All teens need a place to learn and grow where people will love, support, encourage, and walk through life with them. Studies show that teens in these mentoring relationships are more confident in their schoolwork performance, have healthier relationships with their families, and are significantly less likely to use drugs/alcohol and skip school. However, as we looked across the various resources that existed in Azusa in the summer of 2013, we recognized that there were no spaces designed to foster the holistic mentoring teens need to thrive in every area of life and revitalize their communities.

Our faith in God and love for our community moved us to start MYTHIRDPLACE in August 2013 to ensure that every teen in the Azusa area had the opportunity to experience life-changing mentoring. When we started, our focus was on providing an after-school environment to meet teens during the prime hours of 3-6pm when they are most likely to be unsupervised, bored, and/or lonely. We also opened space once a week for interested teens from every walk of life to explore their faith in God in a place where they would be unconditionally loved and accepted. By providing a space and time for teens to engage in a variety of relevant and engaging conversations and activities, we ensured that any teen walking through our doors had the opportunity to grow alongside loving mentors. In the years following, we have widened our scope to create multiple environments for mentoring to take place, including monthly events, an enriching summer program, piloting a One-On-One Mentoring Program, and more. 

Over the next three years, our services are expanding to include a Job Certification Program, Teen Resource Network, and Young Men’s Youth Conference. What started as a desire to create an after-school mentoring environment has multiplied to championing a mentoring movement not only through our own programs but through the education and empowerment of other local third place environments to provide holistic mentoring to the teens they serve.