The Care Lab is a wellness and education program designed for youth ages 12–24 and their families that centers connection, cultural wisdom, and accessible health education.

What to Expect

• Interactive workshops

• Youth and family centered activities

• Practical tools you can use at home

• Reflection, discussion, and skill-building

• Access to Rooted & Rising, our online community platform with:

  • Discussion boards

  • Workshop recordings

  • Resources and tools

The Care Lab creates a welcoming space for youth and families to build health awareness, emotional resilience, and sustainable wellness practices, together. Through culturally responsive education, traditional wellness practices, and community connection, participants learn how to care for their minds, bodies, and relationships in ways that support long-term health and well-being.

Our Approach

✔ Focused on prevention, building awareness, regulation, and healthy habits early, before stress and illness become overwhelming
✔ Culturally responsive and inclusive
✔ Grounded in traditional and holistic wellness practices
✔ Trauma informed and youth centered
✔ Aligned with the 8 Dimensions of Wellness

Why The Care Lab

By learning to recognize stress, understand body signals, and integrate healthy practices early, youth and families can reduce the risk of preventable, stress related, and lifestyle related conditions while strengthening connection, resilience, and confidence.

Community Care Sessions are health services provided to support the physical and mental health and wellbeing of our community.

Practitioners of various modalities are invited to contribute to provide holistic health solutions to inspire wellness.

teen Mental Health First Aid teaches teens in grades
10-12, or ages 15-18, how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges in their friends and peers.

Youth Mental Health First Aid Training teaches adults who work with youth how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among children ages 6-18.

In collaboration with Pasadena Public Health Department, AYA hosted this 4-week program to help students discover nutrition concepts through hands-on and garden-based nutrition activities

• Nutrition and agriculture around the world, including cultural traditions and recipes

• Getting physically active, learning how to fuel muscle movement and brain function

• Preparing the soil and choosing recipes

• Planting Herbs & Breaking Bread!

Mental Health Education & Coping Skills
A Series of Workshops for Teen Girls

A 4-week workshop series to help teens with anxiety. We will explore coping skills such as Grounding Techniques, Cognitive Distortions and Breathing Techniques, all to help reduce anxiety levels. 

Teens have a lot to contend with today, now more than ever.  Teens today are faced with such challenges as:

●      being pushed harder to achieve higher grades,
●      group dynamics are shifting to larger (gang like) groups,
●      child sexual abuse has risen 57% in the past 5 years (CDC)
●      body image and social media
●      pressure to use alcohol and/or drugs
●      40% of young people were bullied in the past 12 months, online and off  (ABA)
●      lockdown restrictions
●      homeschooling
●      sexual exploration

As a result of the above, it is no wonder that teenagers today are more anxious than ever.  These are just a few of the challenges that teens face today so it is no wonder if teenagers are struggling with anxiety or depression.

These workshops are an easy-going – slow-paced way of learning new ways of coping with anxious feelings and thoughts. 
While this is a serious topic, it will be delivered in a light-hearted and friendly way.

 Prerequisites to attending:

●      Age 13-17
●      Computer with video capabilities
●      A private space
●      Be available to attend all 4 sessions
●      Be willing to share in a small open group (max of 6 teens in one group)
●      Able to respect the privacy of others within the group and show respect

Not suitable for those:

●      Aged 18+ (to avoid mixing under/over 18)
●      Causing serious harm to self or others
●      Suffering from Psychosis or Delusional thoughts