Since its inception, the Brunswick Area Teen Center has seen thousands of visits from area youth in grades 6-12. The youth receive services that include a full meal five days a week, homework mentoring, games, field trips, art programs, and crafts. In the new location at the Coffin School building, the teens are planting gardens, creating menus and helping to cook food five days a week. They also receive financial support for driver’s education programs and a $500 secondary scholarship is awarded annually to a teen member who is graduating from Brunswick High School.

The help and support of the Brunswick Town Council and Town Manager, as well as the Brunswick School Department, and the Brunswick Department of Parks and Recreation, enabled private community members to work together on creating the programming initiative, ultimately realizing the amazing successes listed above. 

Awards of gratitude were presented to Jim Howard of Priority Real Estate Group and the Morrell Rooney family for 20 years of support that provided startup funds for the Teen Center. This funding has continued every year since for a total of over $300,000! Thank you to these financial co-founders!

Additional acknowledgment awards included Brunswick resident and former school teacher Catherine Jarratt for 10 years of service to the People Plus Board and Teen Center Advisory Committee; Tom Farrell, the Brunswick Director of Parks and Recreation who has served 40 years on the board of People Plus and 20 years on the Teen Center Advisory Committee; and to Brunswick resident and former 18-year Teen Center coordinator, Jordan Cardone, and her husband, Fraser Ruwet, for initiating the original conversations with the Town Council of Brunswick asking for a space to create a Teen Center program. 

This was followed by a short keynote speech from Brunswick High School rising senior Timber Wilson, who has been a member of the Teen Center program since sixth grade. She is a lovely and responsible young adult and gave a heartwarming speech about her experience with the Teen Center program and how much it means to her. She expressed that she would not be the same person that she is today if it had not been for the program and its support. The Center funded her driver’s ed class when she was 16, helped get her Social Security card and her first job, and fed her a full meal five days a week for years. 

She is an amazing success story and the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of youth who are served. The Teen Center expects to see 8,000 teen visits in the year 2025. 

The Brunswick Area Teen Center has offered a free, fun and safe place to “hang out with friends” for 20 years. Teens have been integral to the Center’s formation and management. The Brunswick Area Teen Center is a program of People Plus, offering a drop-in center at their Coffin School building location, with hours to accommodate youth involved in other after-school activities and those who attend the program as their primary after school activity. Free snacks/meal items are offered daily as well. As an after-school program, drop-in hours on Monday-Friday are offered from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Summer hours differ. Free to all participating teens, the BATC is funded partially by the Town of Brunswick and United Way, with the majority of funding from grants and local fundraising.

Happy 20th Anniversary to the Brunswick Area Teen Center!