Boston Foundation announces ‘My Summer in the City’ grants for youth activities in every city neighborhood

Boston – The Boston Foundation has announced more than $550,000 in grants to 87 community-based organizations in every neighborhood of the city to provide positive activities through the summer to local youth. Two separate programs providing an additional $75,000 in summer funding were also announced.

The program, My Summer in the City, was announced today at an event at the historic Strand Theater in Dorchester. Attending the event were Mayor Thomas M. Menino, leaders from the 87 organizations receiving grants through the program and large numbers of young people served by the organizations. The funding is also expected to create approximately 100 jobs for teenagers.

“Boston has a wealth of community-based organizations that provide constructive activities to our young people during the summer months, and we are delighted to support and expand that work,” said Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. ‘This funding recognizes and strengthens the efforts of organizations across the city, and through them will touch as many as 20,000 young people in the next few months.”

Every organization that receives a grant is required to provide a complete calendar of events for all of their summer programming, which will be available on the Boston Foundation’s www.MyNeighborhorhoodBoston.org website to serve as an easily accessible overview of programming available by neighborhood.

A key funding priority for the Boston Foundation summer funding initiative was open-space programming, as well as community and resident engagement. In particular, six nonprofit organizations will serve as neighborhood leaders. In addition to the programming they offer directly, these organizations will bring together local nonprofit partners to provide a full summer schedule of activities in open spaces and parks in each specific neighborhood. The leader organizations include:

• South End Baseball League, serving the South End and Lower Roxbury
• Charlestown Against Drugs, serving Charlestown   
• East Boston Athletic Board, serving east Boston
• Sportsmen’s Tennis Club, serving Dorchester
• West End House Boys & Girls Club, Allston-Brighton
• Roxbury YMCA, serving Roxbury, and
• The City of Boston at the Strand Theater.

Neighborhood Arts and Cultural Initiative

In addition to the 87 organizations receiving $544,000 in grants, a pilot program serving young people in Chinatown and Roxbury will receive $50,000 in support to build partnerships between young people in these two city neighborhoods. The YMCA of Greater Boston will serve as the lead agency, partnering with Boston Children’s Chorus, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, OrigiNation and The Strand Theater. A Community Advisory Group, with a 12-member youth council, will collaboratively direct the programs at the two YMCA sites and at the Strand Theater.

As part of this initiative, 12 youth from Chinatown and Roxbury will be employed 20 hours a week to plan community events, conduct outreach and take part in arts and cultural enrichment workshops. Programs will take place between 6 and 10 p.m. twice a week for nine weeks.

Grant to the Private Industry Council

A third element in the Boston Foundation summer funding will be a $25,000 grant to the Boston Private Industry Council for youth summer jobs in Grove Hall and Bowdoin Street, Geneva and Franklin Field neighborhoods along Blue Hill Avenue. In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Jobs and Community Services, State Street Foundation and other funders, the grant will evaluate the impact youth jobs have on the community. The goal is to understand better the relationship between higher levels of youth employment and lower levels of violence.

Organizations receiving My Summer in the City Grants

e inc. / Environmental Learning Center

Alternatives for Community and Environment, Inc.

amplifyme

Anthony Perkins Community Center

Appalachian Mountain Club

Artists for Humanity, Inc.

Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, Inc.

Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, Inc.

Body By Brandy 4 Kidz

BOLD Teens

Boston Asian: Youth Essential Service

Boston Center for the Arts, Inc.

Boston Centers for Youth & Families

BHA Unity Days

Boston Neighborhood Network Television

Boston Police Department (B2)

Boston Police Department (B3)

Boston Ten Point Coalition, Inc.

Bowdoin Street Health Center

Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, Inc.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester

Catholic Charities

Center for Teen Empowerment, Inc.

Centro Presente, Inc.

Charlestown Against Drugs

Church of the Holy Spirit

City Mission Society of Boston

City School, Inc.

City Stage Co., Inc.

College Bound Dorchester

Design Studio for Social Innovation

Dorchester Youth Collaborative

Dotwell

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Inc.

East Boston Athletic Board, Inc.

East Boston Social Centers

Ella J. Baker House

Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Inc.

Fenway Community Development Corporation

Fourth Presbyterian Church

Franklin Park Coalition, Inc.

Freedom House, Inc.

Fund for Boston Neighborhoods, Inc.

Gavin Foundation, Inc.

Generation Excel

Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, Inc.

Grace Street Church

Hawthorne Youth and Community Center, Inc.

The Holland Community Center

HOME, Inc.

Hull Lifesaving Museum, Inc.

Huntington Theatre Company, Inc.

Hyde Park Main Streets

Hyde Square Task Force, Inc.

InnerCity Weightlifting

Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, Inc.

Jubilee Christian Church International

Lena Park Community Development Corporation

Madison Park Development Corporation

Medicine Wheel Productions, Inc.

Mystic Learning Center, Inc.

North End Against Drugs, Inc

Opera Boston

Pleasant Hill Baptist Church

Project R.I.G.H.T., Inc.

Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center

Riverside Theatre Works, Inc.

Roxbury Family YMCA

Sociedad Latina, Inc.

South End Baseball

Sportsmen's Tennis Club, Inc.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

Teen Challenge Boston

Teen Voices

Teens Against Gang Violence

Theater Offensive, Inc.

United Neighbors of Lower Roxbury

Uphams Corner Community Center, Inc.

Urban Edge

UrbanArts Institute

Vietnamese American Civic Association, Inc.

West End House Boys & Girls Club

Whittier Street Health Center

YMCA of Greater Boston

Youth Enrichment Services, Inc.

ZUMIX, Inc.

(Additional organizations are receiving grant support through collaborations with the organizations listed above.)

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The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of $682 million.  In Fiscal Year 2009, the Foundation and its donors made over $95 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of over $81 million. The Foundation is made up of some 900 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes.  The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives designed to address the community’s and region’s most pressing challenges.  For more information about the Boston Foundation, visit www.tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.