Summer Leadership Program
Justice Williams, Director of Programs

Application 2008
Parent Permission Form
Frequently Asked Questions for Parents

Families:
Make your contribution to
the summer program online!

Participants gather for a Summer Leadership Program seminar.

The Summer Leadership Program provides sixty teenagers with leadership skills, hands-on action projects, interships at local nonprofits, and seminar learning to transform themselves into powerful voices for change in their communities.

High-school aged students who enroll in the Summer Leadership Program come from Boston's diverse neighborhoods, surrounding communities and outlying suburbs. They enroll for 6 1/2 week of community building, intensive learning, and concrete community actions they develop and implement as small groups throughout Boston.

Once accepted into the program, the students spend two days on an overnight retreat which serves to bridge relationships and create common bonds. The students then spend the next six weeks in seminars that go deep into topics such as education, health, immigration, community organizing, housing, homelessness, and more.  They meet daily in a large assembly, break into small groups for their seminars, intern two days a week at local nonprofits, and develop meaningful student-led Community Action Projects that they implement as small groups throughout the city.

The application process involves completing the basic application, scheduling an interview, and providing references and a 2-page essay. Click on the SLP Application 2008 for details.

From the initial coming together of diverse ideas and personalities in the beginning of the Summer Leadership Program, to working through our differences within a social justice framework by the end, I found myself invested in a larger community. This experience made me value not only where I came from, but also where I could go. -- Paulette Johnson, Summer Leadership Program, 1996; first assistant in the Grads Program, 1999

Social Justice
Education Institute

Justice Williams, Director of Programs

Enroll in our 3-day "social justice education" training in August!
Learn how to fold social justice into the work you do with young people, and experience first-hand The City School's pedagogy and youth-adult model. Details here. Use our online form to register. Make your payment here. Call Alison Gross at 617.822.3075 x26 for questions, or email her at alison@thecityschool.org.

The Social Justice Education Institute (SJEI) is a program for educators, civic leaders, youth workers, administrators and others who want to strengthen the power of youth and explore ways to get young people to challenge themselves to take ownership of their own education.

The Social Justice Education Institute (SJEI) helps build transformative learning communities and teaches strategies to educators, youth workers, administrators and others to inspire young people to own their education, take leadership in the classroom, and focus on social justice in their communities.

In education systems where teachers, youth workers, administrators and others are being pressured to create curricula that teach to standardized tests, we do this work by asking: How do we build powerful, loving communities where everyone teaches and learns? What is my vision for collective learning and change? How does oppression impact my work with young people, while trying to understand their experiences?

The Social Justice Education Institute is the culmination of over twelve years of The City School's history building powerful learning communities where young people are engaged in experiential education. Educators can receive Professional Develoment Points through the Boston Public School's Center for Leadership Development.

Youth Outreach Weekends
September 2007 to May 2008

Stanley Dominique, Program Coordinator

Please contact Stan Dominique if you or your group would like to arrange a Youth Outreach Weekend.


Ayanna Richardson, Royal Nunes and Amit Sarin prepare dinner for a Youth Outreach Weekend.


Do you know... that 44% of the homeless population is employed? Or that the average age of a homeless person in the U.S. is 14 years old? Do you want to know more? Then join us for a Youth Outreach Weekend!

Youth Outreach Weekends are service retreats for young people to explore two connected issues in our world: poverty and homelessness. 

Youth Outreach Weekends began in 1987 with the idea of engaging young people about the root causes of hunger, homelessness and poverty. Since then, over 2,300 participants have come through our doors to experience a Youth Outreach Weekend.

What Happens on a Youth Outreach Weekend? With ice-breakers like Will You Smile For Me? to breakdown anxieties, learning games like Ten Chairs that portray wealth inequality, youth-led conversations and workshops that look at poverty and societal stereotypes, and community service that young people undertake, each weekend is packed with active, hands-on learning. Teens prepare their dinner and breakfast together, watch social-justice-themed movies, and on Saturday travel to local shelters and food pantries to prepare rooms for guests, serve meals, stock shelves and meet those who come in for food and shelter. Afterward, the teens return to The City School to share their experiences and deepen their connections to the issues and to one another.

Teens can sign up for a Youth Outreach Weekend individually, with friends, or with a group from their school or church.  Typically, about twenty youth attend a Youth Outreach Weekend.  The weekends are geared for high school teens, but we welcome groups both younger and older: 8th graders, college students, teachers, corporate staff and others. 

The most powerful thing about the Youth Outreach Weekend was breaking down stereotypes, especially of homeless people.”  
--Shane Bass, Student Staff Coordinator

Prison Empowerment Project
September 2007 to May 2008

Stanley Dominique, Program Coordinator

Please contact Stan Dominique if you or your group would like to participate in the Prison Empowerment Project.


Jeremy Gomes (student leader, center) and two other youth participate in a Prison Empowerment Project discussion.

Rose From Concrete
Stanley Dominique, Program Coordinator

Rose from Concrete (RfC) is a program that provides leadership development, resource referral, education and job skills to court-involved youth in Greater Boston. 

The goal is provide young people with education and resources to actively work for social change.  RfC is a weekly leadership group that serves young men and women between the ages of 14 and 18 who are or have been involved with the criminal justice system (DYS, probation, etc.).

RfC's approach is to use the young people's hands-on knowledge of the juvenile justice system as a spring-board to develop youth leadership skills. We help provide an opportunity to heal their anger and frustration, access to educational resources, leadership skills, and help realizing their personal and community power by finding their social, political and person identities.

Jackie, Jomar and Victoria -- all grads of
The City School and youth leaders in
several programs.

The Grads' Program is where many students plug in once they've completed any program at The City School.

Many students stay connected with youth they've met at The City School, and work on steps towards college and financial aid, jobs, or community service.

The Grads' Program includes weekly meetings, weekend retreats, advocacy work, and fun activities as part of their regular schedule. Grads facilitate the annual Knowledge Cafe, a youth-adult dialogue that seeks to answer tough questions.

GLU (Grad Leaders United) are the youth leaders of the Grads' Program. They help coordinate a major Youth Summit in Boston each May, and organize The City School's yearly trip to New Orleans to continue post-hurricane Katrina service work and connections with youth organizations in New Orleans. GLU also advocates for youth funding for jobs, coordinates youth-led events, arrange and lead overnight retreats, and receive one-on-one mentoring with adult staff.

In sum, the Grads' Program gives young people who've been through a City School program a concrete place to expand their leadership potential and continue to build with like-minded teens.