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Entrance to community center (City of Tempe Arizona) |
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| Halloween, 2011 at the Escalante Community Center (About.com) |
(480) 350-5800
Kids and community members attend Escalante Community Center because it is a center that tries to promote diversity to different cultures from every background. It focuses on socially organizing different programs for the youth of all different backgrounds within the community. These programs are offered through the Tempe Community Action Program, which was one of the Neighborhood Youth Corps. The Center was established in 1969 as a program that could meet the needs of the community. One of the Escalante’s main focuses was and still is teen dropout prevention. It offered youth employment programs to encourage kids to stay in school also to help them earn money that would help for the expenses of school, such as books, fees and clothing.
After 1971, the Escalante Center has merged into the community service department, meaning the center wants what’s best for the community and is making change to improve the needs of the neighborhood. The Community Service Department strives to enhance Tempe’s quality of life through superior customer focus and sustainable educational, recreational, and cultural and social services. It offers social and physical fitness programs to compliment daily nutritional meals. They have a variety of programs to fit the needs of preschoolers, youth, teens, seniors and families. The difference between what the center was and is now is that it had so little variety of programs that it offered then but now it offers year-round programs for all ages. A few of the programs are: the Youth Assistance Program, the Tempe Community Action Program and the Escalante Senior Center. The center began to offer social and physical fitness programs to compliment the senior’s daily meals. The Center is not just a center for a specific race or gender of people, but also a center that is for a vast variety of people of all different races and financial backgrounds. Majority of the Communities population consists of Hispanics, African Americans, and Caucasians.
This center is surrounded by a community where numerous walls are tagged up, and houses and cars are beat up. More so a run-down neighborhood full of crime; that did not stop the community from finding the Escalante Center as a second home. It is not often that you see a run-down neighborhood in Tempe; however, the strength of the community has been uplifting the youth in providing a better future. Escalante is a private company that is categorized under social service and welfare organizations. The center is also sponsored by numerous non-profit organizations that help families and individuals in need (Johnson, 1994).
- Yonas Moges and Deveron Carr
Sources
Johnson, D. (1994). Escalante community center history. City of Tempe Arizona.
Retrieved November 5, 2011 from http://www.tempe.gov/escalante/escalante_community_center_history.htm
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