The Sun Valley Youth Center, Inc.

Background Statement

Since 1998, The Sun Valley Youth Center has provided trauma-informed programming for youth and families living in the Sun Valley community.

The Sun Valley Youth Center (SVYC) was founded as a result of a comprehensive neighborhood assessment undertaken by a consortium of residents, service providers and key civic and community leaders. The conclusion of their observations was that the most critical need in the community was youth services. Youth were not performing at acceptable levels at schoolboth academically and behaviorally. Statistics pointed to high levels in Denver of crime, teen pregnancy and school dropouts.

Serving youth ages 5-15, our licensed program includes tutoring, skill building, and recreational activities, with a heavy focus on Social Emotional Learning and Trust Based Relationship Intervention. At age 16, we continue to serve our youth by hiring them to work at SVYC and providing resources in the areas of life skills training, occupational skills training, professional counseling and one-on-one mentoring.

In addition, SVYC provides community support through family programming, summer BBQs, holiday gift sponsorship, time for connection, and empowering community members to use the resources available to them.