Asian Youth Center (AYC)

Asian Youth Center's mission is to empower low-income, immigrant, and at-risk youth, of all communities, to overcome barriers to success through the provision of culturally and linguistically competent education, employment, and social services.

AYC's programs are divided into five departments: Educational Enrichment Services, Emergency Food Program, Youth & Family Services, Employment Services, and Community Outreach & Engagement.

Educational Enrichment Services (EES) provides low-income and immigrant youth ages 5-18 with after-school and summer school programming, including Youth and Parent Leadership Development (YPLD) services in high school Dream Centers. Last year, EES served 2,478 unduplicated youth and their parents in elementary, middle, and high schools.  

Youth & Family Services (YFS) programs are provided at school sites, community partner sites, and client homes to decrease recidivism and juvenile delinquency through diversion, social-emotional learning, case management, and re-entry services. In 2023, the YFS programs served 348 youth, parents, and adults, and post-tests demonstrated significant increases in skills and self-esteem. 

The Youth Employment Program is offered to youth ages 14-24. Services provide participating youth with increased employment success and access to and support for the completion of educational and vocational assessment, exploration, job skills development, on-the-job training, paid work experience, and job placement. Interns were able to work in the food program, phone banking, outreach program, operations, and after-school programming. We have also retained the interns, and three interns have joined the program. We have also started having interns in the Antelope Valley.

56 youth participated in programming, and 44 youth successfully completed re-entry educational and employment preparation assessments and enrollment in high-school completion programming. Twelve (12) youths successfully completed job training and paid work experience.

The Emergency Food Program has operated for over ten years but remained relatively small - feeding up to 50 families per month and approximately 250 families yearly until the pandemic. In 2023, the food program distributed meals to 1,331 unduplicated clients by providing non-perishable groceries and perishable items such as fresh produce, meat, grains, and dairy products to help supplement their basic needs. 

Community Outreach & Education in Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and English made 106,308 contacts last year. This department served many youth, families, and adults enrolled in other AYC programs. It reached community members with educational information through in-language press coverage and community event outreach on a variety of topics last year, including Broadband Access for low-income families & Utility Consumer Education (632 contacts), Earned Income Tax Credit, Water Conservation; Addressing Anti-Asian Hate (99,084 contacts) and COVID-19 Education (5,889 contacts).