Teen Center USA

Happy New Year! Teen Center USA is excited to announce it's annual Teen Idol Vocal Competition is going virtual for the first time ever for the 2021 season! We have been hard at work changing the format of the Teen Idol competition after having to cancel the program last year. It is our hope that we can continue to provide the youth in our community with a unique performance opportunity while keeping them in a safe environment. The health and safety of all of our performers, ...staff, and event guests are extremely important to us, therefore we have decided to host this event virtually. As disappointed as we are in not being able to host the same event as we have the last 16 years, we are excited to reach our community in a new way. What is Teen Idol? Teen Center USA Elk Grove holds a vocal competition for Teen Idol each Spring. This annual competition is for Amateurs only, ages 7th-12th grades. Cash prizes will be awarded for the top 3 performances. Top performers are invited to participate in a variety of local events through the year. We will be hosting this event completely virtually or socially distanced in cases where participants may not have access to recording equipment. Audition Tapes will be accepted from February 21-February 28, 2021, and Auditions will be scored and judged are on the 3 Friday evenings in March starting at 7:00 p.m. with Semi- Finals in March and Finals in April. Registration is required and is open from 1/4/2021 until 2/19/2021. Got Questions? Email us at [email protected].

Meet @bethanyonic! She is our FIRST EVER guest for Thursday Takeovers @teencenterusa IG in the month of July! Bethany has regularly attended our Drop In Center since she was in Jr. High. Follow along as she shares her passion for hair and more tomorrow on our page! DM if you have any questions and follow her over @bethanys.curls! #thursdaytakeover #teentakeover #expertakeovers

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! To celebrate the beginning of the school year we are giving away Screen free Activity Bags for FREE full of snacks, coloring books, Diaso Petit Block building kits and more as well as handmade cards with an encouraging note from our Teen Center staff THIS AFTERNOON, 8/13 at 3PM. With doing school through distance learning we know that you'll probably experience screen fatigue at some point so let us help you take a break! This is open for teens in 7th -12th grades, please bring your student ID when you come! We have a very limited quantity of bags so first come first served! Our location is 8978 Elk Grove Blvd., 95624. #screenfreeactivities #activitybags #helloschool #fortheteens

We hear you. We see you. We’re with you. #solidarity #blackouttuesday

Meet @bethanyonic! She is our FIRST EVER guest for Thursday Takeovers @teencenterusa IG in the month of July! Bethany has regularly attended our Drop In Center since she was in Jr. High. Follow along as she shares her passion for hair and more tomorrow on our page! DM if you have any questions and follow her over @bethanys.curls! #thursdaytakeover #teentakeover #expertakeovers

Come through to pick up a free screen free activity bag and snacks at 1pm TODAY! If you’re 7th-12th grades be prepared to show your student ID (if homeschooled provide school, grade and zipcode.)

Feeling screen fatigue lately? We are too! So on TUESDAY June 30 at 1pm at the Teen Center (8978 Elk Grove Blvd.) we are giving away Screen free Activity Bags for FREE full of snacks, coloring books, and more as well as handmade cards with an encouraging note from our Teen Center staff! This is open for teens in 7th -12th grades, please bring your student ID when you come! We have a limited quantity of bags so first come first served! #screenfreeactivities #activitybags #hellosummer #fortheteens

We hear you. We see you. We’re with you. #solidarity #blackouttuesday

Hey everyone! June is such an exciting month for everyone! Our Elk Grove Seniors from Elk Grove High School and 8th Graders from Joseph Kerr are graduating! We also have a free Discord Server for every teen to join and play games with us! The Teen Center and Staff are doing everything to ensure the safety of our teens and we can't wait to see you all! ~TC Staff @ Teen Center USA

This afternoon at 4:30pm join us on IG live for Part 5 of our Life Skills 101 Cooking series! No meal demo this week but we will be discussing pantry essentials to always have on hand! #lifeskills #cookingworkshop #cookingtutorials #teencenterusa #cookalong #makegoodfood

Another Teen Center cook-a-long in the books! This yummy stirfry is super easy to make and took only less than 30 minutes to cook! Hope you join us next week for the finale of this series! #cookgoodfood #stirfry #eatyourveggies #aapiheritagemonth #teencenterusa

This afternoon at 4:30pm join us on IG live for Part 4 of our Life Skills 101: Cook Along Series! This afternoon’s tutorial is on Easy Stirfry! Ingredients Needed: 1 lb. any meat of your choice Salt... Pepper Arrowroot powder or cornstarch 1 red and orange bell pepper 1 zucchini 1 head of broccoli Bag of shredded carrots Greenbeans Garlic Onion Optional ingredients: 1 can of bamboo shoots 1 can of baby corn 1 can of sliced chestnuts Red pepper flakes Toasted sesame oil Sauce Ingredients: Soy sauce or tamari (gluten free option) Cornstarch Sauce Ingredients (Gluten, sugar, and grain free option): Chicken broth Rice vinegar Fish sauce Coconut aminos #lifeskills #cookingworkshop #cookingtutorials #teencenterusa #cookalong #makegoodfood

If you are in need of Free Fresh Produce, stop by at the Chicks in Crisis Ranch, this Friday at 10am! (First Come, First Served)

Have you been following along on our Life Skills cooking series?? So far we’ve made, spaghetti with meat sauce Swedish meatballs, and Chicken Taco Salad! Join us again next Friday to learn how to cook an easy delicious meal for you and your family! #lifeskills #cooking #cookingtutorial #cookgoodfood #teencenterusa

This afternoon at 4pm join us on IG live for Part 3 of our Life Skills 101: Cook Good Food Cook Along Series! This afternoon’s tutorial is on Easy Chicken Taco Salad! Ingredients Needed: 1 lb. chicken tenders (cut into small chunks Kosher salt... 1 red bell pepper 1 medium onion Romaine lettuce Roma tomatoes Shredded cheese Tortilla chips OR taco salad shells Optional Ingredients: Green onion Sour cream Red onion 1 can black beans 1 can of corn Taco Seasoning Ingredients: (Recipe via @therealfoodrds) 2 Tbsp. Chili powder 2 tsp. Ground cumin 1 1/2 tsp. Garlic powder 1 tsp. Dried oregano 1/4 tsp. Paprika 1 tsp. Sea salt #lifeskills #cookingworkshop #cookingtutorials #teencenterusa #cookalong #makegoodfood

The Teen Center wants to give everyone who donated during the Big Day of Giving a big "Thank You" for supporting the Teen Center and making a difference in our Elk Grove teens' lives! #teencenter #bigdayofgiving

Although it may be late in the evening, there is never a time where it would be "too late" to donate! The Teen Center wants to give everyone a big "Thank You" to everyone who has supported and donated to the Teen Center. Be The Change You Want To See In The World! https://www.bigdayofgiving.org/teencenterusa

Although we've heard from a few of our teens, a hardworking staff member named Ashley has done so much for the Teen Center and we cannot thank her enough in words. We are so thankful to have her, let's hear her story. "One night before Mother’s Day four years ago, and I set my alarm for 5:30, preparing to wake up much earlier than I would have liked in order to make my mom breakfast in bed. It wasn’t my alarm that woke me up that next morning though, it a series of messages f...rom three different teens that changed my life forever. Those messages that woke me up were thanking me for being a mom in their lives. Two of the messages were brief and to the point along the lines of happy mother’s day mom, and you’re the best mom but one of the messages was 5 texts long and went into detail about the effect I had in her life. While I was reading those texts, I was overwhelmed and crying, and I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be. This has happened to me every year since then. Sharing this isn’t intended to be way to give myself a pat on the back for a job well done, it’s to bring awareness to a bigger issue. There is a problem here, and not just in our community but in our society in general. Why are our teens looking for parental support and encouragement outside of their parents or guardians? At the end of the day, the Teen Center is the love, support, and encouragement so many of these kids go searching for. They keep coming back because they are getting something with us that they don’t get anywhere else, consistency. I’m not mom to them because I’m some wise adult figure who has everything together, I am mom to them because I am always there for them and I love them unapologetically for beautiful people they are. These are the teens of Elk Grove, but more than that, they are part of the Teen Center USA family." ~Ashley S. https://www.bigdayofgiving.org/teencenterusa