Court ordered therapy, including family therapy and trauma-informed therapy, can be essential for individuals seeking support. Programs such as anger management and parenting classes are often included as part of these therapeutic processes.
Youth center
Youth Empowerment & Prevention Program
SCV Counseling’s Youth Empowerment & Prevention Program provides children, teens, and young adults with a safe, supportive, and welcoming place to connect, build confidence, develop practical skills, and prepare for their future.
Located at our Youth Center in Lancaster, the program combines mental health and wellness support with mentoring, leadership, creative activities, life skills, career development, financial education, family engagement, and positive recreational experiences.
Our goal is simple: reach young people early, recognize their strengths, and provide the relationships, resources, and opportunities they need to thrive at home, at school, and in their community.
More Than an After-School Program
Every young person is different. That is why our program provides a wide variety of activities and support rather than a one-size-fits-all curriculum.
Youth can participate in:
- Individual and family counseling
- Mentoring and positive adult support
- Peer support and group activities
- Leadership and youth development
- Communication and conflict-resolution skills
- Emotional wellness and emotional regulation
- Creative and expressive arts
- Financial literacy and budgeting
- Entrepreneurship activities
- Career exploration and career days
- Résumé and interview preparation
- Educational and workforce readiness
- Life and independent-living skills
- Team-building activities
- Recreational and social activities
- Parent-youth workshops
- Family and caregiver support
- Community engagement opportunities
Youth are encouraged to explore their interests, try new experiences, develop their strengths, and have a voice in the activities offered at the Center.
Prevention Through Connection
We believe prevention begins with connection.
When young people have trusted adults, positive peers, strong family relationships, healthy ways to manage emotions, meaningful activities, and goals for their future, they are better equipped to navigate challenges and make healthy decisions.
Our program focuses on strengthening these protective factors while providing positive alternatives to gang involvement, crime, school disengagement, and deeper involvement with child welfare or justice systems.
We do not define young people by the challenges they have experienced. We help them recognize what they are capable of becoming.
Mental Health & Emotional Wellness
Because emotional wellness is an important part of youth development, participants can be connected with SCV Counseling’s behavioral health professionals when additional support is needed.
Our trauma-informed services can help youth and families address stress, trauma, anxiety, anger, family conflict, grief, communication challenges, emotional regulation, and other concerns affecting daily life.
Mental health support is integrated with positive youth development so participants can receive support without being separated from the activities, relationships, and opportunities that help them grow.
Leadership, Life Skills & Future Readiness
Young people need opportunities to practice the skills they will use beyond the classroom.
Participants engage in hands-on activities focused on leadership, teamwork, decision-making, communication, financial literacy, budgeting, entrepreneurship, career exploration, education, employment readiness, and independent living.
We want every participant to leave the program with more than information. We want them to leave with greater confidence in their ability to make decisions, solve problems, pursue goals, and build the future they want.
Youth Voice Matters
Strong youth need strong support systems.
Parents, foster caregivers, and legal guardians can participate in family counseling, caregiver education, and parent-youth workshops addressing communication, healthy boundaries, conflict resolution, peer influence, family relationships, positive decision-making, and supporting youth as they become more independent.
Our goal is not only to support the young person, but also to strengthen the relationships surrounding them.
Supporting the Whole Family
Strong youth need strong support systems.
Parents, foster caregivers, and legal guardians can participate in family counseling, caregiver education, and parent-youth workshops addressing communication, healthy boundaries, conflict resolution, peer influence, family relationships, positive decision-making, and supporting youth as they become more independent.
Our goal is not only to support the young person, but also to strengthen the relationships surrounding them.
A Program Where Every Youth Can Belong
SCV Counseling is committed to providing culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and inclusive services. We welcome youth from diverse cultural, racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and family backgrounds, including foster and system-impacted youth, justice-involved youth, LGBTQ+ youth, youth affected by family incarceration, and young people experiencing barriers to behavioral health care and positive community opportunities.
We are committed to creating an environment where participants are treated with dignity, their identities and experiences are respected, and they have a genuine opportunity to be heard.
Who Can Participate?
The Youth Empowerment & Prevention Program serves children, teens, and young adults ages 5–25 in Lancaster and surrounding Antelope Valley communities.
Youth do not need to have a mental health diagnosis or prior justice-system involvement to participate in prevention and youth development activities.
Referrals may come from families, schools, foster caregivers, community organizations, behavioral health providers, public agencies, or youth themselves.
Visit Our Lancaster Youth Center
SCV Counseling Youth Center
44335 Lowtree Avenue
Lancaster, CA 93534
After-school, evening, and weekend programming is available based on the current program schedule.
Whether a young person needs a mentor, a safe place to connect, emotional support, stronger life skills, career direction, creative opportunities, or simply a positive community where they can belong, our Youth Center is here to help.
Connect. Heal. Learn. Lead. Thrive.
At SCV Counseling, youth prevention is not about focusing on what could go wrong.
It is about investing in what can go right.
Through connection, healing, opportunity, family support, and meaningful experiences, we help young people recognize their strengths, build their future, and become positive leaders in their families and communities.