THE CENTER FOR TEEN EMPOWERMENT INC
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Mission Statement
The Center for Teen Empowerment empowers youth and adults as agents of positive individual, institutional, and social change. In Boston and Somerville, MA and Rochester, NY, TE employs low-income, urban youth to work together to identify the most pressing issues in their communities and organize a strategy to address those issues that involves a large number of their peers.
About This Cause
Every day at Teen Empowerment, we work with youth whose lives have been disrupted by violence, drugs, poverty and other struggles. Yet, every day we see these youth find their strengths and their voices as they take on the challenging job of Youth Organizer. These talented young people take on difficult issues such as gang violence, youth-police relationships, substance abuse and educational equity, and work together to influence their peers and change public policy in an effort to alleviate those issues. Hiring: The program begins each cycle (Summer and School Year) by hiring a core group of youth at each site ages 14 to 21 at each site to identify the root causes of the violence and crime plaguing their community and to organize a series of initiatives to encourage large numbers of their peers to turn away from negative behaviors and toward positive community involvement. In the summer and again in the fall, TE staff at each of our sites hires 10-14 teens are selected to work as Youth Organizers through an intensive process that includes: -extensive recruitment of 150 to 250 applicants -a first, two-hour interactive group dialogue session/interview (approximately 10 youth in each group) followed by a ten-minute individual interviews -a second interview, similar to the first, conducted with about 1/3 of the applicants In the interactive interview/dialogue sessions, participants build relationships, brainstorm the issues youth face in their community and think critically together about the root causes of the issues and possible solutions. TE staff use this process to identify individuals with the potential to think deeply about community issues, positively influence their peers, and work to develop into strong leaders. The sessions also serve as focus groups, contributing valuable information on what youth in the neighborhood perceive as the most pressing issues they face and helps the youth that participate to build positive relationships. In each of the two neighborhoods we then select a group of youth that is reflective of the overall youth population, including a range of ages, ethnicities, risk levels, geographic areas, and genders, to work as youth organizers Training: Once hired, 12 youth/site meet 4-5 afternoons per week for 3 hours a day during the school year and 5 hours per day in the summer. During the first two weeks, youth organizers complete an intensive training using TE’s Leadership Development curriculum, designed to: -build group and individual relationships; -examine the issues identified in the hiring process and place them in a larger social context; -develop a strategy to address youth violence and create a year-long action plan timeline; -plan the first strategic initiative using TE’s Ten-Step Planning Process; and, -orient youth to the work contract, which establishes expectations for behavior and clearly outlines the consequences if youth organizers fail to meet those expectations. Community Change Initiatives: Following the initial training, each group implements a community change strategy. As part of this effort, youth organize at each site conduct 2-3 large initiatives reaching up to 500 youth each and 10-40 small initiatives engaging 25-75 youth each. Large initiatives are designed to involve local youth in community improvement efforts, such as ending violence and gang activity, and are implemented with the participation and cooperation of neighborhood residents, other organizations, business owners, and police. Smaller initiatives are most often precursors to the larger initiatives. They include conflict resolution and dialogue sessions, arts-based teen café nights and stage shows, community forums and meetings, healing ceremonies, cultural celebrations, and workshops. In total, program initiatives will involve at least 2,500 Boston youth each year. The Boston sites work together during the spring to implement TE’s annual Youth Peace Conference in May. Most of these initiatives are implemented in collaboration with other organizations working in the same communities. In addition, TE works to involve the diverse residents of the neighborhoods. Initiatives are conceived, planned, and implemented as a result of the opinions and research of our youth and adult staff. Behavior Management and Support System: At the beginning of each week, the groups participate in a Contract/Feedback Session. Adult staff leads the group through processes designed to surface important such as the need to follow through on responsibilities, dealing with conflict productively, maintaining a positive attitude, and consistent attention and motivation to excel at individual project tasks and group work sessions. They then provide training and practice in feedback skills and give every group member the opportunity to give and receive feedback with their peers and adult staff.