The Boston Guardian - Youth Program Is Teaching Leadership by Brandon Hill

The Boston Guardian

Youth Program Is Teaching Leadership

by Brandon Hill

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Boston’s South End St. Stephen’s Youth Programs (SSYP) has grown to engage more than 300 young people this year between the ages of five and 22 in community service, education and career-development programs. These are models of intergenerational organizing.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church at 419 Shawmut Avenue began the organization in 1999, as the church sought to provide a safe place in the South End for elementary students to access education tools and has evolved over the years to address the changing needs of young people, parents and the broader community.

Inés Palmarin, SSYP’s new acting executive director, has a background in neighborhood economic planning and a vision for the organization’s future.

If SSYP can overcome fundraising challenges, Palmarin sees a future where the after school facilities at their secondary location in the South End, The Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin, are expanded to a full-time teen center.

“When we see parents and youth come in, there’s a shift that happens,” said Palmarin. “They say, ‘Oh, I’m a leader. I’m not just here receiving services. I have a voice and I can go and use it.’”

While community service can treat some of the symptoms of poverty by providing necessities, nonprofits often also need to raise donations from the same struggling communities they serve.

SSYP turns that money around, with 67% of expenses in salaries and wages paid to such staffers as counselors and community organizers, the majority of whom live in the community. Consider the 100 teens it now employs in these roles.

The counselor-in-training program employs teens at both of SSYP’s locations as tutors, mentors and chaperones for younger children in the afterschool and summer programs.

“Paying young people for their time matters,” said Palmarin. Paying teens is crucial to the program's long-term sustainability, as it allows teens to contribute to the program while often assisting their parents financially.

Long-term engagement promotes cross-generational community organizing. For example, teen organizers are active in causes they care about, such as transforming Ramsay Park in Roxbury into a space for youth-focused activities.

And parent organizers have achieved a city council resolution affirming Boston Public Schools as sanctuary schools for immigrants.

Paid teen mentors tutor elementary students. Middle schoolers learn leadership by hosting holiday parties for the elementary students. Graduating teens remain connected through check-ins with their post-secondary plans. Adults can participate in a multilingual mentoring program that places parents in Boston public school classrooms to assist teachers.

“I can tell you how that vision looks in my head when I see it,” said Palmarin.

“I have a young woman who works in our program. Her mother became involved, volunteering,” she said. “Then they became part of the parent mentor program. Now you have two people that we’re employing in that family. That young woman now might go to college.”

At a May 16 graduation ceremony at St. Stephen’s, 13 graduates each received a $2,000 scholarship from SSYP. At the event, 17-year-old Franlys Suazo was dubbed “future executive director of SSYP.” He has participated in the program since he was five years old.

“It’s kids of color, so you’ve got to know what’s happening in the community so you know what’s going to be affecting you in your future,” he said.

“[SSYP] has not only nurtured my leadership skills but instilled a sense of responsibility,’’ he said.