Programs

Drop-In Center

The Center is open for drop-in hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays beginning at 3:30 p.m. on all three days. The Center closes at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursdays and at 9:30 p.m. on Fridays. Only youth ages 14-21 (plus the Center’s staff and facilitators) are welcomed during these times. 

Our youth consists of gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, questioning, cross dresser, drag queens drag kings, and straight-allied youth. We have a access to computers, stereo, television, games, pool table, LGBT library, conference area, small group room, art & crafts area, and a small kitchen.

Like Skills

Odyssey Youth Center utilizes Advocates for Youth's popular family life education program, Life Planning Education: A Youth Development Program. 

This program includes chapters on:

• sexuality,
• relationships,
• health,
• violence prevention,
• and community responsibility
• as well as chapters on skills-building, values, self-esteem, parenting, employment preparation, and reducing sexual risk.

Socio-Emotional Learning Programs

Odyssey Youth Center also recognizes the importance of emotional well-being and the need for strong resiliency skills. As such, we’ve borrowed material from the University of Oregon’s Kenneth Merrell on emotional learning and resiliency called Strong Teens. 

This program is a scripted curriculum developed to promote social and emotional learning and resiliency with adolescents in grades ages 14+.

The Strong Teens curriculum is aimed specifically at concerns and content relevant to adolescents of high school age.

The Strong Teens curriculum was developed using:

• evidence-based concepts,
• instructional strategies,
• and activities,

and have been demonstrated through research to enhance student's knowledge of healthy social-emotional behavior, as well as reduce negative emotional symptoms.

Odyssey Out Loud! Activist & Leadership Training

Odyssey Out Loud! (OOL) is a formalized youth training program led by two youth interns. It consists of an intensive eight week organizer training which begins with a focus on understanding ‘social justice’. 

These training sessions initiate the development of critical thinking, organizing and leadership skills, whereas the internships and the additional activist cultivation allows those most engaged to continue to develop their organizing skills to a more advanced level.

The trainings continue to include the building of skills in effective communication, conflict resolution, lobbying, working with media, and first amendment rights and restrictions.

Annual Lobby Day Trip to Olympia, WA
Our youth-led lobby day trip mobilizes 25-30 Odyssey youth around comprehensive sexual education. 

We are in agreement with the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States that “the primary goal of sexuality education is the promotion of adult sexual health.

It [should] assist children in understanding a positive view of sexuality, provide them with information and skills about taking care of their sexual health, and help them acquire skills to make decisions now and in the future.”  And it should do this in a comprehensive manner – i.e. it takes sexual orientation, in all its variations, into account without judgment. 

No child should be made to feel less than any other because of their differences. 

Youth Leadership Development & Internships

Fostering and training Odyssey youth in areas of leadership and activism is one of our major goals.  We provide youth with opportunities for growth in their leadership as well as venues that enable them to put their refined skills to practice.  One way we do this is by providing paid and unpaid internship opportunities to youth.