Leaders! Program Community Action Project
PBHA / Monday, August 31st, 2009 / Comments OffAlthough Leaders! was created in 2002 to address the lack of programming designed specifically to cultivate young leaders from low-income Boston neighborhoods and prepare them for the future, it traces its roots back to the beginning of PBHA’s junior counselor program. This history begins ten years before, when in 1992, PBHA partnered with the Boston Youth Fund to provide life-skills training and employment to 40 low-income teens in PBHA’s 11 neighborhood summer camps. Each “junior counselor” worked alongside a college student, aka “senior counselor,” to help teach a class of 10 children while serving as an influential role model for his/her young neighbors. After camp, participants were encouraged to join a free PBHA mentoring program.
As a complement to the junior counselor program, teens soon requested a “mentoring plus” program that would offer meaningful employment, life-skills training, leadership development, and college/career preparation during the school year, and so the term-time Leaders! program was established.
Today, summer Leaders! has grown from 40 to 100 teens, and term-time Leaders! from six to 25, all of whom receive one-on-one mentoring, including MCAS/SAT preparation and college/career advising; group mentoring built around a leadership development and social justice curriculum; and employer mentoring (35 hours/week summer and four hours/week term) performing community service in their own neighborhoods.
Since 2002 the summer Leaders, as part of their training, have organized and run PBHA’s Midsummer Celebration, a major citywide event that brings campers, parents, and staff from all 11 camps together with friends, community members, and civic leaders. Thanks to their efforts, the Midsummer Celebration has grown from 100 to 1,000 attendees and now includes a carnival, talent show, basketball tournament, Community Builder Award presentation, and a Community Action Project. In 2009, PBHA and the junior counselors received official recognition from the City of Boston when the City Council passed a resolution commending them for their consistent and dedicated service to the community. In fact, the City of Boston named July 29th “Phillips Brooks House Association Day” in honor of the ten-year anniversary of the Midsummer Celebration.
This summer, the Junior Counselors in the Community Action Project planning group were charged with finding how an event like the Midsummer Celebration, which brings so many people from all over Boston together, could be used to generate change within their community. They went through the process of problem identification, identifying several consistent problems in their communities: disparities within the school system (teachers, electives, and policing in schools), MBTA fare hikes, cuts to youth programs, jobs, and a lack of youth workers, and a lack of information about the Mayorial race.
The Junior Counselors then chose to use the Midsummer Celebration as an avenue to share their concerns with their community members and youth and to let their voice be heard. Due to some technical difficulties, the documentary was never shown at Midsummer, but it was shown at the Summer Urban Program Blowout Celebration, is now up on youtube, a copy has been given to the Harvard Institute of Politics, as requested, and officials from the City of Boston have asked to work with the CAP JCs on a consistent basis and hear their concerns about the budget. Leaders! presented a case for their concerns, and now you can see their documentary as well!
