ALIVE AURORA
Free Summer Drop-in Hours:
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
1:00-5:00 PM
78 S Lasalle St. Aurora, IL


Alive is Aurora’s New Teen Center!
We’ve partnered with Community Christian Church to bring the Alive Center for Teens to Aurora! Our center is Teen-Led Teen-Driven (TLTD). We offer free after-school drop-in hours, tutoring, mentoring, workshops, and teen programs in various practices that support physical and emotional well-being and inspire personal growth and purpose. Topics include leadership, nutrition, and healthy eating, stress management, community service projects, healing arts through music, art and dance, meditation, creative writing, mindfulness, and more!
2022 Alive Aurora Summer Camps
Sponsored by Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation
Youth4SciTech Stem Immersive Camp
Youth4SciTech is a youth-led organization motivated to get students from elementary and middle school involved in the Science and Technology fields. In this camp teens will participate in activities that educate them about the STEM field. Our teen leads will have fun computer science activities for the camp participants, where they can win prizes and learn more about the field. Teen leads will also create immersive and educational science labs with simple materials to keep children engaged.
July 25th, July 27th, July 29th
2-3 pm
Grades 5-9
Girls Engineering Camp
A Girls Coding Club, Led by girls for girls! Teens will be able to learn the basics of coding and use their skills to make games and other cool projects. All experience levels are welcome. Girls in this camp will also get a chance to build and program various robots. This will not only give them coding experience but Engineering Experience as well!
July 25th, 27th, 29th
1-2 pm
Grades 5-9
Alive Aurora summer camps are FREE! #JustShowUP
ALIVE AURORA’S TEEN ADVISORY BOARD

Aniesa Acevedo
Teen Advisory Board Member
Learn More About Aniesa
Aniesa Acevedo is a freshman at West Aurora.
Major band kid, trumpet player.
Her dream is to travel the world. She’s the eldest of five siblings. She’s quiet until you get to know her and she is super excited for her SFX program to grow.

Sam Serrano
Teen Advisory Board Member
Learn More About Sam

Gabriel Bradford
Teen Advisory Board Member
Learn More About Gabriel
Gabriel Bradford is a junior in homeschool. He is a choir kid and plays piano. Gabriel enjoys being involved in the community and actively participates in community events and forums. In his free time, Gabriel likes to hang out with friends, play piano, watch musicals, sing, network, and learn new things! His favorite pastime is volunteering because it allows him to meet amazing people who he learns so much from. He has a passion for business and marketing and his dream is to open a business in Aurora. This is his first year as a member of TAB and his first ever position on a Teen Advisory Board! He can’t wait to make great things happen with his fellow TAB members.

Myra Redfern
Teen Advisory Board Member
Learn More About Myra

Diana Rivera
Teen Advisory Board Member
Learn More About Diana
Apply to Alive Aurora's Teen Advisory Board
TAB is a working board and leadership program; they organize into committees to see programs and events through from conception to fruition. The staff at Alive supports the TAB in their work with mentoring and guidance, but the teens are doing the majority of the work to see that their passions and ideas are realized. Our TAB makes a real impact on the organization and on the community through their work and its members obtain real life leadership skills.
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Ady Rubio
Alive Aurora Manager
A long-time resident of Aurora, Ady Rubio is a young Latina woman who has a passion for working with youth. In 2016 she received her undergraduate degree in Psychology, 2019 a Master’s in Social work from Aurora University, and in 2020 became a licensed social worker. Ady was one of the first university students to intern at the Alive Center for teens in 2017. A non-profit that serves teens 5-12th grade and helps them find a sense of belonging, resiliency, discovery, and leadership. Alive was the internship she was hoping for, and it solidified her love of making meaningful connections with today’s youth. Seeing the impact a teen center such as Alive had on teens launched her dream of having an Alive Center in her city of Aurora one day. Today, Ady is continuing her journey with Alive, and she has joined the team as the drop-in Manager for Alive’s new downtown Aurora location. She inspires teens to take on leadership roles, be creative, and find a place of belonging.