Making Youth Voices Heard: Teens Work Against Gun Violence in Lower Roxbury

Making Youth Voices Heard: Teens Work Against Gun Violence in Lower Roxbury

By EGC Boston Education Collaborative

Youth from Boston’s Roxbury say gun violence is an ever-present threat in their neighborhood. The eleven teens of the Making Youth Voices Heard initiative are determined to do something about it.

On a freezing February day, eight dauntless youth guided shivering Boston College graduate students on a tour of the Lenox/Camden area. The tour route included their own housing complexes, a shiny new hotel, and other neighborhood gems, including where to get the best pizza.

But they also shared with these future social workers how gun violence has impacted their friends and loved ones. In a later shared listening session, the teens opened up.

“I have to worry about my family walking outside and getting shot in our own neighborhood,” says one student who grew up there. “We don’t feel safe.”

“Violence affects the people I care about,” says another teen. “I have a couple of friends that passed away through gun violence.”

As a group, three boys and eight girls, ages 14-19, now meet together twice a week at CrossTown Church, as part of the Making Youth Voices Heard program. CrossTown Church, located on Lenox Street in the Lenox/Camden area, is part of the Melnea Cass Network, a local collaboration of leaders “dedicated to ending family poverty and violence, one neighborhood at a time.”

Teens of the Making Youth Voices Heard program meeting with students of Boston College School of Social Work at CrossTown Church in Roxbury, MA, February 2018.

The youth began their team effort by sharing insights from their own experience.  “Violence affects the neighborhood as a whole,” said one. “The crime rate keeps increasing and many teens have been dying lately.”

They also discussed poverty—its causes and effects in the neighborhood. “Most of the people in my community [are] suffering from poverty,” shared one teen. Another reasoned, “There is gun violence because youth don’t have money to get what they want.”

But these courageous young people hope to learn more—they want to hear the voices of other youth who live in five housing developments in Lower Roxbury.

They plan to survey students not only about gun violence but also a host of related issues. Their goal is to hear from the community which issues feel most pressing, to help guide the team to action steps that they can take to strengthen the community.

The whole experience is an empowering process for the youth. The graduate students and collaborators are facilitating, but the teens are making all the decisions. The youth will decide what question they’re going to research, and they will present the results of what they learn.

““We just need better ways to protect the youth.””

— Making Youth Voices Heard youth participant

Making Youth Voices Heard

The Making Youth Voices Heard (MYVH) program trains youth in community research for action. It is a collaboration between EGC’s Boston Education Collaborative (BEC), the Vibrant Boston program for youth, St. Stephen’s Youth Programs, CrossTown Church, and Boston College’s Graduate School of Social Work.

A summer 2017 pilot program with three young people provided early results, paving the way for full-year grants from the Church Home Society of the Episcopal Diocese, and the Paul & Edith Babson Foundation. The MYVH initiative does not yet have full funding for their proposal, which includes work stipends for the youth. The BEC is working on securing the remainder of the funding.

Youth Hub Surveys

Vimeo

The students will be replicating Youth Hub Boston's model of Youth-led Participatory Action Research and Innovation (YPARI). Youth Hub Director Rachele Gardner and youth residents of Codman Square, Dorchester, co-created the YPARI model based in part on UC Berkeley's Youth Participatory Action Research Hub.

In YPARI, youth learn how to design, implement, and analyze a survey, and then create action steps out of it. Ms. Gardner is serving as a consultant to the MYVH project, prepping the team every week to know how to structure the program sessions. Youth learn how to design, implement, and analyze a survey, and then create action steps out of it. Ms. Gardner is serving as a consultant to the MYVH project, prepping the team every week to know how to structure the program sessions.

After a welcome pizza party in December, students kicked off the program in January, getting to know one another’s stories. After a time of team bonding, setting expectations, and orientation to the program, they discussed:

• What issues do you care about most for the community?

• What issues have most impacted the neighborhood?

• What issues are you most passionate about?

“The issue I care about is violence because it leads to peer pressure,” responded one teen. “We do certain things to express how we feel, and use violence to fit in with other people, or just for fun.”

“Violence affects me and the people I care about,” said another.  “Violence is killing people who are 16 and 17, or just anyone. We just need better ways to protect the youth.”

After the youth chose to learn more about local gun violence, they started by exploring its causes and impacts. They identified other issues related to the level of gun violence in the area. So they decided to design a survey about five related topics: gun violence, poverty, drugs, employment, and education.

The teens will next be paired off to conduct the surveys. The group is aiming to survey 100 youth who live in five housing developments in Lower Roxbury—Mandela Homes, Roxie Homes, Lenox, Camden, and Camfield Estates.

Eight students from Boston College’s Graduate School of Social Work are committed to helping. They’re doing some added background neighborhood research and will guide the youth in survey design and analysis. They’ve also contributed food and supplies for the youth.

Cherchaela Spellen is the Lead Facilitator of the program. Studying Social Work at Boston College, she is an EGC intern with BEC and a member of CrossTown Church. She works with the assistance of Amber Ko, an EGC intern with BEC and Greater Boston Refugee Ministry.

 

Our Goals for Community Impact

“It’s a learning process,” says Ruth Wong, BEC Director. “This can be a launch pad—that’s the prayer and the desire. Our end goal is a group of youth asking what steps they can take to help strengthen their community. We hope the youth come to see themselves as change agents, where they can impact the community by coming up with the action steps.”

Practically, through their participation in this year-long experience, the teens are developing bankable skills—in community research, critical thinking, team-building, leadership, and general job readiness. When the youth go into the community to conduct the surveys, they’ll be developing their social connection skills.

“I’ve been impressed with the leadership skills among these youth, “ says Wong.

These young people also have access to what would otherwise be a somewhat closed community to the graduate students. Our teens themselves represent three of the five complexes.  

“I went with some of the girls to visit the community in the summer,” explains Wong. “I went into their buildings with them, and they were saying ‘hi’ to people left and right. We were able to enter the homes of people that they knew. They have a lot of connections!”

““This can be a launch pad—that’s the prayer and the desire.””

— Ruth Wong, BEC Director

While they already know some peers, the youth are also creatively thinking of how to connect with more youth. They’ll reach out to property managers and leverage other community connections. That kind of networking will be new for them.

MYVH sees the youth as developing leaders for the health of the community. They plan to host a closing presentation and celebration event to invite the adults in the community to hear the youth present their findings. Such an event can be a catalyst for more cohesion and collaboration within the community.

Ruth Wong (left)   Ruth is the Director of EGC's Boston Education Collaborative and a founding member of the Melnea Cass Network in Lower Roxbury.

Cherchaela Spellen (right)  Cherchaela is the Lead Facilitator of the Making Youth Voices Heard program. Cherchaela is studying Social Work at Boston College and attends CrossTown Church in Lower Roxbury.

TAKE ACTION

Pray

Pray

Connect

I’d like to connect with Making Youth Voices Heard!

Boston Climate Dialogues: 3 Fall Events

Boston Climate Dialogues: 3 Fall Events

By Ruth Wong

EGC is excited to partner with Northeastern University and Vibrant Boston to promote practical dialogue on climate change and resilience in Boston communities.  We are opening three of our fall sessions to the public, to broaden community knowledge and collaboration with Christian leaders engaged in climate resilience work.

ABOUT OUR COLLABORATION

EGC is one of Northeastern University’s Service Learning Opportunity sites, and this fall we are learning alongside students in a Climate Change & Society class, taught by Sociology Professor Sharon Harlan. We are exploring together the possible impacts of climate change in a Boston neighborhood and how the community can become more resilient to environmental change.  

Northeastern also has interest in engaging youth and residents from a Boston neighborhood. With our existing collaboration with Vibrant Boston, EGC helped facilitate a three-way partnership for this class.

Vibrant Boston is a free drop-in program based in Boston’s Lenox-Camden neighborhood of the South End /Lower Roxbury area. They provide the youth and their families living in this well-documented high crime community with support, enrichment, and opportunities based in a Social and Emotional Learning approach. Vibrant Boston programming covers a broad spectrum of services, including homework help, sports activities, career exploration, job opportunities for both teens and adults, and therapeutic classes in the arts.

OUR GOALS

Our three-way collaboration seeks to:

• empower Vibrant Boston, and the residents of housing developments surrounding it, to learn about the potential impacts of climate change on urban communities, including their own

• become more informed about climate change and how we can support Christian leaders’ involvement with the city of Boston’s climate change initiatives

• promote a constructive dialogue about resilience within the community, with other communities, and with city government

• provide opportunities for Vibrant Boston youth to interact with Northeastern students for mutual learning and relationship-building that are beneficial to both groups.

• encourage Vibrant Boston youth’s aspirations for a university education

EGC staff and Vibrant Boston youth will attend eight sessions of the Northeastern Climate Change & Society class to learn and dialogue about climate change and its impact on urban communities.

“Decisions are being made now about climate mitigation and adaptation that affect how people will live in the future climate. There are significant social justice problems involving human capabilities and adaptive responses to climate change that must be addressed at local, national, and global scales. We will examine how communities are striving to adapt and prepare for the climate of the future. - excerpt from the Climate Change & Society course syllabus, Northeastern University

You're Invited!

Three guest speaker sessions are open to the public. We welcome residents from Boston and area churches to participate with us as we hear from key Boston leaders addressing this issue.

Learn with us! Join us in becoming more informed and ready to support local leaders doing important climate resilience work in our neighborhoods and city. Please mark your calendars for these fall events!

1. Is Boston’s Climate Changing?  Are We Prepared?

Mia Mansfield

City of Boston Office of Environment, Energy and Open Space

Reading Assignment: Climate Ready Boston Report

Monday, October 23 @ 3:15PM

2. Connections: Race and Climate Justice

Rev. Mariama White-Hammond

Bethel AME Church

Reading Assignment: Bridging Boston’s Racial Divide by Blanding

Monday, October 30 @ 3:15PM

3. Resilient Communities: East Boston Sets an Example

Gabriela Boscio & Melinda Vega

Neighborhood of Affordable Housing, East Boston

Wednesday, November 8 @ 3:15PM

Take Action

Contact

Climate Dialogues Contact Form

RUTH WONG

Ruth is passionate about creating learning communities for churches and leaders across racial, socio-economic, and denominational lines. Director of the Boston Education Collaborative, Ruth collaborates with the Boston Public Schools to foster partnerships between schools and faith-based institutions. Every summer, Ruth also teaches at an engineering program at MIT for high school students. 

How Are We Doing?

Hope for Lenox Street: Pastors' Breakfast with the Melnea Cass Network

Hope for Lenox Street: Pastors' Breakfast with the Melnea Cass Network

by Megan Lietz and Jess Mason, Research Associates

The Lenox Street neighborhood in Lower Roxbury is home to many creative and resilient people, but also has a reputation for drug activity and violence. On November 8th, 2016, leaders serving youth in this community met for a simple breakfast with a not-so-simple  purpose — to share insights about how they could together help change Lenox Street’s reputation.

Pastors and community leaders serving in the Lenox Street area consider the appeal of the Melnea Cass Network.

Pastor Rolland Cooper warmly welcomes the MCN to his congregation, Shawmut Community Church.

Nika Elugardo, Director of Applied Research and Consulting at Emmanuel Gospel Center, introduces the work of the Melnea Cass Network to area pastors and community pillars.

Brent Henry of Vibrant Boston shares his passion for youth and tells moving stories about the need and hope in the Lenox Street community.

Sarah Gautier shares her journey of connecting with the Lower Roxbury community through her ministry to youth at Congregation Lion of Judah.

Lauren Thompson of Crosstown Church describes the hopes of a developing church plant to impact the neighborhood youth for Jesus.

Not uncommon in the world of urban ministry and action, this was a gathering during a short window of opportunity in a space that was available. The cozy basement of the Shawmut Community Church, with its well-worn furniture and faithful kitchen, provided a warm environment for this multiracial gathering of 25 leaders ranging in age from their 20’s to their 80’s. Each of these neighborhood youth workers, Christian youth pastors, community leaders and academics had answered an invitation from the Melnea Cass Network (MCN) — a developing network “committed to ending poverty and violence one neighborhood at a time”.

MCN cast the net wide. Whether leaders simply wanted to hear about opportunities to connect or were ready to co-lead the initiative, all would have a place at the table — for egg casseroles and coffee cake that morning, and for shared learning and action in the coming months.  

This was a room full of people who, compelled by the need and opportunity of Lenox Street, wanted to respond. Leaders listened as representatives of CrossTown Church, Congregation Lion of Judah, Vibrant Boston, and host Shawmut Community Church shared their journeys of challenge and hope in reaching out to area youth. The tone of the gathering was casual, but sincere.

Brent Henry, who works with over 150 youth per year in Lower Roxbury, told the story of “Licita”. A straight-A student, her mother worked so many jobs that Licita had to take primary responsibility for raising her brothers and sisters. Henry shared how MCN has connected him to church leaders to support his work.

Lauren Thompson of the CrossTown Church plant recalled her faith family's experience with area youth. She shared their sense of calling as a church to further engage young people in the Lenox community.

In response, bold voices spoke up first to suggest the need to bring the youth into the churches. These leaders implied that if youth could enter a relationship with Jesus and participate in Christian activities, their lives could be transformed. Other voices seemed to prefer going into the community and showing God’s love by serving the tangible needs of youth and families on their own turf. Others, struck by the weight and complexity of the need, asked for an immediate pause. They led the whole room in prayer for “Licita” and youth like her in that moment.

As insights built upon insights throughout the morning, a shared desire emerged. Leaders agreed they wanted to build a resilient social network that can support young people in the Lenox Street community. The question of what such support would look like remained unresolved.

Some leaders left the breakfast enthusiastic and ready to connect further. Others wanted to learn more before committing. Most agreed on the wisdom of further intentional dialogue and collaborative visioning.

MCN has now connected Brent Henry to leaders from 6 of 12 area churches, so that pastors and churches can offer practical support and advocacy for Licita and families like hers.

Take Action

Refer a Friend to MCN

Do You Know Someone Who Would Be Interested in the Melnea Cass Network?