Mayor Spotlights SSYP Teen Organizing

In his State Of The City address last night, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh unveiled plans to to renovate Ramsay Park, thanks to the efforts of SSYP's teen organizers. The Park is one of the few green spaces in the Lenox neighborhood, which is home to one of our year-round program sites. Despite its potential to be a family-friendly recreation space, it has long been an epicenter of drug use and violence in the neighborhood. SSYP's teen organizers came together last winter to plan the park's transformation as part of the B-PEACE for Jorge anti-violence initiative. (Read the Boston Herald Article, which includes video footage, here.) 

The teens' efforts spurred the formation of a coalition, Friends of Ramsay Park, that fosters greater collaboration between community organizations. Teen organizers led cleanup days, painted murals, planted bulbs, planned summer evening athletic programming and created family events. Their efforts to make the six acres safer have engaged city and law enforcement officials in dialogues about larger neighborhood issues including gang activity, homelessness, addiction, and mistrust of law enforcement. Noting that he "grew up in his neighborhood's parks" the Mayor said he is committed to improving parks throughout the city.

SSYP's Lenox Neighborhood Organizer, Sarah O'Connor who attended the Mayor's speech along with teen organizers and Director of Youth Programs, Liz Steinhauser commented, "We are thrilled that Ramsay Park is getting the kind of resources and attention from the city that the neighborhood deserves! This has been a community-wide effort that would not have been possible without the hard work and commitment of many individuals and organizations including (but not limited to) Vibrant Boston, Northeastern University, Washington Gateway Main Streets, D-4 of the Boston Police Department, the Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin and the City of Boston Department of Youth Engagement and Employment. Thanks again to everyone for being part of this exciting new chapter in the story of Ramsay Park." 

To find out how to get involved, please contact  Sarah O'Connor.  Read press coverage:

Season-Ending, Record-Breaking Carrot Harvest on Lenox Street

The final carrots of the season were harvested at St. A&M, and thus we put the garden to bed for the winter after a long and productive growing season. Aden says, "The small carrots are my favorite because they are the cutest." Saheed says, "The funny looking ones are like that because they hit a rock and had to keep growing around it." Adriel says, "¡¿Cuándo podemos comer más zanahorias?!" ("When can we eat more carrots?!") And our favorite quote of all: "I tried to plant a garden [at home] but it didn't work because I used Skittles instead of seeds." We can't wait to plant again in the spring!

From Access To Success!

100% of St. Stephen's seniors graduated from high school.

For young people in the neighborhoods we serve, earning a high school diploma is a huge hurdle. Last year, for a second year in a row, all nineteen of our seniors graduated from high school. That was amazing, given the fact that only about a third of their public school peers who enter high school achieve that goal. Their success reflects a lot of hard work on their part and a lot of support from us — one-on-one mentoring, academic enrichment, and college counseling. They all headed off with great plans for this fall.

For some time, we have known that getting into college is only the first hurdle. As we hear from from our alumni, making it through college is very difficult for young people who graduate from Boston Public Schools (BPS). In fact, The Boston Foundation reported that college completion rates among BPS graduates are almost as low as the district’s high school graduation rates.

Some teens experience “summer melt” and drop out before they actually enroll in college. Others become discouraged early on when faced with remedial coursework, overwhelming debt, and lack of support. Sometimes, students who are used to being portrayed as “success stories” in their communities drop out without telling anyone they are experiencing difficulty, embarrassed about not being able to meet the goals they have set for themselves.

The Success Boston College Completion Initiative was created to change the conversation from college access to college success. Based on their model, this year our mentoring program will include college students and we are developing an alumni support program to connect students with other SSYP alums, and campus resources.

If you are interested in being involved in this program please contact Jeremy Kazanjian-Amory. 

Posted by Jeremy Kazanjian-Amory, Massachusetts Promise Fellow, College and Career Program Coordinator

Bunker Hill Visit Kicks Off College Success Initiative

SSYP’s new College Success program will help us do a better job of supporting our graduates as they transition into college. Because twelve of our alumni currently attend Bunker Hill Community College, the school, was a natural choice to be a program partner. Our goal is to create a cohort model, similar to that of the Posse Foundation, where students can utilize each other as resources during the what is typically a very challenging year for Boston Public School graduates. Since many of our alums hope to transfer to four-year schools, we also hope to support them in those efforts.

Anna Rodriguez (an alum in her second year at Tufts University) and I met with Julita Bailey, the Senior Special Programs Coordinator at Bunker Hill. Julita has years of experience working with first-generation students and oversees the ACE mentoring program. ACE is “committed to helping new students make a successful transition to Bunker Hill Community College by focusing on academic achievement, engagement, and cultural competency.”

Our next step is to have Bunker Hill students come to an alumni event at St. Stephen’s, where Julita will help them learn more about campus resources and the transfer process. But that is just the beginning. Soon we will go to Benjamin Franklin Institute to meet with their academic advisors and the three SSYP alums who attend the school.

Posted by: Jeremy Kazanjian-Amory, College and Career Program Coordinator

SSYP Teens Root For Boston Sports Teams

 

OCTOBER 20, 2015 2:50 PM

Over the past week, through a partnership with Mass Mentoring, teens from St. Stephen’s have enjoyed a variety of Boston sports events. This past weekend, soccer fans Aliyah Glover and Nyah Webb traveled to Foxborough see the New England Revolution play the Montreal Impact at Gillette stadium. They went with their mentor, Kali Downer, as well as St. Stephen’s staff Kasey Boston and Jeremy Kazanjian-Amory. It started snowing in the second half, but the group stayed warm with a steady stream of hot chocolate and warm treats. Despite the Revolution losing 1-0, the group loved the experience and was thankful to have had the opportunity to go on the adventure together.

Following the soccer adventure, 5 of the teen organizers, along with St. Stephen’s staff members Sarah O’Connor and Karl Magloire, saw the Boston Celtics play a preseason game against the Brooklyn Nets. The teens celebrated their own fall organizing success together, while also losing their voices cheering on a team they all love. Sarah O’Connor said of the experience, “Dominick lost his voice yelling over the railing for the coach to put all of the players in so they all got a chance to play!”

All of these experiences were made possible through the partnerships between St. Stephen’s, Mass Mentoring, and Celtics Shamrock Foundation. With this partnership intact, St. Stephen’s hopes to continue to send teens and their mentors to games throughout the rest of the year.

Fall Cleanup In Ramsay Park

OCTOBER 27, 2015 12:15 PM

On Saturday, October 24th, the Friends of Ramsay Park spent the morning giving the park a thorough fall cleaning. Neighbors from the South End and Lower Roxbury were joined by Northeastern students (as part of the Northeastern Center for Community Service’s NU Service Day), Washington Gateway Main Streets, teens from Vibrant Boston, and members of the South End Community Church and Emmanuel Gospel Center (as part of the Unite Boston BostonServes day). They raked up dozens of bags of leaves, picked up trash, and planted hundreds of daffodil bulbs around the tennis courts and the airplane statue that commemorates Captain David Ramsay. The day concluded with a performance by the Praise and Worship team from People’s Baptist Church, lead by the rockstar Reverend David Wright of the Black Ministerial Alliance.

Posted by Sarah O'Conner

Books And Bulbs At The Blackstone

Following the AmeriCorps Swearing In Ceremony, 40 Mass Promise Fellows visited the Blackstone School for an afternoon of service. This was the first service event B-PEACE has sponsored this school year!  School partnerships and service are the primary way B-PEACE works toward its goal of academic excellence in public schools.

The event began with an address to the volunteers at the school’s library from Lisa Lineweaver, representing the school’s Executive Leadership Team. Lisa spoke about the school’s turnaround story and the students the Blackstone serves.  The school is one of the only BPS schools to serve students with multiple disabilities, and therefore draws students from all around Boston.  Lisa also spoke about the school’s motto, Ubuntu, meaning, “we are because of each other”, and the school’s core values: respect, unity, and excellence.  The presence of the volunteers that afternoon, said Lisa, was a way of showing, and not just telling, the students that the school community strives to live its motto.

Following Lisa’s introduction to the school, Tim Crellin, the founder and Executive Director of St. Stephen’s Youth Programs, spoke about the South End community that surrounds the Blackstone and the flourishing relationship between the Blackstone and St. Stephen’s.  In addition to facilitating service days like this one, St. Stephen’s runs the Blackstone Library, coordinates Support-A-Classroom, and oversees classroom aids from Wellesley College.

After the orientation in the library, volunteers joined students in their classrooms for an afternoon of reading!  A teacher hosting volunteers said he was delighted by his students’ enthusiasm to read with the volunteers. Several teachers expressed interest in hosting similar events to empower students and foster a love for reading. 

After school was dismissed, the Mass Promise volunteers and St. Stephen’s after-school students and staff spent the sunny afternoon at the Blackstone Park and Ramsay Park weeding the garden, planting daffodil bulbs, and playing kickball.

Teens Meet Retired Red Sox Pitching Great Pedro Martinez

GLOBE PHOTO: LUIS CLEMENTE (SON OF ROBERTO CLEMENTE) AND BOSTON MAYOR MARTY WALSH AT THE UNVEILING CEREMONY (ALSO THAT’S FELIX ARROYO SR. IN THE BACK)

On November 19th, a group of of young people had the opportunity to go to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute to be part of a public conversation with Pedro Martinez. The 8-time All Star, 3-time Cy Young Award winner, and newly inducted Baseball Hall of Famer dominated opponents from the mound for the Red Sox from 1998-2004. He was part of the 2004 World Series Championship team which delivered a stunning come-from-behind victory 86 years in the making.

In an interview prior to the event, Pedro talked about how proud he was to be a part of Boston’s Latino community; “I am Lynn, I am Jamaica Plain, I am Lawrence, I am Providence, I am Roxbury. The best moments of my career happened in Boston and I will always carry them in my heart,” he said.

During the conversation with Boston Public School students, he talked about growing up thinking he would either become a pediatrician or a baseball player. Despite the discouragment he received from people who thought he was too small (he’s 5’9″ by generous measure) to ever make it to the major leagues, he went on to become one of the most dominant pitchers ever to play the game, an especially remarkable feat in an era of rampant abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. He advised the young people in the audience to take advantage of growing up in America, which he called “the land of opportunity.”

One young person immediately started reading “Pedro,” Pedro Martinez’s autobiography (that he got at the event) and was enthralled in learning all about Pedro’s childhood in Manoguayabo, outside of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. A St. Stephen’s Youth Programs alum talked about meeting Pedro as a lifetime-best experience.

In other relevant baseball news from November 19, a bust of Puerto Rican hero Roberto Clemente was installed adjacent to the Blackstone School in the Puerto Rican Veterans Monument Square in the South End Clemente played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955-1972, winning 12 consecutive Gold Glove awards, batting over .300 for 13 consecutive seasons, and amassing over 3,000 hits throughout his career. He was killed in an airplane crash in 1972 while on a humanitarian mission to Nicaragua and became the first Latin American player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1973.

Posted by Teen Organizer, Dominick Jackson

Read the Globe coverage here:  

 HTTPS://WWW.BOSTONGLOBE.COM/METRO/2015/11/19/ROBERTO-CLEMENTE-STATUE-UNVEILED-SOUTH-END/M9WKRFMYLF62Z2HF3QEJGP/STORY.HTML

Teen Organizers Volunteer in the Lenox Neighborhood

Spending a Saturday afternoon at the Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin seemed perfect with Thanksgiving right around the corner. The teen organizers were there to do community service in the Lenox neighborhood, where we have focused our organizing efforts on Ramsay Park. We helped Crosstown Church volunteers cook and serve a community Thanksgiving meal. Meeting new people was fantastic. Also, the joy of being able to dance with my friends and to feel like part of a community was an amazing way to spend my Saturday afternoon. Not to mention, the food (especially the green beans), was delicious and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Posted by Teen Organizer Tahnaree Evans

B-PEACE Teen Organizers part of neighborhood peace walk

OCTOBER 29, 2015 11:23 AM

B-PEACE for Jorge teen organizers joined about 30 people from local churches (including many clergy), police officers, and community members in front of Grant A.M.E. Church for a neighborhood walk for peace to end to street violence. The route crossed Washington Street and wound through Ramsay Park, where B-PEACE teen organizers have been involved in a campaign to increase neighborhood safety.  “I was proud to walk through Ramsay Park, because people were noticing the art we had created over the summer. The point of the mural and the tiles was to make people feel safer in Ramsay Park.” said B-PEACE teen organizer Tahnaree Evans.

Law enforcement officers and members of the clergy introduced themselves to residents in the Lenox-Camden housing development and lead prayers for peace and an end to violence in the neighborhood. "These walks bring everyone together," said neighborhood resident and B-PEACE organizer Jhanel Potts. "A lot of people feel some type of way about the cops. Cops were there and nothing bad happened, no one got arrested, so people felt more like they could trust cops. And get the sense that not all cops are bad and we can trust some of them." B-PEACE organizer Dominick Jackson agreed, "It was awesome to see people I haven't seen in a long time and to see that lots of people I know care about my neighborhood. And that we were talking about the problem of violence in the community and people had to listen."

Clergy and law enforcement are teaming up to organize a series of walks in neighborhoods throughout the city in response to the uptick in violence this summer, with the goal of strengthening community-police relationships so everyone can be on the team working to reduce neighborhood violence.

POSTED BY the Teen Community Organizing Team

Northeastern Students Volunteer at B-READY at St. Martin and St. Augustine

Eight students from Northeastern have been volunteering with B-READY in Lower Roxbury. They have helped with everything from math homework, to bulb planting, to comforting to children who are having a difficult day.  Photographed is Northeastern Volunteer Jose reading a book with Kindergarten student Mustafa.

SSYP Goes To Wellesley College

On November 22nd, eight students from St. Stephen’s Youth Programs and St. Mary’s Ethiopian Congregation ventured out on the commuter rail to visit Wellesley College. The trip was part of a growing partnership between St. Stephen’s and Wellesley, which also includes SAT Prep, a program in which Wellesley students help prepare high school juniors at St. Stephen’s for the SAT exams. This fall, the partnership grew to include a program for seniors focused on college preparation. The high school students set up Common Applications, wrote college essays, and participated in SAT Prep classes.

The opportunity to visit Wellesley College allowed students at St. Stephen’s to see what a small liberal arts college looks like and ask the college students questions about their experiences and challenges. The visit included a tour led by college students and a panel of college students who answered questions. Helegenat, one of the students from St. Mary’s commented that her favorite part was “talking and listening to the Wellesley students, especially hearing the first generation student’s stories and advice. Also viewing the art room was something that struck my interest because it pertains to the type of art I’m working on right now.” After the panel, everyone went to the dining hall and stuffed themselves at the buffet. The next stop was the student center, where Wellesley generously provided $10 for every student at the gift shop. The students left the school fulfilled by a fun day exploring a new part of Massachusetts and learning about a different type of school.

St. Stephen’s is excited to continue the partnership with Wellesley in the spring by providing SAT Prep for Juniors. If you know anyone who may be interested in participating or if you want to learn more about how you can be involved in the College and Career program at St. Stephen’s, please reach out to Jeremy.

Posted by Jeremy Kazanjian-Amory, College and Career Program Coordinator    
    

Building Relationships Across Boundaries

On a recent Sunday afternoon, five teen Community Organizers joined the youth group at St. Paul’s in Natick for an evening of relationship building, crafts, and pizza. The connection between the two teen groups began in October when teens from St. Paul's came to the South End for a workshop on youth leadership. The workshop left both groups curious to know more about each other!

At St. Paul’s, the teens discussed the values they share and made collages depicting them. The groups came together to combine their pieces into two larger collages, one for St. Stephen’s to take home and display and one for St. Paul’s to display.  

During dinner, the organizers from St. Stephen’s invited the youth from Natick to join them in January for the 6th Annual Martin Luther King Day of Action.  In addition to working on service projects, the Teen Community Organizers will be hosting a workshop focused on the importance of youth jobs and the upcoming Youth Jobs Rally in February!  

Posted by Maureen Burns, South End School And Community Organizer