Building Youth Leadership for Social Change

OUR MISSION
The City School develops and strengthens the power of youth to work toward building a just society. We do this through creative education and critical thinking, leadership development, action and service, and promoting understanding and relationships across difference.

Thank You!

Many thanks to our wonderful supporters, inspiring City School youth, terrific "Big Picture" awardees, talented staff and dedicated Board of Directors. We all made the 10th Annual Opening the Door Dinner an evening to inspire and remember.

Pictures soon to come!

Donate Now for post-dinner donations, sponsorships or ticket payments.

Click here to read about Awardees, Honorary Chairs and more.

Contact Jeb Barnes at jeb@thecityschool.org or 617.822.3075 x14 for more information.

Summer Leadership Program 2009!

A Parent Orientation Session will be held on Thursday, June 25 from 6-8pm, for all parents/guardians of teens accepted into the Summer Leadership Program.

For teens, the summer program is now full and the application process is closed. If you are a teen or parent with questions, contact Justice Williams at 617-822-3075 x21 or justice@thecityschool.org

Social Justice for Adults
Our Social Justice Education workshop in Feburary was a great success, giving teachers, administrators and youth workers the tools to fold social justice into their everyday work with young people. Contact Justice Williams if you'd like a Social Justice Education workshop at your school, college, or workplace.

After-School & Weekend Youth Programs
We end our 08-09 school-year programs soon, but if your school or group would like a Youth Outreach Weekends or Prison Empowerment Project, take a look at the Programs andcontact Stan Dominique for more information.

City School on YouTube
Thanks to a generous grant from Adobe, City School youth leaders participated in the Adobe Youth Voices project and put their digital video-making skills into action! Check it out here.

Congrats, Royal Nunes!
City School youth leader Royal Nunes was featured in The Boston Herald on May 5, 2008 for "Standing up against Violence". And he received the Special Recognition Award for Activism at the 2008 Massachusetts Victims Rights Awards. Read more or check out the Boston Herald article.

New Orleans, 2008
Organized by City School grad Shane Bass, eight youth and three adult staff travelled to New Orleans for a third year and did some great work to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina. Details here.

Annual Report, 2007
In 2007, 796 teens came to The City School to learn about leadership and make a concrete difference with their leadership skills. Read about how they changed themselves and the world around them. 2007 Annual Report

Five-Year Strategic Plan (pdf)

The City School is a vibrant and unique youth organization in Boston that brings together teenagers from Boston's diverse neighborhoods and outlying communities in programs that combine creative education and critical thinking about social justice issues with hands-on leadership, learning, reflection and action.

Our goal is simple yet powerful: to transform lives and communities by helping young people embrace difference, tackle issues head-on, reflect, act and give back. Our model of youth work demonstrates how we educates ourselves and others to make meaningful change in the world around us. And it works.

Each year nearly 800 young people come from the city and outlying communities for leadership development and social justice education in our summer, weekend and afterschool programs. Teens build relationships across race, class, gender and geography; create caring, learning communities committed to making a meaningful difference; and use what they learn to carry out action for social change in their neighborhoods and communities.

Our Programs In Brief...

The Summer Leadership Program is where teens learn that individually and collectively, they are powerful agents of social change. Sixty diverse teens unite to bridge social barriers and empower themselves with hands-on leadership training, classroom learning, internships at local nonprofits, and social action projects they implement throughout the city. 

Youth Outreach Weekends engage teens in the realities of homelessness and poverty. City School youth leaders guide the way with challenging discussions, learning games, workshops to uncover root causes and undo sterotypes, and community service at nearby shelters and soup kitchens.

The Prison Empowment Project connects people inside and outside of Massachusetts' prisons. Youth and adult participants travel to prisons to dialogue with volunteer inmates about the circumstances, behaviors and choices that have caused them to be behind bars. (Taught in collaboration with Boston Police Dept. Community Disorders Unit.)

The Social Justice Education Institute uses The City School's pedagogy and youth-adult model to assist teachers, youth workers, administrators, civic leaders and others in developing curricula and programming with a strong social-justice-based focus. The goal is to transform our practices and engage young people to help support youth agency, voice and leadership. (Educators can receive Professional Development Points through the BPS Center for Leadership Development.)

The Grads' Program promotes youth leadership, youth power and youth action for teens who've been through any City School program. It strengthens their leadership skills and knowledge, provides a proactive place for networking, and engages in youth-adult collaboration on advocacy, service work, retreats, the Youth Summit and more.

Rose from Concrete uncovers the leadership potential in youth who are court-involved, through workshops, leadership training and learning groups at several DYS community re-entry sites.

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Contact Us:

The City School
614 Columbia Rd.
Dorchester, MA  02125
(617) 822-3075
fax (617) 822-3073
Directions by Google