{"id":294982,"date":"2026-06-03T21:47:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294982\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:47:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:47:50","slug":"teen-center-offers-space-for-teens-to-spend-the-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/294982\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen Center offers space for teens to spend the summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. \u2014\u00a0From playing pool to hanging out with friends, the Pinellas Park Teen Center<\/a> offers teens like 14-year-old Olivia Latham a place to spend their summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Olivia is one of around 40 teens in the center’s summer program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s for kids 13-17.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Having our own building is like such a big impact because it just feels more welcoming,” she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assistant Administrator of Leisure Services for Pinellas Park, Kellie Gilmore, said the teen center opened in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said it’s important for kids this age to have somewhere they can go and still have structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s not a lot of spaces that they can go to and just be dropped off and have a good time, hang out with their friends,” she said. “So I think it’s a nice blend of being able to hang out but also getting their input.”<\/p>\n

Some Tampa Bay police agencies and state leaders are raising concerns about so-called “Teen Takeovers.”<\/p>\n

These gatherings of teenagers have led to fights, and this past Sunday, a shooting in Clearwater<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At 14, Olivia said there aren’t many places she can go on her own.<\/p>\n

She said the Teen Center offers her and her friends a place to thrive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s sports events, and there’s parks, but this is different because this is social,” she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS PARK, Fla. \u2014\u00a0From playing pool to hanging out with friends, the Pinellas Park Teen Center offers teens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1011,2967,274,1190,4628,115,277,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-294982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-human-interest","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-news","tag-public-safety","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}