New England Journal of Public Policy
Volume 23
Issue 1 Social Change & Nonprofits: Learning beyond Article 14
Borders
3-21-2010
Speaking Up and Taking Charge, Urban Teens
Claudio Martinez
The Hyde Square Task Force
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Martinez, Claudio (2010) "Speaking Up and Taking Charge, Urban Teens," New England Journal of Public Policy: Vol. 23: Iss. 1, Article
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New England Journal of Public Policy
Speaking Up and
Taking Charge,
Urban Teens
Claudio Martinez
I
t takes sixteen-year-old Marisol ten minutes to walk from her summer job at one of
Boston’s youth development agencies to the Jackson Square train station in the late
afternoon. As she makes her way through the predominantly Latino neighborhood
where reggaeton, bachata, and merengue rhythms pulsate out of Toyotas and Hondas,
she is beeped at, whistled at, followed, peppered with obscenities, and sometimes
even touched by males who congregate in large groups on the busy urban corners. In
survival mode, Marisol puts her head down, crisscrosses the street when necessary,
and ploughs forward.
The next day at lunch, Marisol discusses her experience on the street with other
female teens who share similar stories. Adult youth workers join in the conversation,
as do some male teens who are empathetic to the girls’ plight. After several days of
discussion, the girls hatch a plan. With adult support, they design, write, and print
bilingual cards that articulate how they feel when they are harassed by the males.
They explain that they have a right to wear summer clothes without receiving
accusations of being provocative. They describe the difference between an insult or
threat, which they despise, and a compliment that they may welcome. The girls don’t
view the males on the street as the enemy, but as a group that needs to be educated,
that needs to have their consciousness raised.
Within a few days, the girls hit the streets in groups of four, hand out the cards
to hundreds of males and engage in discussions. For the most part the males are
receptive and willing to listen. A week later, the girls perform street theatre during
rush hour in front of several hundred onlookers, as they continue to try to get across
Claudio Martinez has served as the executive director of The Hyde Square Task Force since 1998. He has
served as an advisor to several governmental, nonprofit, and transnational initiatives including Boston
Housing Authority’s Monitoring Committee, Boston University Institute of Nonprofit Management and
Leadership, and the Boston–Haifa Learning Exchange. As a community organizer, neighborhood activist,
and parent, Claudio has been involved in Boston school reform. He served as cochair of the Boston Parent
Organizing Network and as a board member of the Latino After School Initiative and the Boston Schoolyard
Initiative. He sits on the Board of Directors of The Boston Foundation, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation,
and Boston After School and Beyond. He is a member of the inaugural class of the Barr Foundation Fellows
Program. In 2008, he was appointed by Mayor Menino to the Boston School Committee.
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their message. The girls then connect with a sociologist at a local university and
design and implement a survey of their peers in Boston’s high schools. The findings
of this exercise reveal that over 80 percent of the girls surveyed have been repeatedly
harassed at school. Over 40 percent report having been cornered and touched in an
unwanted manner. A Boston Globe reporter hears about the girls’ efforts and writes
a full feature article. Top officials from the Boston Public Schools and the Mayor’s
office meet with the girls to design a system-wide strategy to address the problem.
The girls receive inquiries and encouragement from girls’ and women’s groups
across the country.
The above description of an authentic youth-led organizing effort is a model of
social change that has developed at the Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF) over the past
decade in our work with urban youth. We believe that members of this segment of the
population are critical change agents, those with the potential to have a major impact
on the future cultural and political development of our society.1
Changing Demographics
According to the Population Reference Bureau, racial and ethnic minorities, currently
accounting for one-third of the U.S. population, are projected to reach 50 percent by
2050; this trend may largely be explained by increasing immigration and high fertility
rates.2 By 2050, Latino youth are expected to comprise 29 percent of the U.S. youth
population.3 According to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce the population of the U.S. is
projected to grow from 263 million in 1995 to 394 million in 2050 and the minority
population will account for nearly 90 percent of this increase.4 According to the Urban
Institute, in 1990 there were 8.3 million children with immigrant parents in the U.S.
and in 2007 that number rose to 16.4 million. Children of immigrants contributed 77
percent of the increase of the number of U.S. children between 1990 and 2007.5
A large number of these youth are concentrated in U.S. cities. Will these urban
youth become productive members of American society? Will they bring new
positive energy and unique cultural perspectives to our country’s institutions
and perhaps even change these institutions? Will these youth play a role in the
development of a new America? Will they grow into adults who will have a voice
within a democratic society?
Many U.S. citizens view youth of color with a xenophobic attitude, hoping that
they will continue to be contained within urban areas, and some suburban enclaves,
so that mainstream America can remain “uncontaminated.” We suggest that at
this unique time in our nation’s history these youth can play leadership roles in a
transformation of our society. We believe that these teens have the capacity to join
in the construction of a new society that doesn’t fear diversity and change, but rather
embraces them as a positive source of strength, grounded in an emerging culture.
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New England Journal of Public Policy
The Youth Community Development (YCD) Model
The HSTF has adopted a youth community development (YCD) model, a relatively
new approach to teen programming that builds upon the prevention and youth
development models that have evolved over the past several decades. In a prevention
model, the teen population is perceived as a problem that needs to be addressed for
the betterment of the overall society. Programs are set up to “keep the kids busy” and
“off the streets” until they reach the safer confines of young adulthood.
The next stage of teen programming — youth development — views teens as
assets in the community. In a youth-development model teens develop their academic,
social, cultural, creative, and life skills so that they can reach personal goals and
develop a lifelong commitment to service in their community. We expect that teens
will experience the intrinsic rewards that are gained through serving others. A
fundamental belief of the youth-development model is that when youth are fully
engaged and play an active role in their community, they are able to make better
decisions about their lives, have a sense of responsibility for their actions, perform
better in school, have high self-esteem, and have more options in choosing a college.
Youth can play a role in influencing their community’s capacity and, in doing so, they
enhance their own capacities.
A model of youth-community development maintains the elements of the
prevention and youth-development models and goes a step further. The YCD
model rests on the philosophy that we must develop comprehensive and seamless
community-wide efforts that promote positive youth development for all youth,
not only the youth involved in our programs. Those engaged in youth community
development realize that organizations serving youth cannot do this work alone. We
understand that it is our role to mobilize the community, so that all sectors of society
are involved in providing opportunities for the transformation of youth. In the YCD
model, youth development should be imbedded within the consciousness of the entire
community so that an ecology that supports and understands youth development
is created and maintained. In the YCD model, youth develop the skills so they can
take the lead in this mobilization effort. Youth are viewed as valuable change agents,
pushing all of us toward a more humanitarian and egalitarian society that has a
vision for youth and is willing to invest sufficient resources to support the human
development of young people.
In order to engage at the YCD level, youth must examine all of the social,
economic, and political forces acting on themselves, their families, and communities.
The youth take the lead in challenging the levels of inequality that leave many urban
minority communities impoverished and isolated. The youth are supported by caring
adults who work with them to develop strategy and implement political action. In
this process, teens learn the rules of political engagement in this society but they also
develop the awareness that they can be a historical force for creating a new exciting,
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diverse society with new rules of engagement. Through these activities, teens create a
new consciousness, build a sense of personal efficacy, and develop a belief that social
change is possible. In the youth community development model we not only prepare
youth for the future; we believe youth should play a critical role in creating a new
future for themselves and their community.
The YCD Model in Action
A quick look at the Hyde Square Task Force’s Ritmo en Acción cultural dance program
for teens demonstrates the evolution from a prevention model to a YCD model.
• Utilizing prevention strategies, dance classes are offered to teens to keep
them off the streets and engaged in positive activities. Along with the
dance classes a whole array of services is also offered: college prep,
counseling, tutoring, and enrichment activities.
• Utilizing youth development strategies, the teen dancers are offered
all of the above-mentioned services but are also viewed as assets in the
community. Therefore, the teens not only practice and perform dance, but
they also are trained to teach peers and younger children to dance. They
serve the community during after-school hours and set up a business
where they provide high-quality, low-cost workshops in Latin
and Hip-Hop dance.
• In the YCD model the teens also advocate for more dance programs
across the city. They mobilize other youth, health professionals, parents,
educators, cultural workers, political leaders, and advocate that dance
be integrated into the school day in the Boston Public Schools. They
conduct research and undertake power analyses to understand where
there are resources for these programs, and who has the power to shift
those resources. The teens challenge the status quo and take the lead as
cultural and political advocates for themselves and all youth in the city.
Utilizing the dynamic urban setting as an asset, the HSTF model builds on the best
practices of youth community development by creating teams of teens that engage in
a wide variety of meaningful and exciting community-based projects. Each team of
teens undergoes extensive leadership training and then expands its positive influence
by reaching out and engaging hundreds of their peers, younger children, and adults.
As teens develop the consciousness that they can change the world around them, they
simultaneously develop the consciousness that they can change themselves — that
they can take control of their lives — that they can define themselves and their role
in society — that they can find meaning and purpose. Teens begin to develop their
own personal philosophies: their basic beliefs, values, attitudes, and assumptions,
which explain, shape, and reflect their view of themselves and their surroundings. This
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personal philosophy will guide their lives and help them make sense of the complex
world in which they move.
Using this model, groups of youth have taken on a multitude of projects over
the past decade. They led a community-wide mobilization to prevent a K-Mart
from being built on several acres of publicly owned land in the neighborhood.
The teens practiced a home-grown version of self-determination by defending
the dozens of local small business owners against the corporate chain. Through
marches, protests, and by turning out in the hundreds for community meetings,
the youth convinced the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Mayor of Boston
to instead build a $220 million community-friendly urban development consisting
of a youth and family center, recreational facilities, affordable housing, and locally
owned businesses. Youth have written and published books for their peers and
young children on health and nutrition issues. They have produced a documentary
film on violence that has been shown on local cable television and is used as a tool
in schools, churches, and living rooms to talk about this issue. They successfully
lobbied for the right of youth aged 16 to 17 to both vote and run as candidates for the
Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, and they have elected over ten of their peers
to this decision-making body. Recently, a group of youth successfully lobbied for a
Civics in Action course to be taught in Boston public high schools. Not only has the
course since been piloted in four high schools, with plans to go city wide, but teens
have also worked with professionals to write the curriculum.
After realizing that electoral politics is a major factor in determining the
amount of power they have, the youth work each year on voter registration,
voter education and voter turnout. In the past decade they have transformed the
predominantly minority and immigrant precincts in Hyde/Jackson Square voting
precincts from one of the lowest turnout areas to one of the City of Boston’s highest
turnout areas. The youth have used this growing electoral power to successfully
lobby for millions of dollars in renovations to public parks. They have also used
their clout by making frequent trips to the Massachusetts State House, where they
have been credited with adding millions of dollars to the state budget for violence
prevention and youth jobs programs.
The goal of the Hyde Square Task Force is not only to make political change, but
also to create opportunities for youth to develop and express their dynamic and
evolving urban culture — a culture that embraces diversity and change, a culture
of justified anger, a culture of love, authenticity, and hope. Therefore, we consciously
integrate the arts into the organizing campaigns and actions. In the summertime
our youth organize outdoor concerts and cultural events that attract thousands of
young people and local residents. There, the youth build and educate their political
base through spoken word, theater, comedy, original rap and music, and dance. They
design and paint murals throughout the community to stake a claim and advocate
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for themselves. As the youth create social change and the foundation for a new
democratic society, they are also creating new cultural forms and patterns that are
representative of the “new” America. We encourage youth to work to create change
through our daily interactions with each other, through exploring new ways to relate
to and support each other.
What is most exciting about this work is that we never know when or how future
organizing campaigns will emerge. In recent months, our youth have reported that
they have been pushed, shouted at, insulted, and generally disrespected by the
Transit Police as they travel to and from school on public transportation. Diving into
meaningful action, they have devised a multilevel strategy that includes the creation
of a Civilian Review Board and a new training program for police officers in how to
communicate with and positively engage youth. In the coming months, these police
officers and their supervisors, as well as local elected officials, should expect to be
sitting down at a conference table with our youth to address these issues.
Reflection, Transnational Learning Exchanges, and Hope
The model that has developed at the Hyde Square Task Force has come about through
constant dialogue, reflection, and change. Our learning organization has been
energized through regular transnational learning exchanges with individuals and
groups that are engaged in social justice initiatives around the globe. Staff, board, and
youth have had opportunities to both travel and welcome a wide variety of community
development practitioners from all continents. We have also engaged interns from
Ireland, worked on arts projects with South African women, and hosted colleagues
from Israel, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Colombia.
Our long-term relationships with the Boston–Haifa Learning Exchange as well as
the Barr Foundation Fellowship have given HSTF a unique opportunity to expand our
“glocal” (global/local) knowledge and strengthen our relationships and networks in
Boston and internationally at the same time.
Through these exchanges we not only gather ideas and best practices, but also
develop the consciousness that indeed there is an international movement for
social justice. Knowing that there are sister organizations spread across the globe
is immensely comforting and provides a deep sense of hope. And it is this hope and
inspiration that fuels our youth with the power to create authentic, compassionate
change at an urgent and ripe time in our global history.
•
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Notes
1. Francisco Villarruel, Daniel Perkins, Lynne Borden, eds., Community Youth Development:
Programs, Policies, and Practices (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2003).
2. Kelvin Pollard and Mark Mather, “10% of U.S. Counties Now ‘Majority-Minority,’” Population
Reference Bureau, 2008. http://www.prb.org/Articles/2008/majority-minority.aspx
3. “Fact Sheet on Latino Youth: Population,” Institute for Health Policy Studies, University
of California, San Francisco. November, 2002. http://bixbycenter.ucsf.edu/publications/
files/LatinoYouth_Population_2002.pdf
4. “The Emerging Minority Marketplace,” U.S. Department of Commerce, September, 2000.
http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps70698/mbdacolor.pdf
5. “Children of Immigrants: Immigration Trends,” Fact Sheet No. 1. The Urban Institute,
October 2009.
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