Nigeria with occasional special holiday classes provided by Mohammed Ali
ART CLASSES
We believe that young people should be encouraged to explore art as a means of self-expression and also taught to appreciate it and recognise its importance in defining cultural identity. Over the years, we have held annual art competitions open to schools in the Eti-Osa local government area on various themes. Winning entries were exhibited to showcase the budding artistis skills and talent.
SUMMER CAMP
Our Summer Camp takes place every year during summer holidays. We hold extended versions of our normal term recreational activities as well as special workshops, skills acquisition activities (tie and dye, bead making, cooking and baking, make up application, photography etc) and excursions. We also hold special training sessions for our older members before they embark on their summer work placements.
SPORTS
Our sport classes encourage physical fitness and teach our Youth Centre members how to collaborate and work in teams. . We have recorded particular success with our Taekwando programme, in which the children train their bodies and minds in the tenets and techniques of the martial art. The Youth Centre team has participated in various Taekwando competitions and won numerous medals.
LITERACY AND NUMERACY CLASSES
When we first opened our doors, we found that many of our new members were unable to read simple texts or do basic sums. We therefore decided to create literacy and numeracy classes to supplement their school learning. As a result, our members consistently excel in school and their reading levels exceed those of their peers. We extend the childrens’ learning by encouraging them to join book clubs run by the Barack Obama American Corner
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE SKILLS CLASSES
Our leadership development and life skills classes provide our Youth Centre members with life building and leadership development skills. We hold classes and workshops that educate them in a range of areas including financial literacy, creating life goals and ethics and values and also teach them civic education. We encourage our members to put the information they learn to good use by being active in their communities.
NATIONAL LITERACY COMPETITION
Since 2014, we have partnered with Lafarge Africa to run an annual Literacy Competition. Participants are derived from schools across all 6 geo political zones of Nigeria, and regional competitions culminate in a Grand Finale where the national literacy champion is crowned. LIteracy capacity building activities are carried out with all participants in the competition and both schools and teachers are positively impacted by the experience. Read More
CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND WORK PLACEMENTS
To encourage our students to think about their future career choices, we hold regular career development events during which professionals from various disciplines visit the Youth Centre to talk to our members about their professions. In addition, we run a four-week work placement programme during the summer holidays for students aged 16 and over, to enable them experience various jobs first-hand and prepare them for the challenges of the workplace.
FEEDING PROGRAMME
We provide our members with a nutritious meal whenever they visit the Centre. These meals are prepared using local, organic ingredients, much of which is donated by our board members and other friends of the Foundation. The young people look forward to having a hot meal that provides them with much needed energy to throw themselves into all the activities on offer at the Youth Centre.
COMPUTER LITERACY CLASSES
We recognize that to be competitive in today’s job market, young people need to be computer literate and so we provide training sessions in our fully equipped computer lab, to ensure that all Youth Centre members are computer literate. We have successfully partnered with technology-focused organisations such as Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) to provide enhanced learning opportunities for our members.