OCEANSIDE — Interfaith Community Services has received $50,000 for its Teens Teaching Tech program from NBCUniversal Foundation. Teens Teaching Tech is a summer program launched in 2013 by Interfaith’s Employment Services department and Transitional Youth Academy program (TYA). The purpose is to connect at-risk teenagers from North San Diego County with Interfaith’s own job-seeking adult clients, so the teens can teach basic computer and technology skills to the older adults.
“Last summer, our Transitional Youth Academy students provided 1,040 hours of technology instruction to low-income families, seniors and job seekers at Interfaith’s Oceanside and Escondido community centers,” said Olga Diaz, Interfaith’s director of Employment Services and supervisor of the new program. “This is made even more remarkable by the fact that the Transitional Youth Academy directly reaches more than 100 low-income students from Oceanside and El Camino High School that are identified as at-risk for dropping out, failing academic content standards or becoming gang involved.”
Last year, 100 percent of Interfaith’s TYA seniors successfully graduated from high school and entered college, often representing the first generation of college students in their family.
Interfaith Community Services provides a wide range of programs to help hungry, homeless, and low-income people in North San Diego County. Programs include food and basic needs, shelters and housing, employment services, family and social services, children and youth programs, senior services, veterans programs, and addiction recovery. Each program is designed to “help people help themselves,” by empowering individuals to regain self-sufficiency.
