Summer is an important time for teens. With the right opportunities, they can have enriching experiences that engage them in their communities and spark their thinking about their future as adults. ABCD offers two summer programs for teens. Youth Engaged in Action! (YEA!) is a special program for 13-year-olds, who are too young to work but too old for most summer camps. SummerWorks is ABCD’s signature summer youth employment program.
This past summer, 109 young people participated in YEA!, with groups offered at almost all of ABCD’s neighborhood-based service centers. YEA! offers a curriculum that explores the topics of civic engagement, financial literacy, cyber citizenry, food insecurity, and work readiness while also providing opportunities for fun. Special activities included field trips to City Hall and the State House, where the young teens had the opportunity to engage with their elected representatives. In addition, YEA! was fortunate to partner with Capital One, several of whose staff members volunteered to teach the financial literacy lessons using a curriculum developed by Junior Achievement. The young people who completed YEA! In 2018 are guaranteed a slot in SummerWorks in 2019.
SummerWorks engaged 558 participants this past summer, giving the teens subsidized work experience—often their first job ever—in a program designed to support their success. SummerWorks is the only summer jobs program in Boston that hires 14-year olds, and until recently was the only one that hired 15-year-olds. Each year, the number of applicants far exceeds the number of slots, so participants are chosen by lottery in each neighborhood where the program operates.
The success of SummerWorks relies in part on strong collaborative relationships with more than 150 community-based nonprofit organizations and government agencies that refer youth and/or serve as work site partners. One such partner is Urban Edge, a nonprofit community development organization dedicated to strengthening communities and families that has locations in Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, and Roxbury. One of Urban Edge’s programs for people living in its properties is the Summer Youth Leadership Academy. Conducted in partnership with SummerWorks, this program places young people who live in Urban Edge properties in meaningful summer jobs, either in their neighborhood or throughout the City of Boston. Urban Edge also serves as a worksite for a number of SummerWorks participants every summer.
For some teens, SummerWorks leads to more than a summer job. Every year, some SummerWorks youth are offered school-year employment by their SummerWorks work site. One such example from this past summer is that of Yenniliz:
Yenniliz participated in SummerWorks for the first time this year after attending YEA! in 2017. Her Youth Services Specialist reported that she was highly engaged throughout the career readiness workshop week, volunteering to lead activities and encouraging other youth to do the same. She brought a positive attitude from day one of the program, and her smile was contagious to other youth in the program.
Yenniliz was matched with Urban Edge for her worksite placement. Her responsibilities included supporting managers and other staff at Urban Edge with office duties such as preparing materials for first-time home buyer and credit counseling classes, and handling the storage and shredding of files. Being bilingual in Spanish and English made Yenniliz a valuable addition to the Urban Edge team, as she was able to collect and record survey responses from the classes in both languages.
Yenniliz showed a lot of initiative and independence at her worksite. She quickly developed her own system for tracking her assigned tasks to make sure she used her time well and met her supervisor’s expectations. Her supervisor was so impressed with Yenniliz’ work ethic that as early as the second week of the worksite placement he was interested in having her come back to Urban Edge for a school-year internship. By the end of SummerWorks, Urban Edge had identified resources to fund a school-year position for Yenniliz to continue her work and was happy to offer her the position.
Another example of the extended impact of SummerWorks is that of 16-year-old Aisha. This was Aisha’s first year participating in SummerWorks and her first work experience ever:
Aisha worked as an administrative assistant at Massachusetts office of NID Housing Counseling Agency (NID HCA), a Department of Housing and Urban Development authorized Housing Assistance agency. She worked directly with the Regional Manager, Richard Phipps, to support him in administrative duties. Richard is blind and relied on Aisha for many day-to-day tasks including reading and answering emails and maintaining files. Recognizing her potential, Richard quickly took on the role of mentor for Aisha.
During her first week at NID HCA, Richard was so impressed with Aisha’s maturity, work ethic, and professional aspirations that he shared an opportunity for her to participate in a two-week summer entrepreneurship program at Suffolk University. He was able to secure a spot for her in the NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) BizAcademies program even though the application process was already closed.
For the next two weeks Aisha attended the NFTE program at Suffolk University where she came up with her own business idea, met with professionals from the field to help flesh out her idea, and then presented her finalized business plan. Aisha’s idea was focused on creating a financial management phone app that helps families plan to reduce their debt, improve their credit, and become more financially literate. Her business plan earned her second place during the culminating pitch presentation at the end of the program. Aisha was inspired by her experience and now plans to pursue a career in business, as well as try to implement her business plan.
Aisha was able to finish up her summer with NID HCA. Richard extended her internship for one extra week with the agency’s own funds, and said that Aisha would be welcome to come back to work with them anytime. He looks forward to continuing to mentor Aisha even though the summer has ended, and has become a friend to her entire family.
View YEA! 2018 participants talking about what they learned here.
Do you want to help low-income teens have a successful summer in 2019? It’s not too early to donate.
ABCD Insight 