TEEN EMPOWERMENT SOMERVILLE

TEEN EMPOWERMENT, SOMERVILLE POLICE HOLD DIALOGUE SESSIONS

TE is working with the Somerville Police Department to break down stereotypes and thus increase safety in the community. Read about it in the Somerville News.

Check out some great photos of the event, like this:

Youth-Police dialogue interactive exercise

"TEEN ACTIVISTS MEET ELECTED OFFICIALS ..."

Here's an article in the Somerville News about a recent meeting organized by Teen Empowerment and Groundwork Somerville.

VILLEN DIARIES: 5th Annual YOUTH PEACE CONFERENCE

The 5th annual TE Somerville Youth Peace Conference, "Villen Diaries: Finding a pulse beyond the neck," drew over 500 people for an amazing afternoon at Somerville High School. Read about it and see photos in the Somerville News, and check out this extensive coverage in the Somerville Journal.


Peace Conference speaker

HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS

Thanks to all who celebrated the holidays with TE at the Winterville JingleJangle! 

Teen Empowerment hosts holiday extravaganza Dec. 18

Then, check out this article about a Thanksgiving celebration at TE:

Teen Empowerment holiday gathering brings local teens together.


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RISING FROM OUR ROOTS: Youth Peace Conference 2010

Somerville's Youth Peace Conference, Rising from our Roots, was held on April 10 Somerville High School. Read about it in the Somerville News: Hope reigns at peace summit and in the Somerville Journal: Fourth annual Somerville Youth Peace Conference draws hundreds.

Check out photos from the conference, and read about one of the youth who worked to organize the conference.

YOUTH PEACE CONFERENCE 2009

Somerville's 3rd annual Youth Peace Conference brought 700 youth and adults to Somerville High School on April 4. This year's theme was "The Faces of Change, The Changes We Face." The day featured music, food, theater, dance, speech, poetry,  rap battle, service fair, and community building. Read about it in the Somerville Journal.

Sponsored by Teen Empowerment, Mayor Joseph Curtatone, the City of Somerville, the Somerville Public Schools, and the Somerville Police Department.

SITE HISTORY
In 2003, responding to increasing drug use, the rise of gangs, and an alarming rate of suicide among adolescents, Somerville's newly-elected mayor, Joseph Curtatone, commissioned Teen Empowerment to assess the situation and then asked TE to bring in our programs to help address the needs. TE's site opened in the city in the fall of 2004, with a focus on East Somerville and the Mystic Housing Development. TE staff established the program's new location at the Somerville Community Youth Center, where 77 young people took part in discussions of the issues facing youth in the city as part of the youth organizer interview process.

The group of youth organizers hired that year identified peer pressure and self esteem, especially in relationship to drug use and suicide, as issues that they wanted to address. They began their action strategy with an event to inaugurate the new youth center space, at which members of rival gangs came together to listen to youth speaking about the need for unity, as well as to eat, dance, and socialize.

In the fall of 2005, TE opened a second site in the western end of the city. The Somerville programs worked cooperatively to address the needs of the community and to help create a network of youth leaders. Somerville is a small enough city that TE can directly measure our impact, lowering rates of violence and engaging the talented youth of the city as stakeholders in their community.

TE's Somerville programming has now consolidated into one site with its own home, in the Old Firehouse in East Somerville.

SUPPORTERS
Teen Empowerment's work in Somerville is funded through the Massachusetts Office of Workforce Development. We are grateful to Senator Pat Jehlen and Representatives Denise Provost, Carl Sciortino, and Tim Toomey for their support of our work in the city.

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