News

Boston's own Ritmo en Acción youth dance troupe became the talk of the nation this week when its members were featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. See for yourself the Hyde Square Task Force program that everyone is everyone is talking about!
Click here to watch the video

The Maritime Apprenticeship Program (Hull Lifesaving Museum) was featured on the Jordan Rich Show on WBZ Radio as a Lenny Zakim Fund grant recipient.  The Maritime Apprenticeship Program offers intensive full-time, year-round training for older youth in the custody of DYS.
Listen to the 12-02-07 Jordan Rich Show

Students and staff from El Centro del Cardenal organized a Cultural Festival in early March that brings together the school, families, and community partners in an annual celebration and community building event. The festival highlighted student poetry from an intensive poetry workshop the previous months. In addition, several students (pictured below) re-enacted a controversial trial they learned about in their social studies class.

Member organizations of the Boston Youth Service Network organized a successful Youth Fair on Thursday, March 13, 2008. 170 youth from 12 community-based youth programs across the city came together to participate in the event. Youth completed an interactive workshop to strengthen their interview skills and learn about summer employment opportunities in Boston. They then connected with nearly 30 summer worksites, employers and postsecondary college and training programs at the fair. The goal of the event was to give youth a head start on their summer employment opportunities and learn how to be proactive in this process.

Congratulations to everyone at Hyde Square Task Force! Their Ritmo en Accion teen dance program was awarded the prestigious Coming Up Taller award from First Lady Laura Bush. This award honors 15 arts and humanities nonprofit organizations annually for encouraging creativity in children in order to help steer them away from crime. See the coverage in the Boston Globe.

Superintendent Carol Johnson presented her recommendations for BPS at the School Committee meeting Jan 30.  She will present the second phase of her recommendations in April 2008.  The full report and restructured organizational chart are available to download from the BPS website (www.bostonpublicschools.org).  We will be discussing these recommendations and how we want to respond as a network over the next week.

Governor Patrick announced plans to hike education spending by $368 million. This includes $223 million for local communities to spend on education and targeted funding for extended school day programs, tutoring for students with low MCAS scores and other initiatives. The Globe also reported Mayor Menino is expected to announce plans for a $1 million program called the "new Boston miracle" that would coordinate the programming of schools, branch libraries, and community centers to boost test scores and graduation rates, while decreasing dropouts and youth violence.

To: Community Groups concerned about youth violence prevention/intervention programs, to Shannon Grant fundees, to DPH Youth Violence prevention program fundees and/or recent applicants

From: Lew Finfer, Safe Teens/Safe Communities Coalition (617) 822-1499

Hi BYSN,

Attached, please find more information about Sociedad Latina's 3 Kings Celebration!

Thanks,

Jaime E

The GED Plus at ESAC Program is proud to introduce our new student mentoring program. We are looking for volunteers to work with students on finding a pathway to a fulfilling life. Are you a potential mentor for this initiative? For further information see the attached flyer.

The Boston Public Schools is partnering with local community-based organizations to sponsor a series of community forums targeting youth and their families affected by the dropout crisis. All BYSN members and partners are strongly encouraged to organize their youth and families to attend these forums. These voices are critically important and this is an opportunity to influence decisions and policies that impact our youth.

A summary of the Parthenon Project was presented at the school committee meeting on 9/26. The Parthenon Group presented key findings from the extensive data analysis, including a detailed look at the populations most at risk of dropping out of school (see attached report).

The Boston Youth Service Network was awarded a $30,000 implementation grant through the Teen Initiative. This funding will allow the network to accomplish key goals (listed below) and is a great opportunity. Great work everyone, particularly our ad hoc committee that did the bulk of the work putting the proposal together. Congratulations BYSN!

Below are dates for the fall professional development workshops on learning disabilities. This is the first phase of the professional development strategy resulting from the Learning Disabilities project BYSN undertook this past year.

BYSN meets monthly from 2:00-4:00 pm, see dates below. We will generally meet at the PIC office in Jamaica Plain at 555 Amory Street, but may periodically meet at a member organization’s site when someone is able to host - agenda and location details will be posted before each meeting.

Hoping that everyone saw the item in the Globe yesterday stating that the Mass. dropout rate gone from 3.8% to 3.3% from FY 04 to FY 05. However, this drop is the result of a new way of accounting: anyone who drops out and later gets a GED is no longer considered a dropout. With this in mind and the figures they quoted, it appears that it actually went up slightly.

BYSN would like to congratulate two partners who were honored as PIC Achievers at the annual meeting of the Boston Private Industry Council. Larry Smith - Deputy Director for Youth and Human Services, Mayor's Office of Jobs and Community Services and Matt Weeman - Youth Career Counselor at The Work Place were recognized for their dedication and hard work.

Attached is a compilation of upcoming funding opportunities, including public and some corporate dollars. There are a few that might be of interest to member organizations: Staples Foundation to support job skills and education programs for disadvantaged youth and a USDOJ Mentoring Initiative.

The Boston Youth Service Network is pleased to announce the launch of its community web site at www.bysn.org. This is a dynamic web site that allows youth service providers to share resources as well as events, news and opportunities with the broader youth-serving community. BYSN Members post information and can comment on anything posted by other members.

BYSN was awarded a Round 1 planning grant through the Boston After School & Beyond Teen Initiative.  This is a $3,000 planning grant which allows us to develop a more detailed implementation proposal for a Round 2 grant (August 2007).