Palmetto Youth Center

Programs: Foundations for excellence as youths receive education and reinforcement of the fundamental skills that are necessary for successful life-long academic and social success. Foundations for excellence also provides before and after school care, as well as a summer program.

bridge - the "bridge" program is a critical component part of the educational offerings at the palmetto youth center. The hispanic and latino population of manatee county, and more specifically, north manatee county, continues to rise. Language acquisition skills are a vital part of our curriculum. The "bridge" program creates a language bridge between english and spanish speaking participants by teaching spanish to english speaking youth and english to spanish speaking students.

little league includes football, basketball, cheerleading, track and baseball, and is constantly exploring other athletic opportunities. If the discretionary time of youth is not devoted to positive skill-building activities (for example the ability to participate in games and sports), then the potential for involvement in unacceptable behavior is increased.

drug awareness - all youth at the palmetto youth center will have the opportunity to participate in our drug and alcohol education and prevention classes. We have lectures and guest speakers, open discussion, videos and written materials to make the children knowledgeable of the c. D. Mendez foundation's prevention education programs, "too good for drugs". This is school-based (k-8) prevention program designed to reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors related to alcohol, tobacco and other drug use among students. It has a separate, developmentally appropriate curriculum for each grade level. Each curriculum builds on earlier grade levels. This is an instructional design which enables students to learn important skills sequentially and retain them year after year.