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This year, funding
will be awarded to Boston non-profit organizations that focus on increasing
the number and variety of youth development programs intentionally addressing
the metrics that prevent youth and young adult violence in Boston
neighborhoods. There is a concentration with this year’s funds to support
activities that implement evidence-based prevention strategies intended to
shape individual behaviors as well as relationship, community, and societal
factors that influence the risk for violence.
The FY22 Youth
Development Fund will be supporting organizations that are in neighborhoods
disproportionately impacted by gun or youth violence, youth serving
entities with an intentional focus on outreach and engagement of
high-risk/proven-risk youth and young adults, and organizations using the Positive Youth Development framework and/or Meaningful Youth Engagement practices.
Of the
organizations receiving funding, 57% are led by a woman and 50% are led by
a person of color. Of those receiving funds, 48% of organizations will
service Dorchester and 27% will service Roxbury, in addition to other
neighborhoods.
“We are grateful
to the City for the continued support of More Than Words and positive youth
development throughout the city,” said Jodi Rosenbaum, Founder & CEO of
More Than Words. “Mayor Janey’s connection to our young people and the
issues that matter to them were clear in her recent visit to talk with our youth,
and this award is a testament to the hard work of our young people moving
their lives forward.”
“This funding is a
lifeline that helps us continue our work as an organization dedicated to
empowering women and girls impacted by community harm incarceration,"
said Ruth Rollins Executive Director of We Are Better Together Warren
Daniel Hairston Project. “We thank Mayor Janey and her administration for
creating this funding resource, which allows so many local non-profits to
continue working towards social justice and equity.
Mayor Janey has
increased funding for the Youth Development Fund this year, marking the
fourth year of increases, bringing the investment total from $1M up to
1.25M for FY22.
Below are the
grantees awarded funding from the 2022 Youth Development Fund. Additional
funding will be available in the spring as part of the Fund.
Action for Boston
Community Development, Inc.: ABCD’s SummerWorks and WorkSMART programs serve both in-school and
out-of-school youth, providing them critical employment skills through
weekly intensive work readiness workshops followed by job placements.
All Dorchester Sports & Leadership: ADSL’s focus on wellness and academic
success encourages healthy habits and choices for youth and their families.
ADSL offers an alternative to risky behaviors where young people can excel
in sports and academics, build self esteem, develop leadership skills, and
engage with positive role models and mentors.
Artists for Humanity: AFH provides teens from Boston opportunities to learn and
earn income through paid employment in art and design.
Beat The Odds: Beat the Odds is dedicated to serving
under-resourced youth in Boston’s low-income communities through its
Creative Youth Development Program. Their mission is to provide a safe
space, where young people will have access to the creative tools necessary
to inspire self-awareness and encourage mental health and healing from
trauma through music and arts.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts: Diversity, equity, and inclusion are the
core values at Big Brothers Big Sisters that aid them in maximizing their
impact and truly thrive as an organization.
Boston Asian Youth Essential Service: Boston Asian YES provides services and programs for at-risk
and high-risk Asian youth, ages 13-22. It is the only Chinatown community
agency that provides outreach, prevention and intervention services to this
cohort and has a long history of partnering with BPD, alternative education
programs and other social service providers.
Boston Debate League: Their mission is to integrate
argumentation and competitive debate into public schools in Boston to
develop critical thinkers ready for college, career, and engagement with
the world around them.
Boston Project Ministries: The Boston Project engages and equips
neighbors, volunteers, and congregations to build strong communities
characterized by God’s shalom.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, Inc.: BGCB’s YouthConnect Social Workers provide gang and at-risk
youth confidential, voluntary community-based mental health support and
resource coordination, including via tele-health sessions.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester, Inc.: Partnering with BDP, the Club supports programming that
forges positive community-police relations and teaches young people
alternatives to violence; summer programming provides enrichment activities
such as field trips.
Breaktime United, Inc.: Breaktime is a non-profit that works to
end young adult homelessness. They operate Boston’s first transitional
employment program for young adults experiencing homelessness in which
young adults launch their careers, nurture their talents, and serve their
communities.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Bridge is Boston’s foremost agency
providing life-changing services for homeless, runaway and at-risk youth.
Bryce's Journey, Inc: Bryce’s Journey, Inc. is a minority woman
led non-profit organization dedicated to serving the underserved Autism
Spectrum Disorder/ADHD community of Boston, MA. The Mission of Bryce’s
Journey, Inc. is to provide free or low-cost support to low-income inner
city families of children with these high functioning disabilities.
Businesses United in Investing Lending and
Development (BUILD Boston): BUILD ignites the power of youth in under-resourced
communities to build career success, entrepreneurial mindsets, and
opportunity. They help students become the CEO of their own lives!
Cape Verdean Community Unido DBA Cape Verdean
Association of Boston: The Cape Verdean Association works to empower the Cape
Verdean Community since 2000. They run parents’ and women’s support
groups, as well as youth programs and training to promote the skill
development needed to affect change.
Casa Myrna Vazquez, Inc. : Casa Myrna is Boston’s largest provider
of shelter and supportive services to survivors of domestic violence,
providing safety, resources, advocacy and information since 1977.
Catholic Charitable Bureau of the Archdiocese of
Boston Inc.: Catholic
Charities’ Teen Center at St. Peter serves as a safe haven for adolescents
living in Dorchester’s most troubled areas during after school hours and
throughout the summer months. The Teen Center’s staff, programs, and
activities aim to increase teens’ self-esteem while providing the tools
needed for academic and personal growth, as well as their success in the
community.
Codman Square Health Center: Programming to support young people aged 13-18, and their
families, through targeted leadership development programs, mentoring, and
healthy lifestyles education.
EVkids, Inc.: EVkids provides a continuum of services to
help low-income, academically vulnerable children and teens (beginning in
grades 4-12) succeed in school and life by systematically strengthening
core academic skills, organizational habits, and other life skills.
Friends of the Children-Boston: Impacting generational change by
empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships
with professional mentors – no matter what.
Future Chefs: FC prepares teens for successful life and
work after high school. Future Chefs teens work hard in the kitchen and use
this training as a foundation for a broad range of academic and
professional careers. Their conviction is that the life skills and knife
skills learned in the kitchen can be applied meaningfully in all avenues of
a fulfilling life.
Hyde Square Task Force, Inc.: They amplify the power, creativity, and
voices of youth, connecting them to Afro-Latin culture and heritage so they
can create a diverse, vibrant Latin Quarter and build a just, equitable
Boston.
Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA): IBA prepares young people aged 13-18 for school and life
success by offering an employment-based program, centered on arts
education, that fosters meaningful relationships and experiences
integrating community organizing, social and emotional support.
Justice Resource Institute, Inc. dba STRIVE
Boston: Programming provides proven-risk youth with
support, leadership and work experience opportunities that will help them
to become productive, responsible and law-abiding.
LEAP Self-Defense, Inc.: Girls' LEAP interrupts the cycle of
violence by empowering all girls and nonbinary youth to value and champion
their own safety and well-being. Their goal is to provide girls with the
tools and skills to keep themselves safe, both emotionally and physically.
They partner with local schools and community centers to deliver
empowerment and self-defense services to girls aged 8-18 in Greater Boston.
Lena Park: Lena Park’s mission for the 21st century
is to provide integrated programs, services and access to resources that
will help youth and families in the Lena Park catchment area build healthy
lives, healthy families, and a healthy community.
Level Ground Mixed Martial Arts Inc.: Their Mixed Martial Arts, Jiu Jitsu,
kickboxing, and yoga offerings empower members of all ages to embrace a
healthy lifestyle while enjoying a connection to a supportive,
family-oriented community. They also provide college access and career
opportunities to Boston youth.
Madison Park Development Corporation: Their mission is to foster a vibrant,
healthy Roxbury neighborhood that supports the well-being and advancement
of the community.
Maverick Landing Community Services: MLCS is a multi-service organization with
a primary focus on helping children, youth, and adults to build
21st-century skills.Their mission is to enhance the lives of the culturally
and economically diverse residents of Maverick Landing, East Boston, and
surrounding communities
MissionSAFE: Their mission is to work with Boston's
highly at-risk youth and their families to gain the skills and confidence
to thrive, not just survive, and to improve their community and their
world.
More Than Words: MTW programming empowers young people to move their lives
forward, supporting them in accessing the education and employment services
they need to build healthy, safe, and self-sufficient futures.
Mothers for Justice and Equality, Inc.: MJE harnesses and focuses the fierce love
and protectiveness of mothers to create neighborhoods where playgrounds are
safe and sidewalks are not threatening.
MBK617: MBK617 is supporting a range of youth development activities
for young people in Dorchester and Roxbury that allows them to create and
maintain healthy relationships with other youth regardless of where they
are from in Boston. Their efforts focus on supporting the psycho-social
development of young people through peer mentoring, youth support and other
enrichment activities.
Piers Park Sailing Center: PPSC provides inclusive and accessible
recreational, educational, and personal growth opportunities for people of
all ages, abilities, and identities. PPSC empowers participants to become stewards
of a stronger community, advocates for a healthy Boston Harbor, and leaders
of individual and family wellness.
Project RIGHT, Inc.: They create, nurture, establish,
strengthen, mobilize and coordinate resident and youth involvement in
neighborhood stabilization, economic development and community building
efforts within the neighborhoods of North Dorchester and Roxbury (Greater
Grove Hall) through the grassroots organizing of neighborhood residents.
Roxbury Youthworks, Inc.: A community-based, minority
non-profit organization whose mission is to help youth caught in cycles of
poverty, victimization and violence transition successfully into adulthood.
Soccer Without Borders: SWB uses soccer as a vehicle for positive change, engaging newcomer
refugees and immigrant youth in East Boston and surrounding communities.
Sociedad Latina, Inc.: Sociedad addresses four key focus areas towards youth
success: Education, Workforce Development, Civic Engagement, and Arts &
Culture, and aims to build deep relationships with families to move
students through middle school, high school, and college.
Sportsmen's Tennis & Enrichment Center: STEC is a year-around, youth centered organization offering
tennis, academic and enrichment programs for K-12 aged youth; programming
supports closing the achievement gap.
Street Litigators,
LLC: Street Litigators
provides legal education classes to youth aged 13-25 to help them avoid
making bad decisions that lead to violence and incarceration.
Summer Search: Sumer Search creates futures for youth 7+
with purpose and equity by empowering young people through mentoring and
experiential learning programs.
TEAM New England Youth Academy: TEAM New England is a youth development
organization that employs academic, mentoring, athletic, and service
learning programming that positively impacts the development of the youth
in our community.
Team Spartans: Their mission is to provide an inclusive
and diverse environment for youth basketball players who seek to improve
their overall skill set, not only in the game of basketball, but also in
practical life skills.
The City School: The City School develops and strengthens
youth to become effective leaders for social justice. They work with young
people ages 14-19 living in Boston and its surrounding suburbs who are
emerging leaders and have a passion for social justice.
The Center for Teen Empowerment: TE’s violence prevention and youth arts groups meet online
(and/or in person, when possible) to implement initiatives that engage
peers and adults in addressing community violence, educational equity,
racial equity and mental wellness.
The Clubhouse Network: The Clubhouse encourages young people to explore the creative
uses of technology and develop professional and life skills such as
problem-solving and teamwork; students learn computer-generated art,
develop scientific simulations and design animations.
The Food Project: Their mission is to create a thoughtful
and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who
work together to build a more just and sustainable food system. Their
community empowers and equips youth leaders, grows and distributes fresh,
healthy, affordable food in the city and the suburbs, and inspires and
supports others to create change in their communities.
The3PointFoundation, Inc.: 3PF seeks to close the opportunity and
achievement gap caused by economic inequality for underserved, low-income
Boston elementary and middle school youth by providing free community-based
programs that integrate project-based learning, athletics, dance, and other
activities to foster the development of 21st century skills,
social-emotional growth, and a growth mindset - all of which are crucial to
future success.
Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center: Their core educational program for Boston
public middle school students combines field science, social-emotional
learning, and outdoor challenges — all infused with Outward Bound’s unique
approach to promoting compassion, leadership, and service.
Uphams Corner Community Center DBA Bird Street
Community Center: Bird Street
provides a space where young people, under structured adult supervision,
can focus on positive, productive activities and identities.
We Are Better Together Warren Daniel Hairston
Project Inc
: WAB2G connects and heals women and girls affected by homicide and
incarceration to prevent the cycles of violence and victimization.
Yardtime Entertainment: YE Inc. seeks to shift the narrative of
ex-offenders from “public safety concern” to a positive contribution to
society. They’re often the first line of support for ex-offenders, and are
committed to reconnecting families and the community.
Youth Guidance: BAM is a school-based counseling and mentoring program that
improves the social-cognition and behavioral competencies of predominantly
young men of color who have been exposed to stressors and face social,
behavioral, and/or emotional challenges.
YMCA of Greater Boston: The YMCA will support summer employment for teens: last year
the Y hosted 934 young people; and continue with Academic Credit Recovery
where students can “recover” academic credit and so they can graduate on
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