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 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.
Clementina Chery, Peace Institute President and Founder, shared some thoughts on the impact of the mini-grant, “
(Dorchester, MA) Money is such a vital currency in order to live especially for youth. It sets standards economically to what they’re obligated to. Being able to get money for things that they want to do to improve their community is more than a step to doing their youthful civic duties, but it sets the tone to how the next generation will be involved. 
