How to Engage Young People: Lessons from Lowell, MA

Abstract

As a part of its collaboration with the Born This Way Foundation, the Berkman Center is publishing a series of papers that synthesize existing peer-reviewed research or equivalent scholarship and provide research-grounded insight to the variety of stakeholders working on issues related to youth empowerment and action towards creating a kinder, braver world. This series, called the The Kinder & Braver World Project: Research Series (danah boyd, John Palfrey, and Dena Sacco, editors), is presented by the Born This Way Foundation & the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and supported by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This set of papers involves topics related to the Role of Youth Organizations and Youth Movements for Social Change.A youth organization’s success depends on young people’s participation within the local community. Many of the issues facing young people today reflect a poor engagement with community politics, cultural identity formation, and risk-taking behaviors based on that identity formation. The Teen Block was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1990 with the goal of addressing these issues. Since that time, it has served over 8,000 young people, integrating social, behavioral, mental, and physical health. The city of Lowell rose during the Industrial Revolution, where it marked history with technological, social, and economic advances with textile factories and millworker unions. However, its economy fell and it quickly gained a reputation for urban decay, notable for being the setting of movies such as The Fighter where Christian Bale plays a local celebrity famous for being a drug addict. The median household income in Lowell is about 25 percent less than the statewide average. About a quarter of Lowell’s population of 106,000 was born outside the United States, and nearly half the population speaks a language other than English at home. The city of Lowell has a high population of marginalized young people, mostly of recent immigrant descent. The teen pregnancy rate of Lowell is the tenth highest in Massachusetts; gang violence has caused significant rifts in the community; and, considerable health disparities persist among Lowell’s ethnic groups. The Teen Block serves approximately 80 young people annually, aged 12-20 years old. Many of them are first or second generation Americans. 80 percent are Asian, 10 percent are African, 5 percent are Latino, and 5 percent are classified as ‘Other.’ Members are recruited through high school and referred from the community, sometimes through the justice department. These teens are at risk for teen pregnancy and unplanned pregnancies, poverty, high school dropout, low educational attainment, alcohol and drug abuse, and the lure of gang activity. Because many Lowell youth are from refugee families, they are also affected by things like having been in refugee camps as young children, the challenges of adapting to a new country and/or culture, generational conflict between children and their immigrant and refugee parents, and second generation trauma for adolescent children of Southeast Asian and African refugee parents suffering from torture and trauma under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and oppressive regimes and war in African countries, respectively. The Teen Block is a department of the Lowell Community Health Center, through which it has access to medical and mental health professional services. It relies on this organizational structure, its staff, and a youth development model for engaging young people in their communities. Activities in the Teen Block are based on best practices and evidence-based research as well as on self-conducted needs assessments. Since the Teen Block was founded, Lowell has experienced an 18 percent decline in teen births. Adults who were former members have returned to help sustain its structure through volunteering, grant writing, and employment. Teen Block youth go onto higher education, obtain jobs, and contribute meaningfully to the art communities of Lowell.