The Launch Pad Teen Center puts empowerment into action for area teens, helping them understand their ability to be impactful
By Hilary Dartt • Photos by Blushing Cactus Photography
Teens are taking the lead at The Launch Pad Teen Center in Prescott. While many qualified, caring adult staff members are there for guidance and support, at its very core, the organization is designed to center the ideas and perspectives of the youth it serves.
Its mission: “To incite teen confidence and empowerment through innovative community education and engagement.”
After school and into the evenings, the place—a bright and cheerful converted warehouse on 6th Street—is abuzz with teens playing pool, eating snacks, making music, creating art, and chatting.
“We have always, from day one, had teens at the helm, steering the organization,” said Courtney Osterfelt, Founder and Executive Director of The Launch Pad. “That is our secret sauce.”
“We as a staff, we are the scaffolding. We’re holding up all the necessary structures that keep the teens safe and help them feel empowered and capable of achieving their potential, trying new things, or taking a risk with safe adults around them.”
While “the word empowerment gets thrown around a lot,” she said, those involved with The Launch Pad, including teens who have been involved at every step of the journey, have really dialed in on what it means—and been intentional about putting it into action.
Courtney shared Brene Brown’s three-tier description of empowerment from her book, “Dare to Lead.” “Power with (which multiples individual talents, knowledge, and resources to make a bigger impact), power to (based on the believe that everyone has the power to make a difference), and power within (an ability to recognize differences and respect others, grounded in a strong foundation of self-worth and self-knowledge).
“This is the peak of what youth empowerment looks like: ‘I know what my strengths are, I know I have something to offer, and I’m stepping into a leadership role in this youth-driven space,’” Courtney said.
One real-world example of that: one group of teens saw a need for older adults and teenagers to learn how to better communicate with each other and completed a three-year project where they hosted intergenerational dinners for civil discourse. More than 500 people attended these dinners.
“This was a group of 20 teens with a passion and a mission, who proved we can coalesce and be powerful together,” Courtney said.
The Launch Pad takes a 360-degree approach to teens who come in—so it serves as a one-stop shop. While it’s a drop-in center (teens can just show up), after teens visit a few times, staff do a quick intake process to determine their needs related to academics, mental health, food security, and more.
Teens can then take advantage of whatever they need, whether it’s volunteer-provided academic mentoring, connections to mental health or food resources, peer mentoring, and a variety of clubs.
And, they can hang out in the space and enjoy activities in dedicated spaces: art, music, video games, billiards, or the café.
The Launch Pad also offers a workforce development program, Project Launch, which teaches teens job skills including how to identify and explore their strengths, write a resumé, work with the public, communicate, and more (for more information, see ‘The Well-Connected Parent,’ below).
The Launch Pad Teen Center’s Origins
In 2003 as part of her senior project at Prescott College, The Launch Pad’s Founder and Executive Director Courtney Osterfelt launched Women’s Empowerment Breakthrough, a leadership program for teen girls.
“I kept hearing from the girls: we need more. Our brothers need something,” Courtney said. “And I thought, clearly there is a need for a teen center in town.”
Others had started teen centers before, but they didn’t last, and Courtney said she believes the main reason for that is because the adults didn’t involve teens in the creation piece.
“Part of my background in college is that when you create social change, when you create community, you involve the community you’re serving in the decision-making process.”
So when it came time to build a teen center, Courtney and a group of teens surveyed more than 800 people—580 of whom were teens—about the need. The responses were clear: teens needed a third space (somewhere to go other than home and school).
While Courtney relied heavily on teen input when it came to location, programming, and the mission, she also relied on her own experience as a teen. She said she struggled as a teenager and ended up at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, a last-chance residential school for troubled teens.
“That school saved my life,” she said. “It taught me that I was powerful, I could have community, I was smart. It made me feel like I did have agency in my own life.”
And that’s what she wanted to build into what became The Launch Pad.
According to the teens who use it, it’s working.
Friends, Freedom of Expression, and Something for Everyone
“I really like this place,” said Cameron Hibbert, a Prescott High School senior who’s been coming to The Launch Pad for about two years since a friend introduced it to him. “It has a good vibe.”
Payton Maxwell, a Prescott High School sophomore, said The Launch Pad is “a very accepting community,” a place nowhere else in Prescott can compare to. In addition to eating grilled cheese from The Launch Pad’s Moon Café, she likes to do art and play guitar.
“It’s teen-driven,” she said. “We’re trying to work more towards teens running the center and adults helping with it.”
Both Cameron and Payton are part of the Rocket Lab, The Launch Pad’s Youth Program Leadership Council.
Luis Oliver now works as a Facilitator at The Launch Pad; his relationship with the place started a decade ago when he was a freshman at Prescott High School and joined The Launch Pad’s music scene. He received tutoring services and performed as a singer.
As a teen, he said, he enjoyed “the creativity and freedom of expression” he experienced at The Launch Pad. “I believe it’s the number one thing here at The Pad.”
And as a Facilitator, he loves seeing the growth of the teens. “I’m grateful to be surrounded by that—that’s what keeps me going. That’s my North Star.”
Courtney said that while she hoped The Launch Pad would be a one-stop shop for teens, she never expected the level of community commitment to making it such a special place. As one teen leader put it, “The best thing about The Launch Pad is that it’s like a giant bucket, and there’s something beautiful for everyone in it.”
To learn more about The Launch Pad’s programming, resources, and what’s available for teens, visit https://thelaunchpadteencenter.org.
‘The Well-Connected Parent’
The Launch Pad’s Workforce Development Program, Project Launch, is designed to give youth the confidence, skills, and connections to get jobs in the community.
Courtney Osterfelt, Founder and Executive Director of The Launch Pad, said in many cases, teens have an easier time landing jobs if they have well-connected parents. Project Launch provides similar community connections for those who participate.
Courtney described the program’s three tiers:
First, teens complete a weekend-long program where they take a skills assessment and learn to write a resumé and have a successful job interview (from how to dress to how to identify and talk about their strengths).
Second, teens participate in Brew to Crew, a monthlong program where they tour local coffee shops and restaurants and learn skills related to the service industry. They get practice with specific skills, teamwork, and customer service.
Third, after teens complete Brew to Crew, they can apply for a Moon Café apprenticeship. It’s a yearlong paid commitment where teens go through training in coffee-making and cooking, customer service, opening and closing, as well as leadership skills, inventory, sales, and training peers.
While most teens who get a job locally have community connections thanks to their parents, Courtney said, The Launch Pad’s Workforce Development Program strives to provide its teens with those same sorts of connections; a business owner looking for a new employee can expect a Project Launch graduate to have the skills necessary to shine on the job.
Members of the public can make donations to support a teen’s journey through the workforce development program. Learn more at https://thelaunchpadteencenter.org/donate/.