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Welcome to our fifth annual See-Saw Marathon to benefit the UPMC Washington Teen Outreach Common Ground Teen Center. This fundraiser is a product of the work done by the Students Helping Others Committee and our Peer Education program. We plan to host our event on Friday October 11 at 4 PM to Saturday October 12 at 4 PM. We will place our handmade see-saw outside the Teen Center in downtown Washington. Participants will pledge money to see-saw and will continually see-saw for a total of 24 hours! We think this fun, creative way of raising awareness for our Center is perfect and our teens are ready to see-saw their way to our funding goals! We need your help. Please see our sponsor sheet for level of contribution. We also need in-kind donations for food if you would like to contribute.
In 2020, our Common Ground Teen Center lost over 50% of our funding, and we have never received those funds since. With the success of our annual see-saw fundraiser, we continue to keep our doors open every year. Without our annual See-Saw event and these annual donations, staying open every year will be a challenge. Dr. Mary Jo Podgurski, our Director, is determined to continue providing this vital, safe space for our young people.
The Center is incredibly successful. It is teen driven. The Outreach hires young people to run the Center; they are supervised by young adult alumni and students from W & J College. The Center hosts monthly events, like Rock the Vote, Art Night for the community, Peer Education, Parent/Youth Programming, Respect Online workshops, and more. In addition, we host our weekly D & D Night, Arts and Anime club, and the very popular Cooking Club! Our Peer Educators developed an African Connection with teens from Congo; they meet regularly by Zoom and explore each others’ cultures. In 2024 we also started a very needed and important program focusing on teen mental health. We started a Teen Mental Health Advisory Board to work on mental health awareness and enhance suicide prevention. In addition, we are meeting monthly with our teens for a grief and loss discussion. We had an incredibly successful summer hosting 5 free camps over a 3-week period. The Center is vibrant and alive as only a space created for and by young people can be. Dr. Podgurski opened the Center in 2008. In counting our data, we discovered we've served a staggering number of teens in 16 years: over 3000 unique teens have attended over 36,000 visits!
All young people are respected at our Center. Their worth is celebrated. Please contact me on my cell (201-637-2921), at the office (724-222-2311) or via email ([email protected]) if you have any questions or need more information. Thank you for helping us make a real difference in the lives of young people One Kid at a Time.TM #SaveCommonGround #EachPersonIsAPersonofWorth TM
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Common Ground Teen Center, 96 N Main St, Washington, PA 15301-4634, United States,Washington, Pennsylvania
