Community members and leaders were all smiles on Friday at the ribbon cutting and opening of the new Uintah High Teen Center located inside Uintah High School. The Teen Center is designed to support all high school students and includes a food pantry stocked with nutritious snacks and meals, washers and dryers, two bathrooms with private showers, semi-private study rooms for individual work, and comfortable spaces for study groups and student meetings. The District has emphasized that the Teen Center will be staffed full-time and will be open before, during and after school. It will serve students who are experiencing homelessness with access to laundry facilities, showers, and meals — while also offering all students a safe space to study, meet, and network. The project was largely funded by $250,000 in grant funding from the state of Utah, matching funds of $40,000 from The Policy Project, and $19,000 donated by the UHS Class of 1969 to furnish study rooms. Friday’s gathering was a positive and supportive launch of the Teen Center and its mission.
