For the record, my name is Brian Warrell, District 4 City Councilor, and I'm the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Labor and Economic Development.

Today is April 9th, 2026.

It is 205 p.m.

This hearing is being recorded, is also being live streamed at Boston.gov, backslash city dash council dash TV and broadcast on Affinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and files channel 964.

Rand comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.labor at Boston.gov.

It'll be made part of the record and available to all counselors.

Public testimony will be taken at the at the beginning of this hearing.

Individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up.

We'll have two minutes to testify.

If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet uh near the entrance of the chamber.

If you are looking to testify virtually, please email our central staff liaison, Shane Pack at SHANE.pac at Boston.gov for the link.

Your name will be added to the list.

Today's hearing is on document number 0168, order for a hearing regarding the red shirts program.

These matters were sponsored by Councilor Kaletta Zapata and referred to the committee on January 28, 2026.

Today I'm joined by my council colleagues in order arrival, Council Killed Zapata and Councilor Louis Jen.

I'll now turn it over to my colleagues if they have any opening statements.

Council Kill Zapata, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair.

I want to thank you for clearing your schedule today and thank my colleague for being here and thank the administration and some folks in the audience for their soon to be public testimony.

I see Alex DeFranzo from uh the East Boston Sailing Center, so thank you for being here.

Um we're here to examine the feasibility of reviving Boston's Redshirts program.

It's initi an initiative that for many residents represented a visible and responsive presence of city government in our neighborhoods.

It originally launched under Mayor Menino and the Redshirts program uh deployed young people into communities to take on the everyday but essential work that keeps the city running.

So this is emptying trash barrels, sweeping sidewalks, which are the top things that I hear in my community of East Boston, clearing hydrants and reporting issues in real time.

These weren't just tasks, they are the nuts and bolts of city service delivery done in a way that built pride, trust, and connection between residents and their government.

Today we find ourselves at an inflection point.

Across departments, we continue to hear about staffing shortages and increased service demand, particularly during peak seasons in the summertime.

At the same time, we're working hard to expand meaningful youth employment opportunities and to do more than provide a paycheck.

They can create pathways into public service, the trades, and long-term careers.

We're not trying to recreate the 1990s program exactly, but we're trying to figure out whether a modern, thoughtfully designed version of this uh can help meet today's needs.

And so the questions that I want to ask are can we create a program that supplements, not replaces our existing workforce as well as youth opportunity programs, and can we integrate it with efforts already underway through success success link and power core?

And more importantly, can we design it in a way that is financially responsible given the fiscal landscape that we're in today and operationally feasible?

And so I look forward to this conversation and thank you both for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Counselor.

Uh the chair recognizes Councilor Louis Jen.

Counselor, the floor is yours.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chair and thank you to uh the sponsor for putting this docket forward.

I'm just here to learn more.

Uh my sister was uh a red shirt, and um I know that people look back at their program fondly, although there were some challenges, so I like hearing that we're not necessarily talking about the program exactly, but um something similar.

Um, and so I look forward to hearing from you.

I I do have um uh time command conflict um in community, and so I won't be able to stay for the entirety of the hearing, but I look forward to um hearing and reviewing the tape.

Thank you.

Thank you, counselor.

Um we will now go to public testimony.

We hear your name call.

If you could please uh step to this mic, uh you'll have two minutes uh to testify, and Alex DeFranzo, uh the floor is yours.

Thank you very much to the chair and to the council for this hearing.

Thank you very much to the chair and to the council for this hearing and to OIEO for being here today.

My name's Alex DeFranzo.

I live and work in East Boston in Councilor Caledisapata's district.

And I'm the executive director of Pierce Park Sailing Center, where uh youth employment organization that employs about 205 young people in our coalition in East Boston, one of the bigger ones in the city uh between youth and young adult staff, and we also work with Veronica Robles Cultural Center, Maverick Lenning Community Services, Eastie Coalition, let's get moving, mutual ADC, SACA without borders, and Save the Harbor Save the Bay in that employment coalition.

Uh I worked at Pierce Park as a teen.

Omar, our education director, worked at Pierce Park as a teen.

We know how important youth employment is.

OYEO has evolved so much over the course of those many, many more than two decades at this point.

Um and the quality of the employment experience is one of the most positive impacts on equity in the city.

No matter where a young person lives, no matter where they go to school, they are not just getting a paycheck, but also getting all kinds of meaningful mentorship, professional and educational development that really contributes to their development as a young person.

The coalition model means that there are really strong collaborations of programs in every neighborhood in the city.

And we would love to see this initiative be integrated as part of that work for the young people that are already working in in these jobs across the city, that this could become a component of what it is that they do.

Um we already do a lot of cleanups.

There are also some of the programs in our coalition that focus more heavily on this type of work, and we think the power core is a great model.

But we have 205 teenagers and young adults that are there.

They don't just want to work in summer camp, they don't just want to sail or kayak.

They really uh get a lot out of all the professional development workshops that we do with them, but they also be happy to contribute to their neighborhood by planting trees with tree east by doing cleanups on the waterfront or in the neighborhoods, picking up trash, whatever, and we would love to integrate that as part.

Uh I also want to say that from the budget release yesterday, there is kind of like an existential crisis facing our program specifically.

Uh $6 million cut uh between school year jobs and immigrant youth advancement would be really, really challenging for us.

The school year is when we're bringing people in that haven't ever been a part of the program before.

So 14 and 15 year olds never been on the harbor, never been on a boat, and we're giving them the training that they need so that they can work in the summertime as instructional staff safely in our program.

And that's like a real essential core component part um of the work that we do.

They really make summer school year jobs make summer jobs possible for us.

They're also the place that contributes really the most to equity in youth employment because we can spend so much more time with them to get them through all those workshops and to give them all the resources that they need to succeed throughout the entire year, not just in the summer months.

Uh so we're really hopeful and will continue to advocate over the course of the next few months uh to see that the hopefully city will dip a little bit more into the reserve to level fund those jobs throughout the entire year and to make sure that uh regardless of immigration status at home um or in the family that this these opportunities are available to all of the young people in our city.

So thank you.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you.

Thank you for your service, and thank you to come in uh to lend your voice to this conversation.

Um it's funny because a couple days ago, it was yesterday, I was leaving the barbershop.

Um, one of the barbers, Randy, was asking about the Red Shirts program, not knowing that this was something that was coming before us today.

So I know it's uh program that you know people have fond memories of, and uh there's a lot of constituents who would love um to see it brought back in some form.

So happy to have this conversation.

Thank you, Councilor Caleta Zapata, for bringing this forward.

Um, and now I'll introduce uh today's panelists um testifying on behalf of the administration.

Uh we have Alison uh Vernere.

Verne.

Venery, executive director of youth employment and opportunity, and Joyce Joseph Lee, Chief of Staff for Worker Empowerment.

The floor is now yours.

I'll let you start.

Thank you, counselors.

Thank you, Councilor uh Coleta Zapata for bringing this forward.

Um Councilor Roel, you know, it's funny that you mentioned that because I spoke to a few people yesterday as well.

Uh David Jefferson, who is our executive director of Power Corps, remembers the red shirts and then the pride that came with it, you know, being one of the I think thousand back back in the 90s selected to do that and having a park that was kind of theirs or their neighborhood that they knew they were taken care of.

Um, we see we have grown from that, as you all know.

Our youth programming now is more robust.

You know, 10,000 youth are activated each summer around this around the city.

You know, and part of those programming takes in elements of the Redshirts, which Allison can get into more detail realm, right?

Beautification of our city, maintenance of common grounds and the job development that we see with Friday career activities, whether it be understanding if they're at a Northeastern what financial aid looks like as they go down their career to college path, or um, you know, what it means to be an electrician because they get to go to JTAC and see the facilities uh over there in Dorchester.

But also, you know, we just heard it from Alex, right?

We are at a crossroads where funding is scarce.

Um in that while there is the need, and we hear that, we also have to be fiscally responsible as we go there.

And we are looking also to work collaboratively.

We have worked on a number of projects with the council.

Councilor Well, you're yours with the college readiness.

So we do want to open that door to say, hey, how do we really look at this?

How do we put together a comprehensive plan and an idea that is not just one but one of the council and the administration to get to the same plan?

We have PowerCore, you know, 18 authority.

I've spoken, like I said, spoken to David and brought up the rough idea of what PowerCorps can do.

So they are open to that.

And then, like I said, Allison will get into more details of maybe it's working with our CBOs during the summer to do a call to action for the entire city.

So having instead of just having these small pods, but having all the youth kind of come together on a on a couple Fridays out of the year to go, all right, let's work together on that.

Um because the while there is a sense of pride around it, we have grown beyond kind of what the Redshirts initials plan was, and I want to we want to make sure and ensure that there's safety in this because there are youth going around, what does that look like from a safety perspective and supervision perspective?

Because it is a lot of power, a lot of um hours and a lot of supervision as you have kids you know walking around.

It's not the 80s and 90s where it was, hey, go outside and play and then get home before the lights turn on.

Um, a lot more thought um has gone around that, but also um you mentioned it in your opening statement, Counselor Zapata, is what does the career development look like?

Um a lot of these kids are it's more than a paycheck for them now.

It's more than just hey, I I cleaned up Mowgli Park.

Um we we gotta make sure that there is a tie-in to that greater uh organization and YEO does that, and um gonna hand it off to Allison to talk about kind of you know how that looks now as it stands in our SYEP future boss assessing program and ideas that we have kind of want to discuss and bring forward as potentials of kind of starting that springboard.

Amazing, thank you, Joseph.

Hi everybody, I'm Alison from the Office of Youth Employment.

Uh I didn't bring slides today because I just presented a couple weeks ago on what we do, but um did want to just re-anchor us on the purpose of my office is to employ develop and engage Boston's youth.

And so we work to connect young people to opportunities for personal and professional growth, very well aligned to what we're we're talking about today.

Um, and we work to make sure Boston youths are educated, equipped, and empowered to successfully move into adulthood.

Specifically, we look at moving them into family sustaining wages where wherever and whenever we can.

Um a few things I just wanted to go through.

One is um for the maybe the context and more grounding when we talk about the Redshirts program.

Um, when I think about SuccessLink today and all the jobs that we provide, we really think of Redshirt as the first version of that, right?

So not necessarily something that we have stopped doing, but more some things that we have grown from, evolved from, but that is still very much the program that has been rebranded and has um has expanded over time.

Um within our current version of SuccessLink and future boss more broadly of jobs that we provide.

Um we do have quite a few programs that are focused on beautification, cleanups, uh, and um, I think the types of projects that are um that are being the ones that we want to focus on today.

I just want to make sure people are aware so we can start from that place and see how we can maybe learn from those programs as well.

Um, on the CBO side, uh, we've got speak for the trees that does a lot in Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, um, different neighborhoods.

Uh, they plant each summer multiple hundreds of trees, and as they go, they do a lot of cleanup across those communities, uh, but they also are learning about uh urban forestry and what it means like for the environment to plant trees and and all of those things like that.

Um the food project, which we have present in multiple neighborhoods, the young people grow gardens, clean up those gardens, sell the food.

And at the same time, once again, they always expand their efforts to okay, what's around the garden that we're growing, how can we keep that area clean and how can we contribute to the neighborhood?

The Southwest Boston CDC program does uh honestly a main one of their main purpose is um nature restoration, cleanup and beautification.

Very specifically in the past couple years, they've been cleaning up sharing woods and removing a lot of um uh invasive spee species from those areas.

Uh, and then we work and fund the Emerald Necklace Conservancy program as well, which has a lot of teenagers throughout the summer taking care of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, all the pieces that are within the city mostly to make sure that that's that's clean and going.

Um I also did want to highlight, because I'll talk about it in a second, but we do have quite a few programs who are currently doing cleanup days and different versions of cleanups, which I think is interesting to kind of think about as a base.

Alex just mentioned it for um Peer Spark a little bit, uh, how they're open to the idea.

I know they already do a lot in their in their in their areas.

Uh one program that does that really well is the Chinatown Neighborhood Center, uh, which might not be one that comes top of mind when you think about cleanup because they're actually more of a daycare summer camp program, but they have what they call a green team that they send and deploy throughout the neighborhood as a part of their broader employment model.

And so the young people get exposure to that, and it's actually not uh exclusive to the young people.

They bring in other community members, adults to help support those efforts as well.

From the city side, we have quite a few of our parks and recs programs that we sponsor that support dutification and cleanup.

Maybe the most salient example is the George Wright uh golf course program where the young people spend a lot of the summer learning to manipulate some tools that I personally cannot manipulate to like help cut down the trees and do all of that, but at the same time they get a lot of certifications around what it's like to use those tools in this machinery.

Uh and that program is also linked to some scholarship opportunities and specific types of professional development.

So they've kind of built that model where the young people are doing more you know, cleanup types of tasks in a specific area, but are also linking that to some professional developments.

Um those are some of the examples that I I thought made sense to kind of anchor us.

Uh, and then I'll just double down, I guess, on some of the the stuff Alex ended up mentioning, and do want to take a sec to thank them for their partnership at the same time.

Um with this idea where when I think about opportunities for addressing some of the needs in the peak times where there is more demand, there's more cleanup needed, more trash to take out, all of that stuff.

Um I definitely can picture it a lot better in my mind, and I think I can also see a broader impact if we make that a component of the central success link program rather than a standalone thing that we're trying to now create from scratch that would need staffing, logistics, we would have, you know, safety concerns, obviously it would have a cost, right?

Versus thinking about we've got 6,000 young people.

I mean, overall, we have 10,000 young people working in the summer, but I have 6,000 that are jobs that my office funds, so obviously we have a little bit more influence on those and the requirements.

Uh, Pierce Park can tell you firsthand, we've got a bunch of requirements from them for them on you know, um, data reporting on orientations and trainings they have to attend for the staff because we want to make sure those are the best programs possible.

And I could completely see a world where we get a little bit more intentional, taking from a lot of the things programs are already doing by themselves naturally, and say, okay, but there is a specific need, right?

Which I think probably needs some refining of like what neighborhoods, what pieces, um, and we see how we could incorporate it as part of that broader program.

Um happy to go into that more.

I think just to voice some of my maybe concerns or at least questions if we were to think about something more standalone.

Obviously, the budget piece is is big, and the question of what would be what would we be cannibalizing, uh, the logistics of it in terms of making sure it goes towards career development and all of that.

Uh but then third and not least is also the question of who would be the young people who end up taking those jobs specifically, right?

Which would be potentially a program that has less expertise, less of a history, less of a robustness than others as we're as we're putting it on.

And I wouldn't want you know young people because they're coming in last, or maybe because they've had less opportunities to get hired somewhere else to be put in something that maybe they they don't they don't want to do versus you know placing them at a great place like Pierce Park, but making sure that they are as a part of that program fulfilling some more um civic duty elements.

Um yeah, I think those are my thoughts.

Really welcome and and thankful that for the for the conversation and trying to figure out how we can address that that need and take in any opportunity through SuccessLink.

Thank you.

Um now turn it over to my council colleagues uh for first rounds of questions starting with the lead sponsor, uh, Council Killed Zapata.

The floor is yours.

Uh thank you so much.

Um, and I I appreciate your your comments.

I do just want to flag that I did we we did reach out to public works to be here, so the highway division and the superintendent of basic city services.

So the main driver of of this conversation was the amount of calls that we're getting about trash on our streets, litter litter on our streets.

And so that is that is like the main thing that I would like to see.

So I do know that speak for the trees.

Um they entry easty, like they plant trees.

I understand that there's a parks and rec component to it with a George Wright golf course.

Um I'll get to that in in a little bit, but I feel like there's a disconnect of like what the city is saying that they need and what the residents are saying that they need, right?

And there's a way in which to do this where we are capitalizing on the talent in in our city, and yes, it is going out there and just doing a little bit of trash cleanup or whatever, but for me, I think that there's an opportunity to incentivize this this longer term or through this longer term investment of their careers.

So can they get a CDL license?

Can they um get OSHA certified?

Can they get food safe service?

Like some something like that.

Um I I totally understand where you want to make it like a component of the Success Link program instead of its standalone program, but the need is there on the streets, is what I'm trying to say.

So for East Boston in particular, um we have I think one seasonal hokey, and so my question, well, and and I think maybe I can get into the fiscal responsibility aspect of it, but um in my mind, if we are freezing these uh these positions, how much cost savings can we see if we employ kids at a lower rate?

So I I think that there's you know, there's there's something that we could um figure out there.

But I think my my first question is how much are kids making through PowerCore or not kids, young adults, and how much are they making through Success Link on on average?

So PowerCore is a stipend model.

Um so during their first uh so it's a 10th month program, 18 to 30 during their first four months, which is our foundations, they make 550.

Um, and then if they continue on and get through to their academies, which is where they do more hands-on internships directly with folks and with companies, uh, they go up to 625.

And then with uh Success Link 14 to 18 is I can answer that.

For success link, they get paid $15 per hour.

Uh, and if they're 14 to 18 and then they get paid 20 per hour if they're 19 to 24.

The average cost of a summer job, just like once you add up all the hours for a young person is $2,625.

For a young adult, it's $4,800.

Okay, and that's over how many months?

Uh that's over six to eight weeks, depending on the program and how they split their hours.

So July, August, um, some of them start first week of July, second week of July kind of thing.

Okay, and do any of you know how much hokies make per hour?

I don't.

No, that's where I wanted Boston Public Works here.

Okay.

Um, do we know how many seasonal hokies there are across the city of Boston?

That's uh no.

No, okay.

Um, do we know how many uh like hokey positions were frozen this year?

And so how many seasonal hokies are not going out this year in particular?

We are unable to answer that.

Okay.

Um you have any information about let's say like contracting out with a trash company under the parks department to take out trash barrels?

No.

No.

No.

Okay, so that's another thing that happened in East Boston.

When that could be something that is potentially utilized through a program like this for a kid who is making, I don't know, you said $15 an hour.

Yeah.

So this is what I mean.

That is a tangible outcome.

And that person is also being employed.

They could also, you know, they could go work at the George Wright golf course.

Is there anything else within the parks department that they do besides just planting trees or you know, going to work at the George Wright?

Is there any other program that and anything that is speaking longer term to their career development?

So we've got a lot of other, I didn't mention them because they didn't feel as relevant, but with parks, we've got at least 12 programs, I think.

Some of them are more around beautification, cleanup, like taking care of the parks.

A lot of them are also around running the sports camps.

So they some of them are being trained to be referees, some of them become coaches, and so we've got a softball crew, we've got a soccer crew, we've got a basketball crew, etc.

etc.

Um, so all of the summer programming that happens in our parks in the summer.

The young people also help with the forgetting the exact branding of it, uh the summer fitness series that Parks and Rec runs in in different places in the summer.

Um, and then they support some of the outreach, different events that park park runs across the city.

So less beautification, but more like camps and and all of those positions around education, early childhood, all of that stuff.

And you're talking about cleanup days.

So I know you mentioned Chinatown, but um do you have any numbers of how many organizations actually do cleanup days, how often they go out?

It's not something we've tracked before, no.

Uh, and I think that probably would be a good first step, right?

Is to really get a sense from our partners of how many of them do specific, you know, times and and place.

Um, but no, we don't have a tracking on that.

Okay.

Um I know I don't I'm oh you did put you did put something down.

Okay, good.

So I got 30 35 seconds left.

Uh take your time.

Okay, thank you.

Um okay, let's see here.

So, what what are some of the career developments that you provide just beyond the PowerCore program for anybody in SuccessLink?

And do you have any sort of incentives like I brought up the CDL license, OSHA certification, anything like that?

Yeah, so SuccessLink youth in general, all young people who go through the Success Link program, the minimum that they get of career readiness hours specific every summer is 15 hours.

And that can look different ways.

There's a lot of workshops and curriculums that are offered by my office for any programs who don't have their own curriculum.

Um we administer the state sponsored signal success curriculum that Comcore and YouthWorks have put together as a state standard.

Um we also administer the one love um curriculum, which is around healthy relationships and professionalism.

We've got a few other curriculums like this, and so the way it works is um we um talk to all of our partners, and either they're gonna have their own professional development plans or they come to us if they don't, and then my team provides it.

Either way, they have to do 15 hours of dedicated career readiness.

Uh, what we see is um I would say a a good portion of partners leverage the general curriculums around resume writing, professionalism, all of that stuff.

And then we've got a lot of partners who specialize in specific industries.

I'll stay with Pears Park because they're here, so now they're top of mind for me.

Um, but um where they you know know how to they become sailing instructors, right?

And so they come out of it with that specific skill and they have specific um career development that connects to what the job is.

Uh we've got um certain jobs that offer certifications.

We've got, for example, the Lifeguard Trainees Program where young people start, they get trained for free to become lifeguards, then they work as lifeguards, but then they can keep doing that wherever they want in the future.

So, really any kind of certification or specific accreditations they get is gonna be dependent on the program that they are a part of.

And is there any data?

I mean, it's it was just started in it's in this iteration, right?

But are you tracking any um direct pipelines into city jobs after folks have gone through this training beyond the SuccessLink program for when they're maybe out of college, they come back?

Is it too early to tell at this point?

We don't have tracking in terms of where they land.

What we have is a lot of macro data around like general employability of young people who go through SuccessLink or even I mean Harvard's been named right over the years.

We've got about 10, 15 years of long term outcomes.

Originally, a lot of the the research and long-term outcomes we had were focused on how much of an impact the programs had at keeping kids out of the criminal justice system, uh, which has been shown very um very impactful, and um we have data around employability levels, right?

So high level more kids if kids go through our programs, they have better chances of finding a job, right?

They have better chances of graduating high school, all of that.

We haven't gotten to the point of really like connecting the dots of where do you start, where do you go?

What I will say is we are at the point now where we're starting to do this in small scale increments.

Um, for example, we just got a grant from the Boston Foundation for a healthcare uh pilots for kids who are in a healthcare CT program at BPS, and for us to be able to place them in healthcare internships and then see where they land um long term, right?

And kind of really trace connecting the dots for them and leading to that career success.

Um, but we're we're more at the start of those pieces of like going more granular in terms of like government jobs specifically, we don't have data.

Okay, do you have any data as to how many kids are placed in um in kids?

I keep saying kids, but young adults um how many are placed in say East Boston, like is it by neighborhood?

Could you get that data for us?

Long term, or you mean in success, like while they're in SuccessLink, or where do they land long term?

So in SuccessLink, but specifically for city of Boston jobs, so like in a city department.

So, how many kids through SuccessLink were hired the parks department and helped out the crew in East Boston or crew in Charlestown or North End?

Yeah, yes and no.

In this, like, yes, we have so for each employment sites, they associate themselves to a neighborhood for us, and that's where I would count those kids, right?

Now, there's some programs where you might have multiple neighborhoods listed because they are moving around, or they're different, so it could get a little not part, like I don't think it would be perfect data, but uh I could give you a sense of the number of like city programs that are in East Boston and the number of kids who are hired through them for the ones that are a little bit more mobile, we'd probably get a little muddled, but okay.

Yeah.

And do we have kids in East Boston working for the parks department at all?

Uh or do they just go to George Wright?

No, we've got a bunch of um, let me see which parks we've got covered.

And the only reason why I ask is because again, what we're hearing in the neighborhood um and what I find myself trying to solve is just this shortage of staff that is actually hired by the city of Boston.

You can go and make more money scooping ice cream at JPLix than you would at some of these jobs that you know I that I think that we have frozen because of budget cuts because we haven't been able to fill them.

Um, and these are hokey positions, uh foreman um four-person positions in both public works and parks.

And so what I'm getting is why hasn't this trash barrel been changed on the Mary Ellen Wills Greenway for a week?

We don't have enough staff, okay.

So we're gonna contract out, so that's extra money.

Um we just can't find enough people to fill these positions.

Yeah.

So this is what I mean, where can we just utilize?

I understand that we may not want to do a standalone program, but can we make it a part of SuccessLink or PowerCore?

And I think my prioritization is centered around litter on sidewalks because that is the thing that I hear the most in East Boston.

I just need a brigade of people just to go out, but then also making sure that they have dignified work, right?

That's not the only thing that they do.

Yeah, they get some sort of career development.

So that that's my goal here.

Yeah, which is why you know I mentioned an opening is something that we could look at, especially for the groups that are getting money in the summer from the city.

So the subsidized jobs that Allison and you know, Power Core is like I said, I spoke to them very briefly yesterday, is that activation of not only just a few, you know, that are doing it on a consistent basis, but having you know a civic a civic day, you know, once a month, or or however frequent we can, where we activate all those programs that get that, and now instead of council, you know, having 50 kids or 50 youth, I should say, kind of go around, we have an activation day kind of similar to the love your block model that is that is happening um with neighborhoods.

I know I think it's next April 18th, they're doing a the same day as our career fair, they're they're doing a say Boston one day, um I believe it's called, where they're doing that for the uh marathon and going around the Back Bay area to make sure it's ready for that.

But we could look at a model that and easily act not easily, but activate all of our CBO partners that get subside funding and say, hey, you know, one day out of here's a list of days, activate your your youth to go ahead and you know go out there because you know, I hear, I understand there's an I've been Dorchester, I see, especially around dot av, there is a lot of trash.

That is that's got but my fear is you know, if we are getting more youth that are 14, 18 or 18 to 20, whatever that age range that we end up, we're gonna have to hire or bring on more people, who's gonna supervise them, who's gonna train them, right?

So that's more strain in dollars on that front because we can't just release and say, here's a here's a uh claw gripper, here's a trash bag, go.

There's still some level of training that's needed.

I see the mini dump uh the mini garbage trucks that go and pick up the the civic in public trash, right?

I don't know if there's a special license required to drive those vehicles, or if they are just considered a regular standard driver's license.

So there's just still those elements that are uh that need to be, we need to work together to understand because if it's hey, you need to have a driver's license, that now all of a sudden cuts the age range, or you need a specialized license because the weight of this vehicle is considered CDL, right?

That's even a bigger um hurdle.

Yeah.

Uh and then within the Yo program, this past year we launched our first climate core within that, and Pierce Park was uh part of that coalition for about 215, where they we work specifically with these organizations that were green focused to activate them in this kind of sense of hey, not only are you getting great skills of learning how to sail, but also what does it mean to be green?

What does that look like?

Let's go out and do a project around that.

Uh you know, but speaking to power core, they are very open to doing this, and then they are already training them.

Um I've also brought, you know.

Is it just in parks though?

Sorry to interrupt.

Um they're just doing cleanups in parks.

I mean, we can they can they've done Matahunt Woods, so they've done uh a great job out that way.

Uh last summer we we opened up that new pathway out that way.

So just this past cohort did over 110 trees, over you know thousands of tonnage of invasive species removal, uh cleanup pickups, so they are more than willing to schedule a few days to activate about 60 or so folks that are 18 to 30.

Um, but they've also talked about their recruiting constantly.

We are in our recruiting phase now.

And a model that they use in Philadelphia, which is where Power Core is kind of based on, is they use their uh they will pick certain sites that need cleanup and use it as an on-site hands-on interview day.

So if you're interested, let's say it's in April, um, and they're gonna they would say, hey, Power Corps recruiting and hiring and interviewing at XYZ location.

So I don't know, somewhere in East Boston, for example, come out and experience a day with Power Corps and come and talk.

So not only are we killing two birds with one stone in terms of getting recruitment for the Power Corps program, but we're also giving them a chance to hands-on understand what we do because it's a lot of people that come into the program don't know what PowerCore is, they just see the 550 or the 625 once they they graduate on, and they think it's oh, if I just show up, I'm gonna get paid.

But this gives them the opportunity that it is some days going to be cleaning up trash.

It is gonna be some days learning how to use tools to build raised garden beds.

It is some days going to be out in the Mattahunt Woods or wherever, on your hands and knees pulling weeds in invasive species.

It is going to be cutting down trees, it is gonna be all these other elements, and I think we could look at that as a way of you know, a couple strategic days and strategic areas to bolster power core recruiting, most of your your cleanup efforts.

Obviously, it's very it's not as consistent, uh, but we can kind of work with that with Power Corps being a 10-month program, a lot of the summer, um, the summer programming, having you know, a I want to say army, but more brigade of youth that we could activate through just the the ones that are um Allison's office puts into those seats, um, and looking at a model where we add civic duty on top of of this all.

I think that that's um, and I that's what Alex was getting to in his opening remarks.

I just want to thank Alex who I've known for a very long time.

I appreciate him, I appreciate his leadership.

And I I do want that component integrated no matter what to do.

And Power Corps, which is giving back to the neighborhood, doing these cleanups.

Um I think I just need to talk about the how dire the situation is for litter in the north end and East Boston.

And it's not just like one random day uh like a month that could help with the amount of trash that that piles up on our streets, especially in the summertime in the north end.

I know that we have a lot of seasonal hulky, um, but and we're talking about supervision here, you know.

That's if if they are 18 to 24 years old, right, and they maybe get a this license to man these vehicles, that's again an incentive.

They get access to a good city job, um, and their supervisors are within public works.

I don't see how that's you know any different than what's maybe happening at the parks department.

So that's and that's where I I come down to.

So I really appreciate all of that.

I think no matter what, let's definitely get civic duty days integrated into these programs.

Um, but I see that we've been joined by a colleague, and I'll stop my questioning for now and pass the mic, and I want to thank the chair for letting me go on.

So I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Um definitely hear your passion and your advocacy uh for um increasing the quality of life um inside of your district, and it's something that as district counselors, uh you know, we we constantly hear whether it's in our business districts or uh those roads, those neighborhoods that have high traffic for traffic, um, it's very important to make sure that you know cleansiness is something that we could deliver on as a city and also as city councilors.

Um I just want to add you know one point uh to the conversation and I'm gonna pass it over to Councillor Pepin who's just joined us.

Um maybe there could be some like coordination, which I think could be like low-hanging food with love your block and Power Corps just to be out there on those same days.

Uh I think that could be extremely helpful just for us to cover more, you know, area in the neighborhood during that you know, one time or two times a year that the community members take on that task.

Definitely.

And and you know, the power core, you know, during their first four months, which is the summer, there's they do have some programs already established, but there is more flexibility because they are with Daivo and his crew for those four months, so we can do more often days than not during the summer.

It's when they get to their 10th month program where we have handed them to a parks department or the Franklin Park Zoo to learn their actual craft that it becomes a little bit more difficult.

But um, you know, I think there is a way for us to kind of work in those civic days um across and and really you know want to see the city, you know, as vibrant as the workforce.

You know, everybody's always happy to say, hey, I love visiting Boston, I love this, I love that.

Um, you know, we should see more pride and then not pride, but more of that activism stuff forward as you mentioned uh this coming Saturday at Malibu Beach, there's already a civic group going out there and cleaning up the beach, so why can't we just add more of those kind of days out there?

But we we also understand that um residents can't always be at the lead on that, right?

We have the opportunity here to work together with you and your your districts or all over the city to say, all right, how do we tackle this so that way we have the the people power of the city and um whether it be youth during the summer, whether it be power core during the other parts of the year, but also hey, we want to understand that the community also need you know can also join us on this.

It can't, it doesn't it doesn't have to be one-way roads uh as is so often is sometimes or it's the community stepping up to do a day, and some city folks may go, or cities doing a love your block, and it's a lot of city staff um out there, not you know, community with them, so we should find that kind of median of making it work.

Thank you.

Uh the chair recognizes Councillor Peppin.

Counselor, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you to my colleagues for sponsoring this and for bringing into the chamber.

My district district five is was a is a big fan of what used to be the the resurance program back in the day.

Um we I hear about it a lot.

I mean, Mayor Manino, who's from Hyp, who was who was from Hyde Park, he um he was the one that came up with it and under his administration.

And I just hear a lot of great stories, and I wanted to just I know I got here a little late, but wanted to to learn a lot about about already what initiatives that are similar to it exist.

I I know I just caught the tail end of you talking about Power Corps, I believe.

And um, and how they're working at the Matah at the Madahun woods in my districts.

We were there for the ribbon cutting, and that was beautiful, and I know that the residents are excited to to enjoy that this upcoming summer season now that the weather is getting better.

But I just wanted to show my support.

I think this whatever we could bring back or continue to support initiatives like this for us to continue to beautify our city, make sure that we are engaging our younger residents or just residents across the city.

I'm all for it.

So I just want to be here to support.

Thank you.

I don't have I don't I don't have really have any questions, Mr.

Thank you again.

Councillor Kaletta Zapata, floor is yours.

Thank you.

And I think that tailoring it to specifically meet the needs of various communities.

I've been told it actually happens four times, if that um and so I think this longer term conversation about how we utilize these programs, um, maybe making a smaller adjustment with public works in particular, but growing the parks department um program to not just include George Wright, but making sure that we have dedicated staff for uh each neighborhood, um, and uh uh what's what's the other department I'm thinking of?

Um BTD, you know, lighting, like can they get placed in an apprenticeship program?

I think we need to continue that that conversation.

Um and I will be very fierce in my advocacy to make sure that that that's actually happening because again, we're investing in our workforce, and then ultimately the goal is making sure that they are um that there's a pathway into a good city job.

That's a pension, that's health care, that's benefits, and it keeps and retains talent.

So I will die on this hill, and I'm hopeful that uh we can work something out given the you know again the fiscal landscape.

I do think that this does help with that, uh only because there is potential cost savings.

Where if we had these positions out there and they were unfrozen, they would be $20 an hour when really through the Success Link or Power Core, they could be 15 or 16 dollars an hour, you know, and not doing any sort of contracting.

So I I appreciate your time.

I appreciate you being here.

Thank you for the work that you do.

And again, I want to thank the chair, my colleagues for being here as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Council Pepe, I know you just no closing remarks.

Again, thank you.

Um, you know, I'm supportive of uh my council colleague here.

I understand the um reason, right?

Again, as district councillors, we hear it so often that you know public works is stretched thin.

Um on top of that, um it is a good pathway uh for our young people to get into the city um to uh be able to obtain some of these jobs.

So maybe next conversation we have, it's with making sure that Power Corps is here and also public works, uh, so we could dive into the details on trying to figure out more of the logistics around you know establishing a pie up program.

So thank you for all your efforts in your service to the city of Boston.

Um and with that said, this hearing on docket number zero one six eight is adjourned.