SCI Dorchester
In 2004, SCI Dorchester became the first expansion site of Social Capital Inc., an organization dedicated to building civic and community relationships that was launched in Woburn four years ago. A cornerstone of SCI Dorchester is the organization's Youth Council, a group of 17 teenagers that uses mini-grants from SCI to lead programs for their peers in Dorchester's 15 neighborhoods, in violence prevention, health and lifestyle issues, and community service. The Youth Council and the 200 or so young people that participate actively in the mini-grant process have engaged approximately 1,500 of their peers in the past year.
Civic engagement is a guiding principle at SCI, and the members of the Youth Council work closely with their city councilors and neighborhood associations. Mayor Menino also appointed two members of the Council to the Dorchester Avenue Task Force. As a new administration moves into the State House, Marisa Colemam, SCI Dorchester's site director, sees a need for more face-to-face interaction of that sort at the state level. "There needs to be a statewide dialogue with young people," says Coleman. "Elected officials need to sit down with young people and come up with tangible next steps."
The lack of access to jobs and the encroaching violence in young people's lives should be at the top of the agenda, according to Coleman. Though she acknowledges the realities of a tight economy and the competition for public funds, she suggests that leaders could be doing more to reach out to young people, especially those "on the fence", who aren't already engaged with community groups like SCI. To varying degrees, says Coleman, the young people she works with cope with a certain amount of pain and fear in their daily lives, and that reality needs to be conveyed to the state's leaders. "Government should be very conscientious of that in the decisions they make," she says.