Into the Teen Scene

Santa Fe youth will soon have a new place to gather on the Southside as the city plans to open its long-awaited Teen Center this weekend.

With the building’s capacity of around 330, teenagers will have the option to use the quiet study room or get help with schoolwork; shoot hoops on either indoor or outdoor courts; create arts and crafts or play video games. But that’s just the beginning of the Teen Center’s potential, city Community Services Director Maria Sanchez-Tucker says.

“This is really going to serve the need to give teens resources to help build them up and provide leadership for the future as they grow into their adulthood and set them up for success,” she tells SFR.

The center, located in Tierra Contenta near the Southside Library, offers access to a computer room where the center hopes to offer classes on coding; an audio room where teens can record podcasts; and a fitness room full of workout equipment, plus a kitchen and on-site laundry machines—all amenities local teens asked for during the development process.

The $11.8-million project has been in the works for more than a decade. Former Mayor Javier Gonzales hosted youth summits in 2015 and 2017 to help plan the center. According to Youth and Family Services Division Director Julie Sanchez, the city, alongside a Colorado-based training group for the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board, sent out a survey before the first summit to public schools, private schools, charter schools and specialty schools asking youth what they wanted to see.

Nolan Hall, a member of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board, tells SFR the youth input provided critical details for the center, the planning of which was “very selective,” down to the placement of the furniture in the building. Hall, who is Navajo and Cherokee as well as the only board member who attended Santa Fe Indian School, first joined to be a voice at the table for Indigenous youth. During the last four years serving on the board, he says a teen center has been one of the biggest priorities.

“We wanted to create a space where teenagers and people could find an outlet and find somewhere they could be safe instead of resorting to unhealthy habits or putting themselves in situations that maybe they shouldn’t be,” he says.

Hall says the center dedicates much-needed resources to the Southside that have long existed in other areas of the city.

“There’s so many issues we are passionate about on the board, and I think now seeing this come to fruition is amazing,” Hall says. “We are finally getting to see what can happen when you’re able to help your community and see that change made, which is really exciting.”

While the city has a history of trying to build a Southside teen center dating back as far as the early 2000s, contractors did not break ground on one until September 2021. The building then faced several delays on opening, with an initial ribbon-cutting day planned for November 2022, which later moved to May 2023 before finally landing on this month. Sanchez says a recession, a pandemic and administrative turnover contributed to the project’s slower timeline.

“When the pandemic hit, our initial estimates almost more than doubled, plus getting those contracts and getting materials was completely backlogged,” Sanchez tells SFR. “There was just all kinds of stuff delaying those first couple years of building it.”

The city put up about $5 million for the construction while the state covered the remaining cost. Staff salaries will be come from the city’s general fund. Teen Center Manager Ziarra Kirksey says the center plans to offer all of its services free of charge to teens through the help of several community partners including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Fe, Earth Care and local schools.

“We want to make sure that we are working together so that we are reaching as many teens as possible,” Kirksey says. “It takes a village, and Santa Fe is a village.”

Following Friday’s ribbon-cutting, the center’s initial hours are from 4 to 8 pm Tuesday through Friday and noon to 6 pm Saturday.

“We really want it to be an invitation to the community to come see this beautiful space and celebrate with us and just have it be an event where they can see what resources are available to the teens,” Sanchez-Tucker says.

TEEN CENTER GRAND OPENING

2:15 pm, Friday Sept. 22, ribbon cutting followed by entertainment and a showing of Pitch Perfect at 5:30, with free pizza and blankets for the first 200 teens.

1 to 5 pm, Saturday, Sept. 23, live DJ, Wise Fool New Mexico entertainment and workshops and the Georgia O’Keefe Art Van, plus an illustration workshop and free Fusion Tacos for the first 200 teens.

6600 Valentine Way

santafenm.gov/community-services/ recreation/teen-center