St. Stephen's Youth Programs

Join us for the fun! SSYP will be hosting a trivia night in collaboration with Hella Black Trivia! This is an eying you won’t want to miss!

$30 per person - bring a team or make some new friends!
Cash Bar (Beer & Wine only)
Raffles and Prizes

Tickets available here:
https://ststephensyouthprograms-bloom.kindful.com/e/game-triva-night-

Join SSYP’s B-PEACE Violence Prevention Program for this important event! The evening will include a presentation by Dr. Kevin Simon, Boston’s Chief Behavioral Health Officer, followed by a community meal and a resource fair with tables from a number of community partners!

The event is FREE but pre-registration is requested. Follow the link below to go to the event page for full details and to register. For more information email [email protected] or visit our website!

Link - https://ststephensyouthprograms-bloom.kindful.com/e/violence-mental-health-a-community-conversation-with-dr-kevin-simon?blm_aid=0&blm_aid=31543

SSYP organizer Sugey Rondón Reyes speaking at the Mel King breakfast this morning after completing their Senior Organizer Series! “Ahora me siento más capacitada para liderar en mi organización, especialmente en nuestro trabajo para mejorar las escuelas públicas. Es crucial que las familias ejerzan su poder para asegurar una educación de calidad para nuestros estudiantes.”

Congrats, Sugey!

Check out this incredible story from the Globe today on the history and present of Latinos fighting for equal education, featuring SSYP Parent Mentors, including Simel Rodriguez who is featured in the video clip advocating for her daughter to be in a dual language program.

This is why we continue to work for change and equity - this is why our work is so important.

https://apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/2024/06/busing-in-boston/latinos-busing-still-fighting/

Another year of B-READY in the books!! We had a great time celebrating each and every person in our program today!! Thank you to everyone who made this year such a huge success!!

Congratulations to all of our Parent Mentors, past, present, and future! One program impacting so many in our community! Tonight’s graduation ceremony was a triumphant celebration of the power of this community!

A huge thank you to our friends for stocking the freezer at SSYP with meals for our families to enjoy after our closing ceremonies on Friday! So amazing!

Dear Friends,

We hope this message finds you well. I am pleased to share with you the news that after six months as Acting Executive Director, Inés Palmarin has been appointed as the Executive Director of St. Stephen’s Youth Programs, effective immediately.

During her time as Acting Executive Director, Inés has demonstrated exceptional leadership by working to stabilize our program with remarkable proficiency and dedication. Her innovative approach and unwavering commitment to our mission has energized our organization, and her strategic vision has laid a solid foundation to continue our success.

Inés brings a wealth of experience in nonprofit management to this position along with an extensive professional network. Her background and passion for youth advocacy have consistently driven positive outcomes and fostered a supportive environment for both staff and program participants. Please join us in congratulating Inés on her new role.

On behalf of the Executive Committee, I would like to thank the many friends and partners who have supported SSYP during many, many months of transition. We appreciate you standing with our community as we continue to fight for educational equity and access to opportunity. We feel fortunate to have such a talented leader to advance this work.

Yours sincerely,
Dasan Harrington
Warden, St. Stephen’s Church

SING OUT FOR SSYP
Join SSYP staff and friends in an evening of showtunes and fun as we support our favorite youth program! Let us entertain you!

June 27 - 6:30-9:00 PM
419 Shawmut Ave. Boston
$30 General Admission
Cash Bar (Beer & Wine Only)

Events page link in our link tree to order tickets!

Sugey Rondon, Simel Rodriguez and Rafaela Polanco Garcia share in a class on family engagement with Boston Teacher Residency students (These are pre-service teachers who will teach in Boston Public Schools next year). They talked about the importance of teachers and parents working together so that students can achieve better results.

Parent Mentor Simel Rodriguez represented SSYP on the plenary panel “Parents and Educators Working Together to Support Multilingual Learners” at the National Association of Bilingual Educators conference in New Orleans. We couldn’t be more proud of Simel and how she shows up ready to support Boston’s students every day!

SSYP families enjoyed attending the BTU’s Family2Family conference at Fenway High School on Saturday. Families and educators are stronger together! Thank you

Responding to a petition signed by hundreds of BPS families, Superintendent Mary Skipper joined SSYP at our weekly Family Organizing meeting to address concerns over family voice in decision making for ELL students. This was an opportunity for families and the BPS administration to engage in constructive dialogue and get answers to their questions about the future of language equity in our education system.  If you would like more information or to get involved in our Family Organizing program please email Family Organizer Sugey Rondon at [email protected] or visit our website, linktree in our bio.

Last evening SSYP hosted our second annual Women’s Celebration Event. We spend the month of March celebrating women’s history and this event, devised by SSYP’s Assistant Director of Development, Latasha Scott, is an opportunity to bring together women of all ages and identities as well as allies to celebrate the amazing women in our lives and community. We shared a meal, stories, and collaborated on an art project. This free public event included young women from our youth programs, staff, community partners, funders, and kicked off with a welcome from Boston City Councilor Julia Mejia, who shared about her experience as a woman of color in an elected position. The evening concluded with a presentation about ways women in our community can stay safe, including basic self defense techniques. Guests left feeling energized and powerful.

Our middle school YLC program paid a visit to our friends at District 4 today to share our gratitude for their partnership with our programs and their commitment to keeping our community safe. Thank you to the amazing team at District 4 and to everyone who keeps us safe!

Join SSYP on Thursday, March 21 from 5-7 PM for our second annual Women’s Empowerment Event! Everyone is welcome to enjoy food, fun, music, and lots of opportunities to connect with each other! For more information please email Latasha at [email protected]

www.ssypboston.org/blog/2024/1/18/bittersweet-news-from-ssyp

Bittersweet News from SSYP — St. Stephen's Youth Programs Dear SSYP Friends, It is with mixed emotions that we share the news that Executive Director Chris Sumner is leaving St. Stephen’s this month.  Chris has been an integral part of our team, providing critical leadership at a time of great transition at SSYP.  During his tenure,

Please stay safe and warm and dry out there friends!

Happy Holidays to everyone in the SSYP community near and far! We hope that all of your celebrations this year bring you joy!

Thank you to our friends at D4 in the South End for keeping our community warm this year through a coat drive to support the children of our family organizing team! Also a shout out to our friends from for their presence and support in keeping our community healthy and informed and for making sure that our families have full bellies to go along with their warm coats! When we come together as a community, we can do so much more!

Our staff and teens from SSYP had a great time last night building relationships with young folks from Church of the Redeemer! We had beautiful honest conversations about identity, bias, prejudice, and privilege, and shared some food and fun! Thank you for hosting us and helping us to create change in the world!

Thank you to everyone who came out to support our teens at our annual career panel! Our panel included folks from a variety of careers identified by our teens as areas of interest to them including trade workers, entrepreneurs, photographers, nonprofit professionals, higher education professionals, and youth workers. Want to be part of our spring career panel? Reach out now to be added to our mailing list!

Help to make the season bright with SSYP! Each year through our B-SPARKLE Holiday Gift Drive, SSYP provides support for more than 150 young people in our community. We will be accepting unwrapped gifts until December 14th, and you can drop them off at our program site or have them shipped directly to us. If you'd rather have us do the shopping for you, please make a secure donation through our website and select the designation "B-SPARKLE" so we know where to direct your gift!

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS!
https://www.ssypboston.org/bsparkle

Our SSYP families are making our voices heard at the Rent Control hearing at the State House today. As housing prices skyrocket, we demand protections to stay in our homes and communities. Our family organizers are a catalyst for systemic level change in Boston and beyond; join us in our mission to create a more equitable world for our young people to lead!

Thank you for stopping by last week to share some with our youth! They were definitely a BIG win in our book! If you haven’t tried them yet, what are you waiting for?

Our sincere gratitude to for their donation of an AED to SSYP! While we hope to never need to use it, having this life saving device in the building allows us to feel safe, big, and connected in one more way! Thank you Kiersten for your commitment to taking care of our community!

We are so proud of our Parent Engagement team for presenting at the Civil, Human, & Women’s Rights Conference this weekend in Texas! Each of these women are a change maker at SSYP in our community and this was such an outstanding opportunity to share the powerful work we do with a larger community! More about this experience coming soon on our blog.

Our teens had a great time on their college tour today. Thank you for hosting them!

Congratulations to Kasey, our former Chief Program Officer, on becoming the new Executive Director of the Brookline Teen Center! We are so grateful for her leadership and 10 year commitment to SSYP. Best of luck, you will definitely be missed!

The application for B-READY 2023 Adult Staff positions is up on our website and linked in the linktree in our bio! Teens, please check back soon for our CIT/teen staff application!