Students will investigate how the old Rite Aid building could become a teen center that responds to real local needs through thoughtful space design, programming, and funding plans over 7 weeks with 2 75-minute sessions each week. Working in teams, they will gather community input, create floor plans and service ideas, build a simple budget, and revise their proposals through critique from peers and community partners. The learning experience prepares students to present a realistic, evidence-based vision for a welcoming, safe, and useful teen center to local decision-makers.

Students will investigate teen needs, community assets, and real site constraints to design a teen center proposal that responds to local priorities over 7 weeks with 2 sessions per week. They will create and revise floor plans, activity zones, technology-supported design features, and a weekly program schedule that make the space welcoming, safe, accessible, and useful for different groups of teens. Students will develop a realistic funding pitch by identifying grants, sponsors, startup costs, and a simple operating budget, then communicate their ideas through critique, reflection, and public presentation. Throughout the project, students will strengthen collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and responsibility by using feedback from peers and community partners to improve their proposal.

Students will create research tools and evidence sets throughout the 7-week project, including teen-needs surveys, interview notes, community asset maps, adjacency sketches, floor-plan drafts, activity-zone diagrams, and a simple startup and operating budget. Midway, each team will produce a concept board or draft slide deck for the public pitch night, showing survey findings, layout ideas, proposed services, a sample weekly schedule, and one prototype element such as signage, a welcome area mock-up, or furnishing samples. By the end, teams will present a polished poster board or digital pitch deck that includes community data, a revised floor plan for the old Rite Aid building, activities and supports, funding sources, a budget proposal, and expected community impact. Final products also include a live presentation and Q and A for community partners, plus a brief record of how feedback changed the team’s design.

Open with a fast-paced “Teen Center Unveiled” launch during the first two 75-minute sessions by using the old Rite Aid building if possible, or a classroom staged with photos, a rough site map, sample teen-center images, and basic budget/funding cards. In session one, students rotate through stations to sort sticky notes into “welcoming,” “safe,” and “useful,” review teen needs and community asset prompts, and complete a quick community-needs walk noting what local teens may be missing. In session two, teams use that evidence to create a one-minute pitch naming one teen need their center should address first, one space or service they would include, and one possible funding idea. Close with peer and community partner feedback from guests such as Carla Leach, MCRPD, CV Starr, or city representatives so students begin the project with authentic audience input.

End with a public Teen Center Proposal Showcase during the final week of the 7-week project, using one 75-minute session for setup and rehearsal and one 75-minute session for the exhibition at the old Rite Aid building if possible, or at CV Starr or City Hall. Teams present poster boards, floor plans, weekly program schedules, budgets, digital pitch decks, and prototype welcome-space kits to families, peers, staff, and community partners. Invite Carla Leach, MCRPD, CV Starr, city representatives, MCYP, Children’s Fund, and West Company to serve as a feedback panel, ask questions, and respond to how realistic, welcoming, safe, and useful each plan is for local teens. Close with a short student reflection and Q&A in which teams explain how feedback shaped their revisions and name one next step for turning the proposal into a real community plan.