Mayor Martin Walsh announced Monday $230,000 in corporate and individual sponsorships through the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Fund to create an additional 175 youth jobs for nine community-based organizations. Sponsorships are among the various partners and organizations that support youth employment for the City of Boston and help to create the more than 10,000 jobs through the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program.
“Jobs provide Boston youth with meaningful work experience,” Walsh said. “Thanks to our community sponsors, who understand how to make a difference in a young person’s life, we will be able to continue to create more opportunities for our young people and invest in the future of our City.”
In 2014, Mayor Walsh established the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Fund to financially assist community-based organizations in need of additional funding to fully operate and execute youth employment programs.
The following is the list of grant recipients :
Action for Boston Community Development SummerWorks:
ABCD’s SummerWorks program has provided over 5,000 Boston youth between the ages of 14 to 21 years old with a summer job at more than 500 partner worksites across Boston
Award Amount: $125,000; Mayor’s Summer Jobs Fund ($100,000) and Comcast ($25,000)
Number of Jobs: 91
Boston Youth Wrestling:
Teen youth employees assist instructors in developing curriculum for a week-long camp that will expose 50 youth participants to various disciplines of martial arts, including wrestling, Brazilian jiujitsu, muay thai, Striking and more.
Award Amount: $3,000
Number of Jobs: 3
Eliot Church:
Youth employees, ages 14-22, serve as Junior Counselors, Counselors and Lead Counselors for a camp program that focuses on arts and recreation.
Award Amount: $23,320
Number of Jobs: 28
Mothers for Justice and Equality:
Youth employees (advocates) participate in the Junior Advocates Youth Leadership Development Program. Advocates participate in professional development workshops, organize community events for residents, design and deliver workshops on peacebuilding and conflict resolution, and work alongside MJE staff.
Award Amount: $9,450
Number of Jobs: 6
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Boston Branch:
Youth employees participate in professional development, conduct nonpartisan voter registration, promote healthy lifestyles and violence prevention, encourage support for local businesses and City of Boston initiatives, and work with other youth groups to explore solutions to community problems.
Award Amount: $11,950
Number of Jobs: 7
Phillips Brooks House Association:
Youth employees develop leadership experience staffing the Summer Urban Programs, a network of 12 camps which serve low-income youth throughout greater Boston and Cambridge by providing a high-quality, affordable summer enrichment experience.
Award Amount: $20,000
Number of Jobs: 10
Smart from the Start:
Smart from the Start offers comprehensive coordinated set of services for parents, caregivers and children. Youth employees are trained to provide administrative support to central staff, organize data and documentation of clients, assist with special projects and initiatives, and support families as needed.
Award Amount: $12,500
Number of Jobs: 5
Southwest Boston
Community Development Corporation:
Youth employees, ages 18-22, participate in an environmental employment program to restore the urban wild in the Hyde Park community. The employees are trained to engage residents in planning and stewardship of the greenway along Fairmount Line.
Award Amount: $8,605
Number of Jobs: 3
Talented And Gifted Latino Program, University of Massachusetts Boston:
Youth employees will serve as teaching assistants (TAs) in the 31st annual Summer TAG Program, which provides academic enrichment coupled with athletic and artistic programming to 200 BPS middle and high school youth, including special programming for English Language Learners. The Summer TAG TA program has been a pipeline to teaching careers, developing urban educators, many of whom are currently teaching in BPS. TAs are 17-22-year-olds working in classrooms, supporting implementation of curriculum, and working in small groups and with individual students and benefiting from ongoing professional development.
Award Amount: $41,995
Number of Jobs: 22
“Mayor Walsh’s support of Youth Jobs provided us with the resources needed to provide six additional youth who had lost a friend, sibling and/or parent to street violence with a safe space to learn and heal from the aftermath of their lost, while earning money and learning the importance of civic leadership,” said Monalisa Smith, President and CEO at Mothers for Justice and Equality. “We believe the mayor’s leadership in youth employment is key in support of our efforts in ending street violence.”
“Experience has shown us that the opportunity to work at an early age is a powerful tool to addressing a host of economic, health and social issues that impact our city,” said Michael Curry, President of the Boston NAACP. “The Mayor’s investment in our young people through the Jobs Fund will pay dividends for the City of Boston and is certain to deliver the next generation of business and civic leaders.”
Corporations interested in supporting youth employment may contact the Mayor’s Office of Health and Human Services at summer jobs@boston.gov or 617-635-1845.
