"New Options" is the YWCA of Silicon Valley's multilingual (English, Spanish, and Vietnamese), school-based after-school program. It is a research-based, holistic, long-term youth empowerment program, offered Monday through Friday, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. New Options is open to both males and females at school-site locations listed below. We are proud to expand our partnership with the East Side Union High School District to a total of four High Schools for the 2007-2008 school year.
New Options program components include:
- Building Developmental Assets
This component conveys the essential building blocks of healthy youth development, cultivating support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, social competency, positive values, commitment to learning, constructive use of time, positive identity, and understanding human rights.
- Academics
Daily multi-subject tutoring, including test preparation for the California High School exit exams, PSAT, and SAT examinations. Workshops for the advancement to post secondary education, covering vocational and college education with respect to career options, financial aid application and resources, and campus life skills.
- Career Guidance
Preparation for entering the working world is offered to our youth. Job skills workshops and role play create an understanding of the employment process. Topics include: communicating with prospective employers, interviews, resume and cover letters, post application/interview follow-up, and how to conduct oneself in the workplace.
- Nutrition
Daily healthy snacks are provided to our students, and an educational component is provided to teach our youth healthy nutritional habits.
- Family Life/Sex Education
We present culturally sensitive information to parents and teens (in Spanish, English, and Vietnamese) about making healthy lifestyle choices. Topics discussed include: sexual/reproductive anatomy, abstinence, HIV/AIDs, contraceptives, pregnancy, STD's, body image, date rape and violence, and healthy and unhealthy relationships.
- Project Alert: Drug and Alcohol Awareness Education
Instruction and discussion is offered about the consequences of recreational drug and alcohol use and abuse, and how it can lead to unhealthy lifestyles. We teach resistance skills for peer pressure and provide information on addiction and recovery.
- Youth Development
These ongoing activities include on- and off-site education and exposure to sport and recreation, arts and crafts, proper nutrition, and community service. These activities are imperative in reinforcing all of the program components of New Options in empowering our students—building and reinforcing self esteem, creativity, social skills, life skills, and world citizenship.
New Options after-school programs are offered during the school year at the following locations:
Andrew Hill High School ( map)
3200 Senter Rd..
San Jose, CA 95111
James Lick High School ( map)
57 N. White Rd
San Jose, CA 95127
William C. Overfelt High School ( map)
1835 Cunningham Ave.
San Jose, CA 95122
Yerba Buena High School ( map)
1855 Lucretia Ave.
San Jose, CA 95122
For more information on New Options,
please e-mail Graciela Valladares, Director, Youth Services, or call her at (408) 295-4011 ext. 210.
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Our after-school program is currently hiring facilitators for the upcoming school year. Click here for more information.
The goal of New Options is to empower youth by building developmental assets, promoting healthy lifestyles, explaining positive life options, and creating a sense of hope for young people.
More than 1,200 students have participated in this program since the year 2000
Program Impact: At one local San Jose high school, the 1997 pregnancy rate was one in four. In 2005, that same school's pregnancy rate was one in 60. New Options creates new opportunities, new choices, new habits for our youth.
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