On Saturday, April 26, 2008, the Dorchester Youth Council participated in Boston Shines in Fields Corner. They first all met in townsfield at 8:45am in the morning.

The gloves and t-shirts went like crazy. The council wants the whole community to know that hard work and a whole lot of cleaning makes a difference.

For more information about the council, go to the council's front page.

Who says all youth were asleep during their school vacation? That may have been so for some, but the youth of Boston were on a roll and I’m not talking about stuffing their face’s with one either. On April 25, from 1pm-4pm at the Franklin Park, Global Youth Service Day was put into full effect. Global Youth Service day, April 25-27, is a recognized day when youth all over the world volunteer in their community.

Over 20 youth, who came out, were more than ready to get down and dirty to save the trees of their community. Youth were split into 3 teams which were named by the peer leaders, The Dorchester Youth Council and The Franklin Park Youth Council: Red Fox, Lone Owl and Global Cooling. Each team either raked the massive piles of leaves; chopped down invasive trees and separated the root from the invasive trees, putting them all into a location where it would be easily accessible for the park clean up to retrieve.

After all the hard work, youth were invited to recap their experiences. They were rewarded with homemade pizza and cool drinks to satisfy and replenish their exhausted bodies and hungry stomachs. Who would say no to that? As they ate, they watched THE BEE movie that educated them about bees and their importance to the earth and parks like Franklin Park. Youth were more than excited about the history they have learned, took part in, made and vowed to come out again next year.

The Dorchester Youth Council is a youth engagement leadership program that serves youth between the ages of 12 and 17, who work together to better the Dorchester community through community service learning practices. The Dorchester Youth Council is coordinated through a partnership between Social Capital Inc. (SCI) and DotWell. The Boston Globe Foundation, Lenny Zakim Fund, Massachusetts Service Alliance, Boston Scientific and Sovereign Bank provide major funding.

For more information about the Dorchester Youth Council, please contact Grace Ejiwale, Youth Program Coordinator at Gejiwale@scidorchester.org or (617) 822 8297. Make sure you check out www.mydorchester.org to find out the Dorchester Youth Council’s upcoming events. For more information on partners or the event, go to Boston Cares website (www.bostoncares.org) or the Franklin Park Coalition website (www.fpc.org).

On a warm Wednesday afternoon, the Dorchester Youth Council presented their first presentation to inform the Dorchester Youth Alternative Academy about keeping Dorchester clean as part as the Don't Spot the Dot campaign. It was shaky at first, but as each slide went by, the presenters got more comfortable standing in front of the students.

They had statistics, photos of litter in Dorchester, and also a mini skit acted out by DYC. The youth at the academy was engaged as they were broken into groups to brainstorm ideas to stop this habit of littering in the community. The presentation was great and they planned to have more presentations for other youth groups in the future.

The purpose of the campaign is to have public awareness about litter in Dorchester. Many youth are joining in this campaign each time DYC presents it to other youth groups. Last year, the campaign included youth from the Vietnamese American Civic Association and Dorchester Youth Council. This year, they are hoping to see many new youth who are motivated to help the community be spot free.

If you and other youth are interested in this campaign and would like to join us, please contact Grace Ejiwale at 617.822.8297 or via email at gejiwale@scidorchester.org

On Saturday, March 29 at 450 Washington Street in Dorchester, SCI's Lynn, Woburn and Dorchester Youth council's were building social capital. The youth started their day off with a networking activity to get them aware of what they do everyday but to take it a step further.

The Youth were instructed to state what people might not know about them and then toss the balls of yarn, therefore creating (as you see in the picture to your left) a social capital (relationship) web.

Youth dined on a beautiful and tasty nutritious organic lunch , which was prepared by Miscellaneous. She prepared a mouth watering potato and egg salad, a batch of chicken which was either curry, BBQ or plain, a beautiful crisp bright juicy salad with her famously renowned mustard dressing and tofu.

After lunch, the youth was actively engaged in 3 presentations which all had one theme, social capital. The youth program coordinators from all 3 SCI sites: Lynn, Woburn and Dorchester. The Youth coordinators talked about how music and art are ways people create social change. With music from Billy Holiday "Strange Fruit" and art from J.W. Turner "The Slave Ship", all helped the youth think of how simple things make a difference.

It doesn't take a whole lot of brain power to make something happen. Here is the formula to make social change.

Things you need:

1. An issue to address

2. A medium (canvas, paper, speaking, singing, etc.)

3. The most important piece. You!!!