NCRD Play Care Staff believe that providing a safe environment for children to explore their interests through a variety of activities is critical for children to learn, grow, and develop a positive self worth. To accomplish this, we provide enrichment activities throughout the week where the children are supported in trying new things and developing new interests. We are able to foster these learning experiences by choosing activities that spark our student’s curiosity and creativity!
Our Youth Center opened as a Teen Center 20 years ago. The center has experienced many changes throughout the years, and now serves school-aged children. In 2019 the additions included laminate floors and climate control.
We are proud of the thoughtful design in our "Play Care room, which allows a comfortable and creative environment for after school and summer enrichment activities. We have toys, a wonderful collection of books, reading seatingarts and crafts supplies, board games, cards, a cozy kitchen, and a smart-TV for sing alongs, educational videos, and movie days.
We also have 3 garden beds outside where we learn about gardening through growing our own corn, cucumbers, beets, carrots, peas, broccoli, peppers, and lettuce. Our Youth Programs are supported by the Mudd Nick Foundation, Eugene Schmuck Foundation, Trust Management Services LLC, Tillamook Kiwanis Club, Grub Club, and private donors.
The Friends of NCRD raise money to provide scholarships for families who, without the scholarship, may not be able to participate in our youth programs. The continued support we receive from these organizations ensures that year-after-year we are able to offer our children access to affordable after school programs, summer programs, and camps. We are thrilled that the families and children enjoy these experiences!
Closed for holidays: New Years Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving & Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day
Youth Center contacts:
Director: Angie Terry, angiet@ncrdnehalem.org, 971.308.0307
Alternate Contact: Kiley Konruff, Kileyk@ncrdnehalem.org 971.308.0300
When we pick the students up from school we take them to play, inside or out(depending on the weather) for the first 45 minutes of the program. After that we come into the Youth Center for a healthy snack. Once we have all finished our snack we will begin our enrichment activity for the day.
A very special day to us, and a great way to start the week! Many people in our community are musically gifted, and Music Monday gives us an opportunity to engage our multi-talented staff. We are grateful for the opportunity to show children the creative potential they all hold. Every Monday we celebrate music through a variety of activities like live sing-alongs, music freeze tag, song “Jeopardy!”, guess that song games, writing our own lyrics, and even student performances.
Our district raises readers and we are happy to promote this mission. On Thursdays we read for 20 minutes after snack time. The students can choose any book in our library, or a book they bring in from school. This day is special to us as it really shines a light on the camaraderie throughout the school age children. It’s always great to see a student who can offer to read to a younger student who may be struggling. After reading time is over we move on to board games to encourage positive and fair game pla. This allows the opportunity to teach the students games and puzzles they may not have had the opportunity to learn yet: solitaire, rubiks cubes war, checkers, chess, and more.
It’s ok to get messy at the Youth Center, and luckily the students love to help us clean up. Our staff enjoy being creative with our kids, and work alongside them to inspire and encourage them. We provide a variety of mediums to work with, and an array of tools to express themselves. We like to relate our art to the season or holidays we are near. If it’s the beginning of a new school trimester we may be making collage vision boards, or we may be painting flowers in the spring.
Our district raises readers and we are happy to promote this mission. On Thursdays we read for 20 minutes after snack time. The students can choose any book in our library, or a book they bring in from school. This day is special to us as it really shines a light on the camaraderie throughout the school age children. It’s always great to see a student who can offer to read to a younger student who may be struggling. After reading time is over we move on to board games to encourage positive and fair game pla. This allows the opportunity to teach the students games and puzzles they may not have had the opportunity to learn yet: solitaire, rubiks cubes war, checkers, chess, and more.
Fridays mark the conclusion of a long week of hard work for our students. We think they deserve a day of fun. On this day there is still structure and we implement a more “child led” approach, and relax our schedule to be more flexible with what the kids might want to do! While this may all look like ‘Fun and Games’ - the kids are actually learning to participate in group activities through fun line dances, shared time in our Bounce House, or taking turns building the tallest lego structures that the North County community has seen!
