In general, the population of St. Petersburg is growing younger and the city is responding to the needs of its young residents through a variety of innovative programs. Working through its dynamic arts and cultural community, the city aims to excite and inspire its young people to succeed in every aspect of their lives.

In the Midtown area, the city built and maintains an arts wing on the Wildwood Recreation Center to house the Youth Arts Corps; an arts education and job training program for teens operated by the Pinellas County Arts Council.

The city invested $700,000 in the Royal Theater/Boys and Girls Club, a historic Midtown building undergoing extensive renovation. It now houses a stage, theater, sound studio and arts and dance studios where local artists hold classes for young people.

TASCO (Teen Arts, Sports and Cultural Opportunities) is an award-winning national model for positive activity programs for teens - an at-risk age group funded jointly by the city ($600,000 annually)and the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County ($960,000). Teens plan and produce their own activities on Teen Councils headquartered at city recreation centers. TASCO programs include:

• mentoring and drug education
• Scrubbin’ da Burg, a city-wide clean-up event
• Impressions Teen Magazine, a quarterly written and produced completely by teens that is distributed to 120,000 middle and high school students countywide
• Teen summer camps
• Building Blocks for Success that involve teens in the community
• Junior Leader job training, and
• sports leagues and tournaments.