Youth of St. Stephen's And IBA Mobilize For Teen Jobs

On Thursday, February 19th, thirty teens from St. Stephen's Youth Programs and Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion's (IBA) Youth Development Program participated in the sixth annual Youth Jobs Coalition Rally and March. The Youth Jobs Coalition is a statewide coalition of forty youth and community groups (including St. Stephen's Youth Programs, the B-PEACE for Jorge Campaign of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, and IBA) who work together to create more employment opportunities for teens. Every February, when municipal budgets are being crafted, young people become concerned about city and state government funding priorities. These concerns have led young people and their allies to come together to demonstrate that funding for youth jobs is important, that young people are paying attention to the decisions that get made about them, and that youth voices have a critical place in politics.

The day before the event, St. Stephen's teen organizers and teens from IBA hosted a pre-rally workshop. These young community organizers taught other teens about the purpose of the march and the role organizing plays in bringing people together to build power and to challenge bigger systems. "It was great to see teens connected to St. Stephens and IBA come together to fight for jobs that will impact the South End. My cousin, Shaely, it was her first march and she is from Western Massachusetts and she has never seen that many youth together," said St. Stephen's teen organizer Veronica Murcia.

This year, the stakes are particularly high. Governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, plans to cut funding from the youth jobs budget. Even if the budget were to stay level with last year's funding, the minimum wage increase that took effect in January means that the number of youth jobs available would be slashed by nearly 20%. Governor Baker will need to increase the youth jobs budget just to keep the number of youth jobs available this summer on par with last summer. And even then, the demand for jobs will exceed the available funding.

According to the Youth Jobs Coalition, "Jobs enable youth to acquire the skills needed to succeed in the workforce, earn money to support their families, and improve their communities. By building power and engaging in the political process, youth can overcome their sense of marginalization and play a positive role in their schools, neighborhoods, and cities... The impact [of youth unemployment] is worse for youth of color. Many youth of color come from communities that experience high rates of violence. These communities need youth resources in order to make them safer and healthier places to live." This defunding of youth jobs was identified as mechanism of racist disinvestment in communities of color during the rally by the organizers' use of messages that drew from the Black Power and Black Lives Matter movements.

Over 700 young people and allies from all over the state gathered in advance of the march at Old South Church, where youth activists from the Chelsea Collaborative shared stories about their experiences of having a job and the skills they built while employed. They talked about their right to "payroll, not parole" and employment opportunities rather than incarceration. Recent youth organizing victories were highlighted, like the Youth Affordabili(T) Coalition winning an affordable youth pass for the MBTA. Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson spoke to the crowd, encouraging them to hold lawmakers accountable for all their constituents, including young people. He encouraged the young activists to show up in elected officials' offices when this is not happening and to make their voices heard.

Immediately, young people took Councilor Jackson up on his suggestion. Hundreds of people marched through the snow-lined streets up to the state house where young people took turns leading chants like "Whose budget? Our budget!" and demanded that elected officials increase the state-wide budget for youth jobs. Said eighteen-year-old Sara Mendez, an IBA Peer Leader and Youth Organizing Facilitator, "'The youth united will never be defeated' is how I would describe the Youth Jobs Coalition March of 2015. The march reminded me one more time of how powerful young people are. Despite the cold weather, we demonstrated our leadership with lots of support and loud chants. I was extremely impressed with the youth who were participating in the march for the first time who were speaking up and taking leadership roles. If someone doubts that a group of young people have power, they are incorrect because that group of passionate youth I saw during the Youth Jobs Coalition march is the most powerful collection of people I have seen in my life."

Youth Jobs Coalition Rally

Youth Jobs Coalition Rally