In San Rafael’s Northgate Mall, there aren’t just shops to peruse and cafes to eat lunch at — there’s also a free, after-school community center for teens.
Open from 2 – 6 p.m. every weekday, Karma Club Teen is a space for teens to do their homework, make friends and access opportunities designed to help them succeed in school and prepare them for college. Founder and Executive Director of Karma Club Sally Newson says it’s a place where “they can leave their pressures at the door and be in an incredible 5,000-square-foot space that they call their own.” On their busiest days, they see as many as 70 teens.
Karma Club’s online calendar highlights their scheduled programs and activities at a monthly glance — some are even led by teens themselves. Programs vary from chess club and crocheting to video gaming and making music, to name just a few.
The organization has also been working with Branson High School where teens at Karma Club are matched with Branson students for free peer to peer tutoring, either over Zoom or in person, Newson says.
One of Karma Club’s most recent endeavors has been FuturePrep, which aims to help teens access college preparation resources, such as “covering AP exam fees, covering college application fees [and] providing professional college counselors to work with them,” Newson says.
Funded by a generous and anonymous grant, FuturePrep will provide these resources for all students of Terra Linda High School and San Rafael High School regardless of socioeconomic background and on a “just ask” basis, a press release about the new program reads.
Another emphasis of Karma Club, Newson says, is fulfilling social and emotional gaps by allowing them to be more socially engaged with their peers in person, rather than through technology.
“The three social pillars are physical health, mental health and social health, and they’re kind of interdependent on each other, so when one is out of whack, the others get wobbly,” she says. “And so the social health aspect is critical, especially after the pandemic. So many of the kids that we see, you know they have social anxiety, loneliness, and this is really filling a much needed overall well being.”
Parents, teens and the community alike have been receptive to this teen center so far, and this feedback has led a conversation about how to help it grow. “This kind of model is very scalable and very doable, and there’s a lot of demand to open more Karma Clubs throughout Marin County, and that just might be the next step,” Newson says. “No promises, but we’ll see.”