Teens:

Middle School & High School Programs

The King Street Center Teens Program serves middle and high schoolers ages 6th-12th grade through afterschool and camp programs for 48 weeks of the year.

Every day, teens can expect warm meals and a number of opportunities surrounding education enrichment, recreation, and community engagement. Our goal for this program is to provide experiences outside of the Center so that this age group can find their passions, explore potential careers, and begin planning for life beyond graduation.

Academic & Career Exploration

For over 26 years, King Street Center has helped hundreds of youth find success in Job Club - our signature teen program that teaches financial literacy and job skills to middle schoolers. After a few months of learning financial literacy skills and what it means to be a professional, rising 7th, and 8th graders work their very first job on the King Street Lemonade Stand over the summer months.

Over the last few years, we have expanded this program to be inclusive of high school students by offering a Junior Camp Counselor position during the summer months working in the K-5th Grade program serving meals, reading with kids, and managing games and activities.

Our new Academic & Career Exploration (ACE) Program aims to expose high school aged youth to a variety of career fields, such as tech, medical, customer service, culinary arts, education, government, and more, and provide a stipend for participation. Financially resourcing youth means more kids will no longer have to choose between opportunities and income. The program will also support youth interested in exploring additional academic endeavors – whether through community college, technical school, or a traditional four year college – by examining what that would be like and supporting them in getting there.

The ACE Program is a bridge to the future, and there is so much for our kids to explore on the other side. We are so thankful to the Courtney and Victoria Buffum Family Foundation for a generous endowment gift that will seed this essential and critical programming for our future leaders.

Learn More

“Transitioning to middle school is hard whenever one does it, but during a pandemic with a hybrid schedule was particularly challenging. Joe made such a difference for him during that time. He was able to maintain a positive sense of self and worthiness due to the teen program. He was able to access academic support and feel a sense of belonging. Thank you for all you do every day for our youth!”

- PARENT OF KING STREET CENTER TEEN

Community Connection

When youth are not engaged in Academic & Career Exploration, they are out in the community exploring what Burlington and Vermont have to offer them. We have built, and continue to build, long-lasting community partnerships so that our kids can have equitable opportunities to experiences they might not otherwise have, such as:

CHILL Foundation: skateboarding, snowboarding, & SUP
Vermont Green Football Club
Kids on the Ball
Flynn Center
Friends for A_Dog: art activities, break dancing, DJ camp, & skateboarding
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Junior Iron Chef
Beta Technologies
FIRST Robotics
Lego Club
RunVermont
and more!

Girls Group

The King Street Center Girls Group supports young women in middle school navigate adolescence. Many King Street Center kids come from New American families and are often the first generation to experience the divide between the culture of their parents and that of their US childhood. Girls in these families are often tasked with responsibilities we assign to parents in America. Girls Group is aimed at supporting young women in overcoming obstacles they face while helping them develop understanding of who they are and who they could be. The group meets each week as a safe space where girls can express themselves and bring up hard conversations, including cultural barriers they aren't able to always work through at home.

King Street Cooks

Cooking is a favorite activity of ours here at King Street Center, and the teens are generally in the kitchen whipping up supplemental snacks and meals daily. Because this interest was so high, we have formally launched the King Street Cooks program where we partner with local restaurants and chefs to explore cuisines from across the globe.

Thanks to our friends at Pizzeria Verita for most recently showing us how to make their incredible wood-fired pizza with a private experience at their restaurant on Pine Street!

City Market is the sponsor of this program and has supported us exploring the culinary arts for many years! We are so grateful for them.