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Local high school students with an interest in health careers got the rare opportunity to hear from and network with health care professionals at the year's first health care panel. The panel is a key activity for the LAYC Teen Health Promoters and the Health Advocates, both composed of neighborhood youth with the task to promote healthy behaviors among their peers and in community events.

Attendees heard about existing opportunities for high schoolers seeking to become doctors, nurses, and social workers from three speakers: the Dean of Health Sciences at Graduate School USA, B.P. Walker, MD, DCPS Career and Technical Education Program and State Director of the Health Occupations Students of America, Craig English, EMT, and the Executive Director of Capital City Area Health Education Center Shyrea Thompson Robinson.

A group of field practioners were on hand to answer questions about health careers, including a registered nurse, nursing assistant, public health professional, midwife, and social worker among others. 

Because of You, LAYC's Anchor Site is Debt Free!

In 1994, the LAYC Board of Directors decided a new site was needed. We did not want our young people to move into the new century in the deteriorating conditions of our building at 15th and Irving St., NW. We wanted a site where we could offer high quality Internet access, space for community meetings, privacy for individual counseling, and much more.

Columbia Heights did not look like it does today. The Green Line Metro stop was planned but not built. Our neighborhood was not yet a commercial gateway. In fact, much of it was an eyesore.

We took a walk in the neighborhood and saw an abandoned building with a for sale sign. To make a very long story short, despite limited resources or a feasibility study, our Board of Directors raised $100,000 and made a down payment on a run-down 35,000 square foot vacant apartment building. LAYC YouthBuild students used their skills to help with renovation. Board members and staff raised money. We took out a large loan from Prudential Insurance. The Local Initiatives Support Corporation provided bridge money. The Development Corporation of Columbia Heights served as our developer. Three years later after completing a $3,000,000 capital campaign, LAYC moved into its current anchor site.

From the day we moved in, the site has served as a beautiful and welcoming place for young people, their parents, and community members. It is still as wonderful as the first day.

Today we are celebrating another milestone at our anchor site. Two donors -- Freddie Mac Foundation and Deerbrook Charitable Trust -- have awarded LAYC funds to pay off the last dollars on our mortgage. The building is 100% ours, debt free! At a time when resources are shrinking, paying off our mortgage 10 years early saves LAYC over $1,000,000. We will use those funds to support our youth and families, for while the community has changed around us, the need for LAYC is greater than ever before.

The day we bought the building; the day we moved in; the day we paid off our mortgage: what an amazing journey! There are so many people who made this building a reality. Today, LAYC thanks the Freddie Mac Foundation and the Deerbrook Charitable Trust for making sure that the LAYC anchor site is here for years to come!