Good afternoon.

Hello, everyone.

Hey, ma'am, nice to see you.

Uh um, okay, if we could get seated panelists, uh we have a probably a long hearing ahead of us.

So I want to get started.

Uh, for folks coming in.

If you want to testify, uh, sign up out in the sign in sheet.

Uh I have a couple of some preliminaries here to go through, and I will just get started.

Uh again, good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Ben Weber.

I'm the Boston City Council for District Six, and I'm the chair of the committee on Ways and Means.

Today's May fifth, two thousand twenty-six.

It's too bad yesterday was Star Wars Day, was May four May the fourth, but uh so today's May 5th, and now the exact time is three.

Oh seven.

Okay, so this hearing is being recorded.

It's also being live streamed at Boston.gov slash city dash council dash TV and broadcast on Xfinity channel eight, RCN channel eighty two, and FIOS channel nine sixty-four.

The council's budget review process begins in April and runs through June.

We strongly encourage residents to testify uh or or submit their testimony to us, which you can do through s in several ways.

We need to be a little early here, keep it down, find a seat, sign in.

If you want to testify again in person, come to our hearing, sign up at the sign in sheet near the uh near the entrance, and we'll call on you in the order in which you've signed up.

Um you can check out our hearing schedule at Boston.gov slash council dash budget.

Um, you can also testify virtually via Zoom at this hearing and any other hearing.

To do that, you can email, you can sign, fill out an online form on our council budget review website.

You can also email the com uh the Ways and means committee at CCC.wm at Boston.gov, or you can email our legislative budget analyst Karish Machon at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A.CHOUHAN.

You can also come to this chamber.

We have our fourth of four public testimony listening sessions where folks come to testify, and the city counselors are here to listen.

Our last of these will be on Thursday, May 26th at 6 p.m.

So it's in the evening here in this chamber.

You can show up again, you can testify in person at that listening session, or you testify virtually via Zoom.

When you're called to testify, please state your name, where you live, and if you're with an organization, tell us your affiliation with any organization.

And then we're going to limit comments to two minutes each person.

You have two minutes.

And when you hear the buzzer at the end of it, please uh wrap up your comments.

We need to make room for a lot of folks to testify this afternoon.

So if you go over, you know, you're heard you're you're hurting other people's ability to speak out.

So uh just try to limit your comments to two minutes when you hear the buzzer and try to wrap it up.

You can also email written testimony to the committee at ccc.wm at boston.gov.

Lastly, you can submit a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on our website.

For more information on the city council budget process and how to testify.

Please visit the city council's budget website at Boston.gov slash council-budget.

Um we will take in-person testimony after our first round of questions.

So one uh we're going to hear from the panelists.

We're actually gonna hear from two people, two folks, who are gonna give uh public testimony uh from the public, and we're gonna then have a round of questions and then we're gonna go to public testimony after that.

Uh, and then we'll come for back for second, third round of questions from my colleagues.

Um, again, if you uh haven't done so already, you can sign in at the sign-in sheet.

People seem to be able to do that.

You can also just email our legislative budget uh uh analysis director Karishma at K-A-R I S H M A.CHOUHAN at Boston.gov for the zoom link and your name will be added to the list.

This afternoon's hearing uh is on docket numbers 0733 to 0740, an overview of the fiscal year 2027 operating budget for the offices and departments related to youth services, including youth engagement and advancement, youth options unlimited, and youth employment and opportunity.

This is one in a series of hearings we're holding on the fiscal year 2027 budget.

These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and referred to the committee on April 8th, 2026.

Uh I've been joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, uh, Councilor Louis Gen, Counselor Fitzgerald, Counselor Pepin, Counselor Flynn, Councilor Murphy, Councilor Culpeper.

Uh we have a letter of absence from Madam President uh Liz Braden and Councillor Gabriela Caleta Zapada.

Um generally at these budget hearings we waive opening comments, but uh I'm gonna give my colleagues one minute each uh to make a statement before we go to short, you know, two-person public testimony, and then get to the panel.

I'm just gonna introduce the panel before we kick things off.

We're joined today, and again, thank you for being here by Pedro Cruz, Executive Director of the Office of Human Services.

Uh we're joined by uh Trin Wynne, Chief of Worker Empowerment, City of Boston.

Uh virtually, we've got Tanisha uh de Leon, the deputy director of the Office of Workforce Development.

That's uh Youth Options Unlimited and Alison Vernary, am I pronouncing that right?

Okay, executive director of the youth and of youth employment and opportunity.

So I'm just gonna uh hand it off to my colleagues here.

Please, one minute or less.

You don't need to use the whole minute.

We obviously have a lot of folks to hear from today.

So, Councillor Louie Jen.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I want to thank everyone for being here.

I want to thank all the young people, especially from so many organizations that do great work in the city.

Want to thank the admin, uh Pedro Trent, Anisha Allison for your commitment to making sure that young people have jobs, especially in the summer, and we need to do more work to make sure our kids have year-round jobs.

Thank you for all the work that you do.

Um, and I'm going to be making sure that I review the tape and listen to all the questions that uh everyone uh brings forward.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh counselor Fitzgerald.

Sorry, sorry about that.

Thank you, Chair, and welcome to all the youth in the in the uh in the chamber today.

Uh I know it's important to note that I know over the years our youth budget has grown, but uh we find ourselves in a tough situation this year in a tough budget uh and having to make hard choices, uh, but I do not feel that the youth uh have been the ones that have put us in this place and therefore should not be the ones that bear the brunt uh of some of our uh hard decisions to make.

And so look forward to hearing from the panel uh and just uh love everybody's civic uh participant participation here today.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Counselor Papen.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Really appreciate the opportunity to be at this hearing.

Um, this is a very important conversation for me as someone that had a youth job when I was growing up in the city of Boston and learning as well.

How many organizations in my district benefit from this?

Just last year I was able to sit down with Bam, becoming a man over at the Milljack Community Center and School, and also working with a young man with a plan over in High Park, both advocating and other organizations as well.

So I'm here to make sure I'm asking the questions to see how can we not impact our youth and losing opportunities throughout the summer in the future.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Counselor Flynn.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you to the administration team that is here for the professional work that you have done for a long period of time.

Thank you to the young people that are here.

Um looking forward to hearing the testimony, but also want to want to uh recognize the wonderful teachers that are here as well from the in and including the Boston Teachers Union.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Counselor Murphy.

Thank you.

Um, this hearing every year when it comes up on the budget, it's one of probably the most important ones today.

We have a lot of people here to advocate.

I think to continue the great work you're doing.

I think this speaks volumes to how you know we've expanded what we used to offer our youth.

So I do just want to take my last 30 seconds to just thank you, Pedro, Alison, Trent, Kevin, and I know everyone here, Tanisha Online, for all you do for our youth, and knowing that we'll have to make tough decisions, but thank you for the jobs we do offer and the support we do give our youth and trying to make sure we continue to support them.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you very much, Counselor Culpepper.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and uh thank you to all our panelists today.

I was at Boston Latin Academy this morning, and I taught the class for about 15 minutes.

And I asked them for the three recommendations they would make to us that they wanted the city council to work on.

The first thing they said was they want to make sure that every young person has a summer job.

So I'm taking that back to the council.

Every young person wants a summer job, and I think that's what was promised by the mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you.

I'll find out uh this evening if you're talking to my daughter's class at BLA, but uh we'll we'll find out.

No, you're you're you used up your time.

Uh yeah, next time okay.

Um so we're gonna hear from uh Alexa and Khalil.

Uh you get you each get two minutes, uh, and then we'll we're gonna maybe get a presentation from the panelists, questions from my colleagues.

Everyone will get probably six minutes for people timing this out, and then after everyone's gone through a round of questions, usually we go to a second round.

We will go to public testimony.

Uh we have plenty of people signed up.

I'm sure there will be more.

I will just just before you start.

Um, you know, we so it's just as a public safety issue.

We can't have people standing, you know, in the aisles or even sitting in the aisles.

Right now we're we're not a capacity, um, uh, but if you see people having to sit in the aisles, we do have a waiting area or with uh uh an overflow area on the mezzanine.

I think there's somebody brought snacks.

Uh, there's a TV that you can watch the proceedings, and then once people testify, if the room is full, I'd ask that you go down to the mezzanine, find somebody there who haven't hasn't spoken and send them up so they can have an opportunity.

Uh, right now we're not full.

We did um move this hearing from two to three so we could you know have kids coming in.

School is you know, ending around two.

Uh, hopefully, people you know will be able to show up.

So uh Alexa, if you're you're ready, uh you can watch the clock behind me whenever you're or Khalil if you want to start.

Uh I just had a question, um, just so that like in the spirit of you saying that we can have um people um leave and come in and make sense.

Can you like uh address like the next 10 people to speak so we can text and make sure that people are ready?

Yeah, yeah.

So I I'll I'll announce like yeah, 10 and then so people know that line up, yeah, get ready and uh and and again if you're not here when I call your name and you come in, we'll fit, we'll fit you in.

Well, we got it.

We'll make sure.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Yeah, Alexa, you want to start?

So also, sorry.

We're gonna have on paper to pass out with this information right now.

We've got George printing it out for all y'all to see.

But right now it's just gonna be vocally.

Okay, yeah.

I mean, again, if you wanted them to present and then you want to speak after, but it's it's it's up to you.

Yeah, okay.

We can have that.

You go, you go ahead, or you'd rather do that.

Yeah, you can have because then we're we'll have the stuff.

Sorry.

Okay, I'll fit you in.

Okay.

Okay, here we go.

Panelists, thank you very much.

The floor is yours.

So if you have uh presentation or anything else.

What?

No, no.

Yeah, they just they had printouts that were waiting for.

So we're just gonna go to the panel.

We'll we'll squeeze in those two people when we can.

Awesome.

We're gonna go um back to back to back the three departments.

Um, starting with um my colleague uh Pedro, so I'll let you go first.

And actually, here's the cool.

Hi, everybody.

First of all, it's a pleasure.

I appreciate all the young people that are stepping up into the leadership for being here and all the organizations.

Want to thank all the counselors as always for the consistent support that you guys provide us.

Um big shout out to my team that's also here supporting and everybody that's watching.

Um, as mentioned, my name is Pedro Cruz.

I'm the executive director of the Office of Youth Engagement and Advancement for the City of Boston, which really means that we focus on the 14 to 25 year old population.

We just hit three years in February.

Our goal from appreciate that, Counselor Murphy.

Um our goal from day one has really been to support what we've coined the three levels of youth work, which is uh we'll get to in a second, but just to get to this size so that everybody understands kind of where we are.

Um, so we're under human services under the amazing leadership of Chief of Human Services, Jose Masso, um, along with Astrong, Boston Public Library, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, the Veteran Services, Returning Citizens, and then us just to give everybody an idea as to where we live within the whole higher chart.

Um, just to give you a quick um, the next one is just our team structure.

I always think it's important.

Um, it's 11 of us total on our team.

There's four of them that are 12 months fellowships, the rest are full times.

Um, and just wanted to give you guys an idea as to the team structure, and we can definitely answer more questions on that if needed.

Um so now going into really what our goal is.

Again, it's really about focusing on that 14 to 25 year old population across the city.

We do that by focusing on what we coined the three levels of youth work, which is organizations and spaces created for young people.

So whether that's schools, whether it's libraries, whether it's community organizations, um, the second level is you face and individuals, whether it's teachers, whether it's counselors, whether it's coaches, is all adults that work in those spaces and build relationships with young people, and then young people themselves, 14 to 25, no matter what neighborhood lifestyle journey they are.

Um so we have a um eight programs under my leadership now, which I'll kind of run through them real quick.

These are all the programs.

Two of them existed before the office was launched, and six of them I've been able to build from scratch these last um three years, and I'm really proud of that work.

So here in this slide, you'll see all the programs, but I'm gonna go through each one of them one by one.

The first program I'll focus on is the mayor's youth council.

As you guys know, we actually just celebrated our graduation yesterday, it was the 31st cycle of the Mayor's Youth Council.

Um, we've been able to really revamp the program since I took it under my leadership.

One of the biggest things we wanted to do was make sure the young people were actually having a long-lasting relationship and and mentorship with um everybody on my team.

We wanted to make sure that we weren't just using them as pawns, but really giving them services and promoting their leadership.

One of the things that I would highlight is that we actually launched a NYC alumni network this last year to really connect with our past members.

I believe it's up to 100 members right now that we kind of connect to through newsletters, but it's really to make sure that even past NYC members stay connected to the work that we're doing and serve as mentors.

Big shout out obviously to Council Fitzgerald who was on the council a few years back.

I won't say too many, right?

But then we also launched a Boston Coalition of Youth Councils.

There's a lot of youth councils around the city that we want to make sure that we were all working together.

So we took the responsibility of launching a coalition of youth council, which is made up of eight different youth councils around the city as well, too.

The next problem I'll go to is Youth Lead the Change, which I believe it's on is 11th cycle.

That's the participatory budgeting program where young people decide what to do with a million dollars of the mayor's capital budget.

I'm really proud to say that under my leadership in the last three years, 14 projects that were pending when I took over the program are now on track to be completed or in implementation phases.

So we've really been able to clean up the past work, and some of these projects include the Wicked Free Wi-Fi expansion.

We're opening a Tobia October Media Center in the next few weeks.

We renovated basketball cores, HVAC, and solar panels and BPS and facility upgrades and BPAC through all of this work, and it's all really teaching young people to get involved and really make sure that they decide what to do with the uh with the funding that the city's providing.

The next one is obviously a fun one.

Appreciate for all those that have been there is the Mayor's Youth Summit.

As you all know, the first one was back in 94.

It went on till about 2004, and then there was a 20-year gap, and we brought it back.

We just celebrated our third one.

The first year we had about 300 people in attendance.

The second year is about 450 people in attendance, and this last year we had 600 people in attendance.

So it's definitely been growing.

Is our way of really engaging with young people and celebrating them?

We give them awards, we give awards to young people of organizations.

We bring keynote speakers, and it's really our way of celebrating the young people and giving them a platform.

And shout out to all the young people that's performed at these last three years.

The next one is the youth line.

This is something that we launched under my leadership.

It's really about what we always hear that Boston is connection rich resource resource-rich connection poor.

We wanted to make sure that we connect the young people to resources and opportunity.

When we first started, there were over 300 resources and opportunities.

As of today, there's 700 plus resources and opportunities that we've identified for young people.

We created an online dashboard, and we have a full-time staff member that helps connect these young people to the resources and opportunities that they're looking for.

We also have a community calendar, which we update on a weekly basis with about a hundred free events every single month where families can go to this calendar and see not only what's happening within the city but also with partners in the community to make it easier for young people to know what options they have around the city.

The next one is Boston After Dark.

Um definitely enjoy this one.

We've launched this one about two years ago.

The first summer we did about 19 events in collaboration with BCYF and YMCA.

Last year we did 24 events in collaboration with BCYF, YMCA, and BHA sites.

We served over 1500 young people across last summer.

Every event was different.

It was really focused on the evening hours during the summertime, and it was really to give young people something to do.

One of the biggest highlights I would share is that we actually expanded.

We did an event at the MFA and we did an event at the ICA, and just about um last week we did we focus on the 19th to 25-year-old crowd, and we had a comedy show at the mezzanine.

So again, it's all about creating these fun, safe spaces and also making sure that young people have access to these facilities that they usually might not have access to, like the MFA and the ICA as well.

Youth Speaks Boston.

Um, something that we launched also in collaboration with Children's Hospital, Northeastern's University's Change Lab and the Boston Public Health Commission.

It was a youth um citywide youth needs assessment survey focused on 14 to 25 year olds to get data on what do young people need when they're not in school and what they're not at work.

We got over 1,600 responses from young people.

We've already launched our story map, which is our top find-ins, and also a data day uh data dashboard where young people and their families and partners and organizations can really navigate the data based off the demographics that they're serving.

The partner network is one that we launched once we started the office as a lifelong youth worker.

I know that we operate in silos a lot, so we all serve the same young people.

They go to public schools, they go to community centers, they go to community organizations, and we don't talk to each other as adults.

So we launched a partner network, as of right now, is made up of over 1,700 youth serving professionals representing over 680 partner organizations.

Um we meet every other month.

We get an average of tennis of 100 to 120 individuals per meeting, and our goal is to build those partnerships and just promote cross-collaboration amongst the partners.

And shout out to all the partners in the room that attend those meetings.

Well, I think I got too ahead of myself.

Um, so professional development is one that I think is very important as a lifelong youth worker.

Uh, we all know that there's no college degrees for youth workers, so professional development was very important for me.

Um, and it we offer free professional development every single month, up to two train-ins every single month, everything from CPR certification to youth mental health first aid to um program retention, problem resolution, grant writing, any and every training you can think about.

Um, and we also take feedback from our partners on what trainings are important to them.

Um, since last September, we've already done 22 free training sessions, um, and then 67 total since the office has been launched.

And again, these are completely free.

We have organizations to send their entire teams and other organizations that send individuals.

Um we partner up with 20 plus organizations in order to do this, including Human Resources in Action, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston University, and so on and so forth.

So that's the end of my presentation.

Really excited to answer any questions and really appreciate the support that you all have given us so far.

Cool, and then I'm gonna be doing the clicker for Tanisha.

Thanks, Pedro.

Great job.

Um, hello, nice to see you all.

Um, my name is Tanisha Dillion, and I'm the deputy director of youth options and limited, also known as YOU Boston.

Um, I wanted I'm gonna check in.

Can you guys hear me okay?

Okay, great.

Um, so um, I'll go ahead and say slide for the next slide.

Um, we are a city initiative housed under the workers' empowerment cabinet, um, and our work is funded through our nonprofit Friends of Youth Opportunities Boston, which is fiscally supported by the Office of Workforce Development slide.

I lead a team of nine.

Um, so we have three administrative staff, um, as well as a case management team, career services team, and operations team slide.

Our mission is to empower young people of promise, ages 14 to 24, to succeed in the workhorse in the community and in their lives.

Slide.

Before I get into what we do, I think um it's important to talk about who we support and their needs.

So when we talk about youth needs, it's on a spectrum.

Um, when we refer to a young person as a person of promise, we're often talking about someone whose potential is really clear, but whose path has been significantly shaped by different barriers.

So, you know, I'm really proud to be on this team as well as I wish I was there in person, but sitting next to Pedro in Allison because I I know that all of us understand that our role as a city is not to define young people by their struggles, but to recognize the support that they need to fully realize and reach their potential.

Slide.

So YOU is different than a YO or an OEA because we focus specifically on serving young people who are pre-persistent proven risk.

And what this means is that our young people have documented risk, chronic disengagement, and repeated involvement in the juvenile justice system or other youth systemslash agencies.

So as a result, YOU has been able to serve generations of the most vulnerable youth and families in our city.

Slide.

And some of the most common barriers we see our young people experiencing are exposure to violence and trauma, gang involvement, justice involvement, disruption in education, instability in a young person's family or community, as well as clinical or behavioral risk, such as trauma-induced anxiety or paranoia.

Slide.

He lives in Mission Hill, and unfortunately lost his dad to gun violence at the age of 13.

As a result, his mother's mental health decline, and she eventually turned to substance abuse.

And this put a financial burden on John as an oldest sibling.

And in an effort to support his own family, he turned to the underground economy to make an income, disengaged from school, and eventually joined a gang at the age of 15, and later received a nonviolent charge for carrying an unlicensed firearm.

So, you know, John's case manager from Child Protective Services referred John to YOU for summer employment due to the fact that he has a quarry and cannot work at YEO for summer youth employment slide.

So to dive deeper into it, John has been exposed to violence and trauma, which led to challenges feeling safe.

He was arrested and now has a quarry, which directly causes a barrier to growth and employment.

Due to gang involvement, he has significant concerns around his safety and is completely disengaged in school and does not plan to go back.

He's also struggling with instability at home and starting to feel struggles of paranoia come up.

So in all, a lot of our youth are looking at different barriers.

And as you can see, all of these that things that John is dealing with isn't really helping him get into the workforce or go back to school.

And the reality is that juvenile incident rates continue to rise.

More youth are actually experienced in being exposed to more of these factors.

And unfortunately, as it's becoming increasingly common, where we're seeing more youth and families reach out for help, need a job, need support, just navigating what it means to be a justice-involved youth slide.

So this is where YOU steps in.

We follow a program model that leverages wraparound case management services and subsidized employment to prepare young people of promise for successful entry into the workforce.

So we meet young people where they're at, and I think John is a good example.

Our youth need more than a job.

They need a program that does relentless outreach to get them in the door and signed up because they'll likely miss an initial intake.

They need a mentor who can relate to their circumstances and speak to how to get out of it.

They need a program like YOU that addresses these barriers and meets foundational needs while building a sense of safety and belonging to help them feel comfortable strengthening skills and creating a pathway to success.

Slide.

So we're a white glove service that works individually with youth to plan around safety and employment.

We're asking important questions that many agencies do not, not because they don't care, but because their youth population is different, right?

They're serving youth on a different side of the spectrum.

And so some of these questions that we're asking are like, where can you be safely?

How will you get there?

Is this a job that you see yourself growing in?

And most importantly, our staff is directly from the communities that we're serving, and many of us are very close to issues that our youth are facing.

So we're constantly monitoring things like gang safety, youth incidents, community violence, violence in prisons, and the juvenile justice system.

And all of it, all of this is just so that we can place a young person into a job opportunity where there's minimal risk for harm so that they feel comfortable to grow.

And as a result of supporting our youth, we're hoping to create this access of job readiness skills and eventually create space for them to enter the real workforce slide.

Programming is structured around two core components.

So we have workforce readiness and comprehensive case management.

Both core areas are data backed and integral to our success, right?

Like we wouldn't be able to do jobs without case management, whereas case management would be really hard to do without the jobs.

And youth like John can first participate in a career cohort where they're focused on career exploration, making 1625 an hour, and receiving industry certification such as OSHA, CPR, SurfSafe, and more.

After cohorts, you can be placed into an internship at a community-based business, such as a salon, community center, pharmacy, honestly, you name it.

Our staff on a day-to-day basis are out in the community finding these placements, and youth that are placed into internships are able to make $18 an app.

Case management is where we develop goals and action plans with youth, identify different barriers such as like housing, safety, food.

We also use case management to be able to round table with different referral partners around youth needs and to support their transitions.

Slide.

In the past, we've done field trips.

On the left, you'll see we were at Thompson Island, I think this was like two summers ago.

And then last summer, a bunch of our young people were able to get their barbicide certifications.

So really really excited about the work that we're doing there.

Slide.

Um so that they can reach their full potential and hopefully realign with their education, enter back into the workforce and further push to stabilize their own lives slide.

And as a result, we create a safer city, we save taxpayer dollars by reducing incarceration rates and lower the number of resources needed to react to juvenile related incidents slide.

Before I get into, you know, our goals and performance, um, these are just two photos, uh, one from young men's group.

So it's important to focus on workforce, but sometimes we do have to backtrack track with the group and focus on personal growth.

Um, and then on the right, you'll see field trips.

Um, this was I think a DJ cohort, and our young people were able to go to, I believe it was WBUR for um for a field trip and do some filming, which is really cool.

Next slide.

Um, so for in terms of goals and performance, so we are well on our way of surpassing our FY26 goal of serving 210 youth.

Um, as a result of this increase in juvenile-related violence indoor incidents, we saw a major jump in new referrals last year.

And I'll talk a little bit about how that kind of affected retention, but ultimately our goal is to serve 400 youth year-round.

Slide.

So, as I mentioned, retention was a bit on the lower side this year, um, not because we weren't able to retain youth, but because we had a bunch of youth that actually graduated.

Um, and then also because we had so many new youth, which uh was a blessing, had a really strong year.

Um, additionally, I wanted to point out that majority of our youth that went through the program did not see a new arrest, in light of us seeing an increase in juvenile related incidents.

So really happy about that.

Next slide.

All right, and then to close out so our annual operating budget is about 1.6 million dollars with about a 60-40 split where the worker empowerment cabinet is really important for supporting our operating expenses, occupancy, staff salaries in fringe, and then youth stipends are solely supported by grant funds.

Slide.

We know that this has been a tough year, but like our youth, we believe in the potential of the city and the results from all the hard work that has been done.

Just want to say thank you again for taking the time today, and I look forward to answering any questions after this.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

I can go into the last part.

Hi again.

Thank you so much for having us today.

My name is Alison.

I'm the executive director for the Office of Youth Employment and Opportunity.

I've been leading our team for almost three years now, and I've had the honor to support all of our youth employment programs for the city.

Our team sits within the worker empowerment cabinet, which is a cabinet that was created under Mayor Wu's leadership a few years ago to make sure we were supporting workers as a whole.

And so when I think about our office, I really think about us being the youth arm of worker empowerment for the city.

What we focus on doing is employing, developing and engaging Boston's youth, trying to make sure that they are equipped for long-term success in the city through employment, through career development training, and we do a lot of that through strategic partnership and community engagement with a lot of people, including a lot of our partners present here today that we're so thankful for.

We have a great team doing that work day in and day out.

We've got one or two of them actually here today that I want to thank, but a lot of them are back at the office because we are already starting to ramp up for summer employment, and a lot of our team is back at the office onboarding young people for their summer jobs.

In total, we've got 16 full-time staff, but the work is also supported by almost 30 interns who are youth and young people themselves working in the office to support all of the employment needs of the young people of this city.

We've been really lucky over the past 12 years to continue a partnership with Northeastern University that has helped put into words, facts, and data points all of the great impacts that we I think have all seen day-to-day youth employment has on young people.

I won't go through all of those points, and I know uh some people have the slides, but the impact of jobs stems from economic and job readiness, where we know for sure that people who get youth jobs are then seeing increases in employment and 30% increases in wages just one year later.

Uh, academic achievement, one of the most remarkable one being an improvement in the likelihood to graduate high school on time by over 8%.

We see a lot of impact on criminal justice outcome where young people with jobs are much less likely to engage in violent or property crime.

And those impacts continue to be seen up to five years later because we've been following a lot of youth, and so we know those impacts are long-lasting.

Um, and then generally um uh huge impact on inequality reduction.

The the biggest impact for youth jobs is seen on black, Hispanic, and opportunity youth populations, and we're seeing greatest academic impacts for youth that are at non-exam school at public schools, and so we know that that the work is usually impactful, and we want to continue to do it.

Some key metrics from this past year of the work that we've done.

And when I say we, I really don't mean just the youth employment and opportunity office because it takes a lot more than us.

We have over 300 partners across the youth jobs ecosystem that put in the work day in and day out to employ the young people, develop them.

This past summer 2025, we reached 10,511 young people employed across the city.

There was a 23.3 million investments, as well as over 10 million dollars of external funds from the private sector from the states, helping to make it all possible.

And of all of the youth hired last summer, 58% of them were BPS students, which is a population that we've been working to make sure that we reach fully.

We just concluded actually, as of last Friday, our school year 2025-2026 school year employment program where we hired over 1700 young people at different organizations across the city throughout the year.

We served over 5,000 families in our youth welcome center.

That's for anybody who might not be as comfortable applying to a job online and need hands-on help with onboarding application.

They can come and see us at the Tobin Center in Roxbury and we help them out.

We facilitate over 250 hours of career readiness for young people and engage with over 4,000 of them at our job fairs, including our most recent one just a few weeks ago at the Reggie Lewis and a lot of other community events that we go to.

And in addition to all the jobs that we directly support, we also delivered 667 work permits for other jobs that young people might be taking in the community, ensuring that they're taking those jobs safely and following the law.

To get to all those outcomes, our office for the past few years has been focused on a handful of key initiatives.

One of them, which I'm hopeful everybody in this room has heard about, is FutureBoss, where we've been trying to really centralize all resources for young people to apply to job, get the resources they need for jobs, and just career readiness as a whole.

A plug because there's a lot of young people here.

Summer jobs are currently open, applications are open, and jobs are taken in applications interview.

So now is is the time to go.

We've also been really working on fulfilling the mayor's youth jobs guarantee to be able to guarantee a job to every BPS student who wants one, ages 14 to 18.

We've strengthened connections with BPS.

We launched initiatives with BPS pop-up fairs and and other things to make sure that we're increasing that representation.

And then overall, we've really been working with all of the providers in the ecosystem to strengthen alignment, make sure that we're expanding access and that we're all on the same page when it comes to career development for young people and where those jobs might take them.

We have a lot more I'd say sub-initiatives that we've been focused on around accessibility, making sure we're meeting the youth where they're at, making sure that each job opportunity is a high quality job opportunity for young people, and making sure that we have extra support where needed.

I won't go through all of the example initiatives, but I'll I'll name a couple that have been, I think, particularly particularly effective that we are going to continue focus on.

One is our BCYF mobile onboarding, where we make sure to go into the communities to onboard young people into city jobs so they don't have to come all the way to our office.

We know it can be a burdensome process, so we go out there to help them.

We also just this year more on the support and launched a partnership with the youth violence strike force to make sure that we are reaching young people that maybe in the past didn't feel like jobs, youth jobs were for them, maybe they hadn't heard about them, they don't have the the resources to get access.

And so we're directly working with that unit with young people they encounter on the streets and through different family situations to make sure we're placing them.

Like I said, there's a lot more that that the team does in partnership with so many so many people across the city, but wanted to just highlight a couple a couple here for now.

And then in terms of our budget at a high level um really the the core of it is that most of our budget over 92% goes towards uh wages for young people um we do that through the SuccessLink program in two ways part of it goes to uh city jobs where young people can work at community centers city hall different places and get exposure in government jobs and then the other part of that is working with a lot of our community based organizations grant partners who um take on young people run wonderful programs for them and uh pay them through through the funds that we supply um and you can see a little bit of a a breakdown here um and like I said at this point summer jobs are are fully launched and we're um getting ready for them I won't keep more uh time but just want to thank everybody and and looking forward to um questions and talking about the year to come okay thank you very much um so uh just for for anyone who's uh just showing up uh we have um sort of strict rules around how many people we can have in the chamber where it looks like everyone's done a great job if you don't have a seat uh you can't sit in the aisle uh and we have a mezzanine uh wait sort of overflow space where there's a uh television maybe some people are watching this down there right now uh as we get through public testimony I think you you know it would it would help if you stepped out and sent somebody who's been waiting in the mezzanine but again I want to thank everyone for filing in filing in in a sort of orderly fashion and this is great so far.

The other thing I have to say is we have an a policy against signs in the chamber.

Now I I there's nothing wrong with the signs that you're holding up but I mean I think the policy is imagine if somebody brings in a sign that's uh that's offensive you know I don't we don't want to be in a situation where we're judging one sign or the other so what the the again I don't think there's anything wrong with the signs you're holding up we have a policy against them I would say I counselor Pepin is our sort of staff photographer here if folks my proposal is if folks who've sat here if you have a sign you want to hold them up and Counselor Papin can you can you and we could take a photo and then after we do the photos maybe just put them down you don't have to hold them up for the next three hours uh so I I don't know is that is that no I can do it uh but it won't be as good um so I I don't I Khalil is that hopefully that's okay I don't know if you had a camera but um I think okay well uh so if if everyone wants to yeah I you know raise them up you can stand I don't know which is the best way to do it uh and you can you can come over over here if you want to go to the other if you want to do that with side one more time.

Okay.

That side's tough because the sun is behind you.

Okay.

Okay so and again I I you know we maybe we need to figure out we need to look at that policy but we just have to enforce it uh put your signs down.

You can totally have it on your lap just you know uh and again if if you haven't signed up, you'll have plenty of time to sign up at the at the end.

If you're if your name's on the list, you still want to testify, we'll we'll we'll let you testify.

Did you and Alexa wanna speak um or we we could we could wait.

We have we have I mean it'll be like 25 minutes.

Uh okay, okay.

So we'll we're gonna go to my council colleagues.

Um we've been joined by counselor Henry Santana.

Let me just get the uh correct order here.

Um, yeah, okay.

They say it's Fitzgerald.

So who might already do that?

Um, so uh six minutes.

Uh the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Chair.

Appreciate it.

Uh and again, uh thank you to all the youth that arrived today.

Just participating uh in civics as it is.

Uh, we need more people to do it, and so I look forward to as you guys grow and finding your roles uh in a continued Civic Light.

Thank you very much for being here.

Um, Pedro Trin, Tanisha Allison, thank you very much for all you do for our youth, our future of the city.

Uh, it's much appreciated.

Uh Pedro, I attended the Mayor's Youth Council graduation last night.

Thank you for having me.

It was awesome.

There's some great kids on that.

Um, and I love the I got to give out a future fits award to someone who went from the Mayor's Youth Council to the city council, and that was a cool moment, man.

So I just want to thank you.

I might not be as young anymore, but there's still some cool moments in my life to be had.

That was definitely one of them.

So I appreciate you.

Um, but in that, um I wanted to ask about the the Mayor's Youth Council, and we know we're in a tough time.

I said it in my opening statement.

How is the mayor's youth council impacted by any of these cuts?

If you think that you can um speak to that in any light, you know, uh, first of all, thank you for for joining yesterday that the young people definitely enjoy being able to connect with you and the mayor and all that good stuff.

Um, definitely a very good question.

Um, I would say that um to be transparent, we are a success link partner.

Um, so that's how we fund um the the payments for the young people throughout the school year um through success link.

So through the school year now, what I would say is that we are having to uh make adjustments and um I've started conversation with external partners right now, other um other funding partners to like pick, you know, private industry council to make sure that um we have these conversations early to assure that we can continue providing the services that we've been providing um at the same high quality that we've been doing that.

Do you feel that the other in the early talks that you've had or the early reaching out, and please let the council know if we can be ever be of any help in reaching out to these external partners, but do you feel that it will the external partners have the bandwidth to to fully cover uh the impacts that are happening to your program, or is it gonna be like a most people be covered, but we're still gonna have some bad news for some folks?

Yeah, honestly, to be transparent, it's definitely early to answer that question in plain English.

Um, but what I would say is that the worst case scenario will have to make adjustments instead of like five days a week, maybe it's four days a week instead of um X number of kids in my shift, but it's definitely too early to know those conversations.

They have shown interest in the partnership.

Um, but as you know that you know it's hardship all around right now, and and it would just take some more conversations to really understand what the impact is gonna be.

Thank you.

Uh Pedro, one more for you if you don't mind.

Uh Boston After Dark.

Uh, community safety initiative.

I know last year I put an amendment into the budget uh to help out specifically to focus around South Bay Mall area and some of the incidents that were occurring down there, and so thank you very much.

Last summer was awesome, right?

I did I had no no reports to my office um that for of people.

So it's working.

What um what do you see how that is being impacted and how do we plan to continue that in this coming summer?

Yeah, no, so first of all, thank you to you and all your colleagues for the amendment.

It definitely was amazingly and super helpful for us.

Um we were able to use that amendment to expand past the summer into the school year, which is how we did the MFA event, the ICA events with the young people.

Uh, even shout out to the ICA.

We had over 300 young people there, and that's how we did the comedy show last week to expand to that 19 or 25-year-old population and really get them involved in local government.

Um we we all know that it's a tough fiscal year right now, so the minor changes and adjustments that we made is uh we're doing 16 events or I believe 18 events as of right now is what we have on board.

Um, the first year we did 19 events.

Last year we did 24.

So we're still providing um events every single Friday throughout the summer.

We made minor adjustments now by just confirming 16 events is also has to do with the capacity of our partners that we're collaborating with.

So this summer we're gonna be able to implement that.

As far as next summer, it's still too early to tell as well.

To like that might transparently might be a conversation for next budget season for me to be able to tell you in terms of if there's going to be a long-term impact but this summer we can definitely guarantee that we're gonna continue the initiative no that's great and I think it is important to continue it past the summer it's not good to just have the kids think like okay I'm set for the summer but for the rest of the year I'm I have to fend for myself I love that it was extended into it um to sort of wrap it into their everyday um routine of to go into school and still having that be available so I hope we can continue to do that for you.

Appreciate it Pedro as always thank you you uh your deputy director Lindsay Boozer uh have done fantastic work around that and the OEA program so kudos my friend thank you counselor um a question for Tanisha just want to make sure I got a minute left uh I was thinking about the slide uh around who you serve right uh and obviously it's tough to reach everyone and I saw that in the last couple years we're hovering around 190 196 uh people reached um uh and so how are those kids typically referred to yo you and what do you need to reach more of those kids because there's obviously we're not catching all of them you could still you know we there's still issues that arise in the community what what do you need to see what more can we do to increase that 196 number and how do we get more folks referred to YOU?

Yeah good question um so we are referral only um and this is because we want to make sure that our we're hitting that pre-persistent proven risk youth target um so often we're working with people like youth connect BPS um definitely city counselors offices and other offices in the city of Boston DYS is a very big partner of ours as well so we have different tiers of partners that refer um young people to us via a referral form and then our team will reach out directly to the to the young person to see if they're a good fit um indoor can be safely placed in the program.

And then to answer the second question around how to get more youth our goal is to get 400 youth employed year round and the biggest thing right now is that we cannot use city taxpayer dollars to pay youth that have quarries um I think there needs to be a larger conversation about either policy changes or things that needs to change in order to to be be able to use funds to pay our youth andor um dive deeper into conversations about private partnerships that can actually help subsidize um youth stipends along with city dollars um I hope that all of that makes sense but right now I think it's it's more money is what we need um and we're I think we're we're working with the right people and have a pretty good grasp on the amount of youth that we want to serve thanks Anisha I know my time is up chair so just want to just plug and say that Allison thank you and I know the 1700 youth jobs uh per at the the school year jobs that are in jeopardy at this moment I would love to advocate for those as well and uh Trent worked with you for many years under many capacities and so I just wanted to say thank you and thank you for all you do for the city as well thank you chair yeah I mean I I I know we we've been playing it tight with the time but because the second round is a long way away because we're gonna have public testimony in between so thank you if you if you have anything you want to add counselor Papin six minutes.

Thank you Mr.

Chair and again thank you to the to the panelists for for being here and for the work you do Pedro I've been able to really learn a lot of what you've been doing for the past three years and I've been part of a lot of the initiatives that you've started and I'm very grateful that um you've been such a good partner to not just me but I know for many offices as well but I know that the room today is packed with youth because they are worried about the year round jobs and about losing funding for them.

And I know that I think the number is close to six million dollars of potential losing in funds but I want to refer to a Dorchester reporter article that the mayor said publicly that they're going to find a way to pay for this.

And it's, I think you mentioned it already is the private industry council.

So I just want to get confirmation or at least your feelings on and around if we're removing these this budget line from the from year-round jobs here, are they're gonna be covered and how does that partnership look like?

How do we ensure that that's guaranteed not only for this upcoming year but future years as well?

Yeah, I'll start off by just saying that just for clarification.

When I mentioned my statement was specifically for the mayor's youth council.

So the 20 high school students that work with me, I've I've started a partnership and discussions to try to show that I can um cover the costs on my end, but I'll pass it over to my colleagues so they can discuss basically answer your question regarding the rest of the young people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Not yet.

So hear me now.

I think no, no, no.

Can you hear me now?

No, no, no.

Press it one more time.

That's it, you can do it.

So you can go into it.

Answer that question.

I think it's a great question.

Um, so my name is Trin Wynn, Chief of Worker Empowerment.

I work with both uh Tanisha and Alison on the uh youth workforce development piece.

I mean, I I think we have to uh recognize that um we are um in fiscal uh hard times and um so we are really um working towards uh securing all of our summer jobs that's been level funded.

We're still trying we're we still have a goal and we feel very confident about hitting um over 10,500 jobs, and then also leveraging an additional 10.3 million for summer jobs.

Um I think that um you know the family days are uh very uh secured.

We've also done uh really well on making sure that uh programming from the city is still level funded, um, and so our summer jobs and some of our year-round uh initiatives, such as the YOU program and the power core and other youth workforce development program that uh Tanisha and Devo run, they're level funded.

So I I just want to make sure that um we we're clear about some pro all the programs in our department are still level funded with you year some of the year-round programs, however, for the school year uh jobs, unfortunately, we we had to significantly reduce that and complement it with other strategies.

So, for example, we are working with the private industry council last week.

We've just launched a um a funding effort with Artists for Humanities that funds year-round jobs for uh young people in the creative economy.

We've had conversations with ABCD, YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, etc.

And those are great partners in which one we want to leverage their donors and private sector jobs and um subsidize by uh employers as well.

So it can't just be the city of Boston subsidizing these jobs.

Boston is very rich in corporations and employers.

We need to leverage that and tap into the fact that they have to also pay for summer jobs and year-round jobs.

The second piece is that it is utmost important that we do have subsidized cities subsidized jobs for year-round, but there are also great programs that we also have to tap into, such as post-secondary education, dual enrollment, um, learn and earn models from community colleges in which we have to tap into.

And so while we feel the burden of the financial constraints, we also have to look at entrepreneurially how we can leverage other partners to help the city of Boston and leverage more resources for youth and not just go back and tap into city jobs, city subsidized jobs.

We're we hear you, we understand that, but Boston is very rich in resources in which we need to tap into, especially the private sector jobs that are subsidized by those employers.

So, what I'm hearing is that there is a plan for the next year, or is there a plan to make sure that the school year-round jobs are not impacted and that there's still gonna be school year-round jobs for the students that want to work during the school year?

Is that the is that what I'm hearing?

We have, yes, we do have a plan, um, and I will, you know, um, we still have to sketch out some of those objectives and those measurable goals to raise those funds, but we are aggressively working with these partners and institutions and community colleges, um, and private employers to have a more fleshed out plan for school year.

And okay.

Yeah, yeah, feel free to follow up with you know, whereas I wouldn't allow that this morning or yesterday today because we're going to public testimony after that.

I just wanted to, I just wanted to ask very simple follow-up.

Is do we feel confident that we're gonna find some we're gonna have answers by before the start of the next of September essentially?

Um, it I'm sorry, can you clarify what kind of answers?

That there's going to be school year jobs funded, if not by the city, by outside sort by outside funding.

We're gonna have an answer by September, before September.

Um, I can't guarantee that because we're still talking to employers, and um we're putting the plans together with our anchor partners, which I've I've laid out.

Um we can we're happy to follow up um mid year or periodically to give updates, okay.

Thank you, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, we've been joined by Council Rell, if I didn't say that already.

Um, Councilor Culpepper?

Six minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I got a couple of questions regarding the summer jobs and the promise that all the uh young folks that wanted a job will have one, uh and this question comes more from the students at Boston Latin this morning regarding the question that counselor peppin has regarding summer jobs, and we know that the state is cutting the state money that's coming for summer jobs that and I think that's about two million dollars.

That's approximately 2.2 million dollars from um a line item called youth works from the state.

Yes.

And so with that, does that decrease the budget that you would have for the 10.5 million?

Um that impacts it, yes.

And so is it 8.5 million now?

Um no, we are so we are subsidizing it with private public partnerships as we speak right now, and we're working with um private sector employers to subsidize those jobs.

Those are active um strategies we have in place.

But if you don't get the additional 2.5 million dollars, you won't have the 10.5 to meet the 10,000 jobs.

We are working with all strategies to make sure that we still can meet or exceed that number, but you don't have that yet.

I don't have that answer yet.

Okay, and like my counselor, uh Council Pepper, as soon as you get there, give us an update.

Uh, because I think that you might want to go back to the state.

We are we have been working with the state on uh various conversations about um gap funding.

Yeah, funding.

You know, every Boston is not unique to these funding precarious times.

In fact, we have looked uh across the city and other cities are um, you know, have great assets, but they are far worse than the city of Boston.

That doesn't justify or clarify the financial predicament we are in, but um we do have very strong partnerships in which we are having those conversations.

We st we also have very strong private um subsidized jobs from employers that we still need to leverage.

And so there's 1.7 million coming from the fiscal year 27 OWD budget, 25 percent.

25 percent from the YEO budget, 5.9 million.

Sorry, what's the question?

I'm getting to it.

I haven't gotten to I'm just kind of giving you some of the basis for it.

With regard to the budget cuts, and and my my point is YEO budget is gonna decrease by 25% of $5.9 million dollars.

What's the impact that that decrease has on that program?

Well, it's it's going to impact approximately 1700 youth jobs that equates to that $5.9 million dollar reduction.

So is that in addition to the $2.5 million from the state?

That is, yes.

And so there's about $8 million, a little more than $8 million that you're gonna have to find, whether through PIC, the private industry council or from the state or from other sources.

Correct.

Okay.

Now one of the interesting things that the students at Latin talked about this morning when they talked about summer jobs.

And one of the things I thought about, we're gonna meet with Northeastern tomorrow.

One of the things we're gonna talk with Northeastern about is a co-op program.

We know Madison Park has a co-op program.

So have we thought about a co-op program across the entire BPS system so that you don't find yourself in these predicaments trying to find money for additional uh year-round school jobs so that if there's a co-op program, like all of those students at Northeastern come from all over the world, one of the things they can depend on is that uh Pedro, the second year they're gonna have a co-op job.

That's what we're gonna talk to Northeastern about with regard to Madison Park.

We know Northeastern hires maybe 10 students in their co-op program per year.

What we're asking Northeastern to do is work with Madison Park to identify jobs in the private sector so the students that would want a job at Northeastern can go to the private sector.

The same way they do in Northeastern, many of those students from Northeastern stay on for those jobs.

That becomes their profession.

So we're asking Northeastern to work with Madison Park on that, and I'm asking you maybe that's something we should look school-wide with private sector jobs so that when students do get into a private sector job year round, if they find that as a place where they want to begin their profession, they can begin stay on that job, and that becomes their profession just like Northeastern does.

So I'm just suggesting something you may want to look at, so you won't have to uh be in search of additional private sector jobs during the year.

I really appreciate that, counselor, and I appreciate the priority in which you have articulated that.

Um, it's actually a big compliment for us because um our office and our cabinet was the one who engineered the co-op program with Madison Park.

Um we've done it with the health care sector, with the building trades, um we've done it with uh climate and green jobs, and we've done it with city accounts.

And we've got this through, I gotta be into my last question.

Here's my last question.

The amount that if we had our drrothers, the amount that we would have to add to the budget in order for the students' youth summer and year-round program to be fully funded, the amount that we would add uh would be eight point about eight point one million dollars?

Is that what you asked?

If we here's my question.

What do we need to add to make sure that there's full funding for the student summer and year-round job?

Is that eight million dollars, Pedro?

Oh, that would be a question for anybody.

I mean, I I we have to balance our budget, sir.

And ma'am, my question is in order to add what's been cut, would it be about eight million dollars if we let's say we made an amendment to the budget, right?

We do have that right, and let's say the amendment included enough to give you full funding for summer and year-round jobs.

What would that dollar amount be?

I think we really need to look at other leverage resources.

I know, I know, I know.

My question is my question.

I'm asking the question.

I just want you to answer my question.

What would the amount be if we amended the budget to give you full summer jobs and full year-round jobs?

The question is, what would the amount be?

Not about looking at, and I understand you're gonna look at other places.

What would the amount be if we came to you and I'm coming to you now?

What would the amount be if you needed us to amend the budget so you could have full funding for the summer jobs and for the year-round jobs that you don't have now?

I respect the question, counselor, but I think the more important question is.

Counselor Culpepper, she's trying to answer the question.

I just want a dollar amount.

I don't that's all I want.

She's answering the question.

If it's not satisfactory to you, then that's not a satisfactory answer.

But let her at least answer the question before cutting her off.

No, no, let me do this because I'm asking a question.

If there was a dollar amount, what would the dollar amount be?

All I'm asking you is what would we need to add if we had to amend the budget?

That's uh Pedros.

But it would be balanced in somebody.

It would be undefined amount depending on the resources and the source of those dollars, sir.

So my question would be: where would we get those re those sources and those dollar amounts to subsidize the jobs that we uh it uncommittedly love and want to fund at an astronomical number, but the question would be where would we get that funding source?

But I'm asking the question, and I'm not asking where we would get it from.

I'm just asking you how much would it be if I had a magic bag and I could pull it out of the magic bag, how much would you want me to pull out of the magic bag?

I can't answer that question at this moment because I don't know where the sources of the funding would be.

Mr.

Are we gonna have a second round?

We are gonna have a second round after public testing.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Counselor Santana.

Um good afternoon.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, and thank you, everyone.

Um for being here.

Um I do want to, you know, I come here with uh excuse me if we keep the chatter uh down so we can hear the questions.

Yeah, so I I want to say a few things before I you start my questions.

I do want to thank the panelists for being here.

Um I do come here today, I think some of my colleagues as well with a heavy heart.

Um one of my childhood friends last night um passed away um due to our car accident, and um this individual was someone um who worked for the pig, who was in many of our Boston public schools and who has um poured into our youth.

Um, so um I did think it's appropriate um to stay in this space and um for him to rest in peace.

I also just want to give a shout out to um I know I see many organizations, many people in the room.

I see Bam, um I see um Ethan Toltores.

Well, I had the honor of um recognizing um just a few weeks ago.

Um I saw people from Bikes Out Bombs here.

Um, I obviously my um youth force, internet youth forces in the building.

Um I see Phillips Brook's house.

Um I saw individuals from people from Phyllis Brooks' house.

Um, so you know, just a lot of people who um and organizations who really care about this work um and I think um who are frustrated, right?

Um, you know, some I think anyone who's followed my journey as a counselor has known that I prioritize our youth.

I I keep in contact with all three of you on a um consistent basis um because I care so much about our youth.

I'm a product of someone um who had a summer jobs, who had a year-round jobs um here in the city of Boston.

Um, and I absolutely believe that that's led me to um where I am today, and I think many of my colleagues um can also say the same.

Um, with that being said, um I do have an issue with uh um with year-round jobs being cut, right?

I just had, you know, for me, that's that was life-changing, right?

Being able to get out of school and be able to be in a space where um I had loving adults um where I was getting paid, where I had professional development, um, and most importantly, where I was safe.

Um that that would that's life-changing.

That's the difference between um being able to live um to your old um versus um dying young, and um that's um what's at stake here, right?

At least for me, and at least I think for many individuals in this room.

So with that respectfully, I again I I think all of us love the work that you all do.

I think we all want to actually go into this um budget process and budget amendments and see how we can reverse some of these cuts because um the youth shouldn't have to suffer because of the um the times we're in right now.

I know we're in difficult times.

There are many budget um cuts that have to be made.

Um I mean it's not an agreement that it should be in this department, um, particularly in year-round jobs.

I'm proud to see that you know the mayor has committed again that any BPS student who wants a job this summer um will get one that's promised one, and um um again will um uh we'll hold her to that and making sure that um the youth who come to our office and and who reach out to our office um can get those services.

But I do want to talk about year-round jobs.

Um, and I think I want to ask the question a little bit differently.

Um from my for my counselor, how much did we spend last year on year-round jobs and how many um students benefited from that?

Yeah, um, through the success link program specifically, this school year that just ended, we hired 1721 youth, so 1721 youth, um, some of them at the city of Boston, some of them through our grant program for a total cost of about 5.5 million dollars.

5.5 million dollars.

And then how much are we C and W how much is that being reduced this year?

For the upcoming for this upcoming year, how many, how much do we have budgeted for year-round jobs?

So for the upcoming fiscal year, um the reduction in the recommended budget is 5.9 million dollars.

That's the reduction or that's the month.

So that's the amount that's being uh replicated.

That it's being reduced by for school year jobs at present is zero.

So we're it's it's completely gone.

Free city funding.

Okay, great.

So then, and then it's my understanding that we are leveraging um private corporations and some of our organizations.

Um, and I I and Chief, you know, I completely agree with you, we should be leveraging that.

Um, and I think a lot of these organizations and businesses should be um in uh should be helping here.

I think I just don't agree with uh this is something we have to plan for, right?

I think years ago we should have been doing this and leveraging these relationships.

Um, and again, I'm just really concerned right now that year-round, like our kids are here right now fighting for year-round jobs, and I know we're doing outside efforts in order to um get that back, but that's not guaranteed, right?

So, what are we saying to how about if we are not able to fund and fundraise that five six million dollars?

What are we telling the youth during the year?

Don't press it, don't you?

Um, I I mean that we're still working out a communications plan.

We are working with our staff to map out um a referral strategy on resources for year-round young people and what slots are available.

Um, we are looking at dual enrollments, um any co-op programs and uh learn and earn uh models that we are um tapping into.

Um we we have um about fifteen million dollars worth of grants that we've had applied to.

We're still waiting to hear back from.

Um so we're um we've met with I know that the Boston Public Schools um have engaged with um the chamber of commerce to uh engage with um private employers um and asking for um uh subsidized jobs from the employers for school year.

Um I don't have um a firm commitment yet.

I'm happy to provide that update for you, but I do want to reiterate that we are working around the clock to um you know speed trap uh uh speed up some of um these strategies.

Um we've been having calls and Zoom meetings to strategize with met with funders and um we've uh look are looking at um many grants in which we are applying uh for this one uh final comment i think if if you can get us information also on who what those grants are and who we're waiting on on them is there any way i think our you know myself and our colleagues can support in that um please let us know um i it's it's i understand the the moment we're in right now i know that i cannot support a uh a budget that sees a six million dollar reduction in the around jobs like that is just unacceptable to me and this is not has nothing to do with the four individuals here I know how much you all care about our youth how much you um get up every single day and do this work um but it's it's it's unacceptable we have a room full of youth who are advocating to have a job and I don't think it's you know it's great to see civic engagement I don't think it's it's I don't think we need to be able to they don't need to be here to do that I think the city needs to um step up and I know I'm gonna be fighting it's gonna be my number one priority heading into this budget season is fighting of how we can restore six million dollars so that way our youth can have jobs thank you Mr.

Chair okay thank you um okay everybody not a jazz cafe let's keep the snapping down um okay councilor you got six minutes uh and then I'm gonna uh ask some questions then we'll go to public testimony thank you chair and thank you um for the panelists for being here and kind of picking up off of councilor Santana and counselor uh call pepper's line of questioning I know it's 5.9 million of operating dollars what do what are we losing if anything externally in terms of funding for youth jobs I'm sorry are are you are losing money or jobs or leverages or money we can start with money yeah um so if we don't have our um school year jobs that would be our school year funding would be approximately 1700 jobs um I know that the the state have um decreased their commitment as well that's approximately about 300 jobs although what's the total dollar amount from the state um for our youth works um both summer and school year is approximately uh 2.4 million that's that's gone um that is not in the state line item um we do have um a 2.4 million dollar commitment from the state youth works um but uh they themselves are looking at the budget cuts as well so in total the operating is 5.9 and then the 2.4 million dollars so we're looking at around uh what what would be the total is it eight eight eight million dollars and eight point two million point three million dollars all right that we're losing around youth jobs correct thank you um and then for Tanisha have a question how many I know you're seven um based off of this uh presentation 196 youth uh how many case workers uh do you have and like what's the case worker uh youth ratio and is it a good ratio in your mind?

Yeah so um currently we have three case managers um so that makes it to about 65 youth per case manager um traditionally in our you know I would say like violence prevention ecosystem we'd like to see the numbers closer to 20 to 30 um so to answer your question we would love more case managers um but right now we're looking at around 65 years for case manager.

Got it.

And then can you can everyone just talk to me like how do we work with um uh the young people um that are being served over at YOU and youth jobs like it's is is the same promise um that every young person at YOU will get a job?

Is that a commitment that we have as well as a city?

I mean, I um I uh Tanisha, do you want to take that question before I chime in?

Um I think it's it would be more appropriate for you to speak on like the city side of things.

Um I will say uh in the past we were able to serve around 400.

Um so over the past three years, we've seen a reduction of about 200 seats for our program.

So you're saying 200 people are looking for jobs that that have not received the youth.

Okay.

Yes.

That's exactly correct.

Um I think that actually I'll let Trinity answer on the the city side of things, but as far as YOU, um, we we need more resources for our youth.

Um I think especially in the times that we're in, I understand again creative, but I think it's it's a deeper conversation about how we fund youth jobs for justice involved youth.

I just want to clarify that the 1.6 million dollar budget annual budget for YOU is city funded.

Um it is uh 70 at least 70 percent comes from operating, in fact, um from our um our Office of Workforce Development Um general operating, we actually heavily subsidize YOU, and we use those funds to leverage an additional 30 percent, which is um approximately 8006 863,000 of external funds to leverage that, and those funds help pay pay for subsidized wages for YOU.

Now if if we assume that we have unlimited resources, we want to serve as many young people as possible, we want to provide unlimited youth jobs, but because we are in a financial um constraint, and this is very very similar to all of municipalities in the state of Massachusetts and around the country, that budgets are very tight in a sense that we have an increase of expenses but not enough revenues coming to balance that budget.

So my question would always be to say we want to serve unlimited amount of young people, but where would that funding source be?

Um and then I have probably two questions.

How much how much funds have we raised, you know, from nonprofits in the past uh to kind of help offset the operating dollars for youth jobs?

Like we're talking about a strategy that we're looking to pursue now.

How has that strategy worked in the past?

Or is this our first time exploring that strategy?

I can talk either way.

Yeah, I mean, so the when we've we've always supplemented city funds with private funds for youth jobs in the past year.

That's the number I had earlier, which was um 10.5 million dollars.

Some of that is the state funding, which obviously goes through its own process that's not so much fundraising.

Um the rest um is something we've done, right?

So that like remaining eight million or so dollars year after year, that amount has grown over the past few years.

The private industry council is the main actor usually in those private fundraising elements.

Um we've got about 600 internships happening directly in corporations, and then you've got quite a few corporations, um, some big ones like um State Street Liberty Mutual who also commit dollars to invest into nonprofit jobs.

Um so Liberty Mutual might take um 20 interns at their own company, but then they might also pay 400 jobs in uh community-based organizations.

John Hancock does that with the MLK Scholars program.

Historically, that's been done uh more in the summer than in the school year, um, and and a lot of that fundraising effort um has been taken up by the PIC, but also other sources and partnerships that we have with corporations and public private partnerships.

All right, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Just a couple questions from the chair.

Um, so it in terms of just how many jobs we think we need to provide for youth?

Like, do you what's the number of jobs like in the this provided by the city by your private funders do you have that that number for for both for both summer and year round yes for for some for um this summer job we are aiming at uh meeting or exceeding uh the 10,500 number uh from last year we we are working hard not to go back to below 10,000 we've worked so hard to make the to make that number um actually under mayor Michelle Wu she was the only one only mayor who did not recognize it just as an aspirational goal but it was an actual goal so we don't we want to maintain that which is why we've maintained the summer jobs we're working hard to keep the 1700 job for the school year and that's our target.

Okay and it um so in terms of the in the past like last summer we had 10 10,500 jobs and then do we felt like that met the people could get a job if they needed it I don't is that was that an adequate level or we is the goal someday to be able to have more.

I think there's there's always more demand maybe a good way to answer your question um is um with the number of youth applicants that um that we had which um was around 12,000 young people um and so we were able to meet the guarantee when it came to BPS students but we we do know that there's a really high demand for youth jobs in general and so we were happy to continue to see that number grow.

Okay and then can you tell us anything about the conversations or why we cutting the school year jobs you know and yeah you know it's as opposed to just cutting part of each or something like why is it entirely the school year jobs I mean I I think we we really want to make sure that um we can meet or exceed the 10,500 goal which is why we did not want to we had to level fund that um and then um and also uh for for during the summer time we know that that's a most vulnerable time that's been documented and uh throughout our um uh randomized control studies we found that summer uh out of school when young people are out of school and out of work the summer jobs have a bigger margin for positive development for young people as you've seen in one of the slides that's not to say that school year um jobs are less important but um because they have um uh school school during the year and recreational support um that may offset some of the uh opportunities that young people while they're in school they have more choices um to um to have um and for the summer because they're out of school and then also um you know perhaps are not working in the private sector our summer jobs program remains in high demand so we we kept that untouched okay and then just to sort of figure out what's going on at the state level um so I I think it was like the governor's butt so I don't know if this is the youth works program was correct it's the youth works historically at around 25 million for I don't know if that's for the state for the city and but then it was cut from 25 to 15 and then I would I what I've been told is that the state the house put back two but now it's sort of before the Senate does you if you agree with that or what impact that has on our ability to to you know meet the need for our youth I I mean I I cannot speak for the state legislature and um the process as as it is right now.

I think we are still planning for that gap, and we're putting it that into our um planning and strategizing um plan.

I was saying if that so if that gap that the eight it's a I think eight million at the state level it exists, no, Alison.

No, it does.

Sorry, it's just the the it's for the entire state, right?

So we get a portion of the state money.

Uh not speaking to where they're at in their process and all, but just to be clear, the youth works program words for a lot of other municipalities like Cape Call, you know, whatever uh in in Massachusetts, some of that money can be.

If that stays at its current level, are we gonna have fewer summer jobs than you're talking about?

Well, if it stays in its current level with the um amended uh two million, Boston's share would be approximately 400,000.

And we're expecting what I'm sorry?

For 10,500 summer jobs, how much do we need from the state?

Currently, um I think we would we would need that level funded of, you know, last year we received four point approximately 4.6 million uh from uh the state youth works, um, and it has been reduced across the board that line item due to the sunsetting of ACRA funds and variety of budget cuts.

Uh they've had to um reduce it significantly as well.

Okay.

Well part of what I'm getting at is we we I think we have a lot of folks here who care about youth jobs, including us.

Including you, you know, the I for everyone here, these the these are advocates who are fighting for these programs, and they're you know they're not voluntarily cutting their own budgets.

Um, but when we look at the state, our we have something here called home rule, which restricts the amount, you know that we can't raise revenue, raise taxes without state approval.

And when whenever we try to do that, it gets knocked down.

For example, we have a transfer fee, a two percent fee on property sales over two million dollars.

That's what we've proposed for for Boston.

And for us, it's not even the wholesale, it's just two percent over two million dollars.

We anticipated would raise 180 million dollars a year for the city.

So when there's people in the state house who say we don't want that for Boston to have a 2% tax on property sales over two million dollars, we can't we can't that we have to get their permission through home rule.

Other cities around the country, they have a lot more power over how they raise revenue, New York, Seattle, places like that.

Here we have to go to the state house.

So, you know, it's in terms of like advocating, uh, you know, there's some advocacy in the state house, I think would go a long way.

When we're talking about something looking to the transfer fee, uh that would, you know, we'd be able to create a lot of affordable housing support programs like this.

Uh and you know it's it has failed in the past at the state house.

So um just flagging that for everyone here.

Uh we're going to go to public testimony.

Um so first uh Khalil and Alex uh and then I uh I will I'll read out the first 10 names on the sheet.

If you have something to hand out, so I will just if you give me five seconds, I'm gonna read out the first 10 names.

Okay, let me write them down.

Uh yeah yeah.

Uh okay, I apologize to every person here, because I'm apparently not able to read handwriting anymore.

But okay, Amira Suttles, Amira, I think.

Okay.

Yeah.

Amira, Sean Brown, Ethan Torres, Johnny McGuinness, Matt Rugerio.

Wait, sorry, you're going too fast.

Johnny McGuinness.

Johnny McGuinness, he he he knows who he is.

Uh he's from the teachers union.

So Matt Rogerious.

We good.

Uh Zion de Jesus.

Two, three, five, uh, six.

Um this is a tough, tough one for me.

You want to spell it?

I think it's Darven's Aleem.

Can you spell that?

From Hyde Park.

I don't know.

Uh it's I think it's D-A-R-V-E-N-S, but again, I apologize if I'm just not reading that right.

I do it and I have my glasses on.

Uh Nav Navia uh Barty.

And then uh John Smith scene.

Say air.

So uh if you can get you get in line.

Uh if I've called out your name, um, everyone's gonna get two minutes again.

There's a lot of people signed up.

If you go over, you know, people aren't gonna get the chance to testify.

It just uh so please try to keep within the two minutes just for everyone else here who's who's shown up.

Um, yeah, so they said that they were gonna um put it up on the screen for us.

No, you aren't able to.

Well, we so we have we have like a big one.

Maybe it'd be helpful if we could just show it.

It's just the information big.

That's fine.

Yeah, I will.

Thank you.

Okay, apparently we can't put it up on the screen.

Yeah, uh, but I have the printout, and you have that.

It's too much.

That's not the first one.

You want to introduce?

Yeah, so my name is Khalil Howe.

Uh I'm a uh organizer with the Youth Justice and Power Union.

My name is Alexa.

I'm 17 years old, and I'm a organizer with the Youth Justice and Power Union.

Yeah, so what's gonna happen is uh we're gonna do a joint presentation.

That's my time, and then she's gonna do her testimony so that it's not split up.

Sure.

Um, so yeah, you want to start off.

For the past 20 years, young people have fought for full year youth round jobs, all 12 months and higher wages.

Funding for youth jobs has increased from 6.5 million to 22.1 million since 2020.

Jobs last for about six months, so there's a gap, and the budget is divided between community organizations and city agencies.

Most jobs go to 14 to 18 year olds, and some go to 19 to 24 year olds.

Yeah, so the program started in 2005, uh the school year of 2005 to 2006 or before.

That's the the long the um the oldest record we could find of the youth jobs program for the school year.

Um, so in 2005, the program had 170 jobs.

Um, fast forward to 2014.

Uh the school year program, that's when I first did it.

658 jobs.

Um, 2023 to 2024, I think that's when Alexa started working at YJPU.

That was 2,531 jobs.

Um, 1800 for community organizations.

Um, and then 2025 to 2026 last year, there was a big cut, um, or this current school year.

Uh there's 1800 jobs in total and 900 to community organizations.

There was a large cut of about 5.5 million.

For the 2026 to 2027 year mayor will proposes zero city funded school year youth jobs.

Mayor Wu is saying she will work with PIC to raise private money, but year-round youth jobs are a core to young people and Boston's well-being.

We need to restore the full six million in city funding, not treated as something that can be sacrificed in the budget.

There are no plans to raise six million dollars.

Private funding is not sustainable in the long term, and groups already have to compete for limited private grants.

Um to fund the mayor's summer job guarantee and truly fund the organization's request for school year jobs.

More than 36 million dollars is needed.

That's to answer.

I don't know if he's still around, Cole Pepper's question.

Um for the fiscal year of 2025, the city budget um is 21.4 million for summer and school year jobs.

Because of the high demand, it actually it actually spends 25.8 million.

Now the mayor is proposing a cut for 16.1 million, a six million dollar cut from last year, and a 9.7 million cut from the FY25 actual spending.

The $6 million cut shreds our dreams, restore full funding for school year youth jobs, and about 15,000 people apply in the summer, and groups ask for about 5,000 slots during the school year jobs.

So during the school year.

So that's what we believe needs to be funded.

And then Alexa's gonna break it down real quick.

The cuts to youth jobs make me sick.

Our mayor has the choice of funding our community, and what she has then instead ultimately fails us.

Youth jobs are important to my dreams because it allows me to strengthen my skills while aligning with my school schedule.

It connected me to a network of people willing to support and invest in my higher education, and this wouldn't be possible without my youth job.

What makes this even more frustrating is that this was a conscious choice.

The funding for school year youth jobs was at six million, but that funding is now cut to zero.

However, there was still funding found for the Boston police department.

Youth jobs are not something disposable.

There's essential for our young people and to our community.

Third spaces are not readily available.

A lot of young people struggle with access to college, access to free food, and a space to learn skills applicable to their future jobs.

Youth jobs can provide these things and improve safety for young people.

This doesn't just cut paychecks for youth, but it strips young people of opportunities.

We need to put the six million back into school year youth jobs and prioritize our community.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, uh, so just to to get in line, you can testify at either microphone, uh to the left or right.

We have a mirror, Sean Brown, uh, I think it's Ethan Torres.

Uh you're up first.

No.

Um, so they're still on their way up.

Yeah, still on their way up.

Okay.

I think I'm going.

My name's Amira.

Okay, Amir.

Okay, whenever you're ready.

Uh hi, my name is America.

I'm a youth staff with Henry Santana, and I'm a student from Boston.

I wanted to share how the school year jobs and summer jobs opportunity have shaped my life and why cutting almost more than five million dollars out of our youth budget, or our youth funding would have a real impact on youth like me.

I got into politics at a young age because I had the opportunity in the summer to work at the State House when I was only 15.

Those experiences opened my eyes to how the government works and showed me that my voice matters.

It wasn't just about the internship, it was about the beginning of seeing a future for myself in spaces I never thought I could be in.

I made real life changes.

I seen it through the referendum questions I got to work on, and even getting the 2020 the 2024 ballot for the NCAS question, question two on that ballot.

Something that at the time greatly impacted me.

As a sophomore in college, I'm having having the opportunity to work here right now, part-time through the school year jobs, has built my skills to go beyond the classroom, such as communicating professionally, managing my time, and taking responsibility.

These experiences helped me grow more confident and important in these adult places and also helped me pay for my college tuition this year.

So, what makes this more personal for me is that I have a younger sister and I see her getting ready to take advantage of these same opportunities.

And knowing that the funding might be cut is a hard hit and almost a slap in the face to slap in the face to our youth who are our future.

It feels like the door that was open for me could be closed for her and so many other youth people.

I truly wouldn't, I truly would not know who I would be today without the opportunities like OEA and SuccessLink.

Youth is the foundation of our future.

If we don't have access to work opportunities to build real life, real world skills and only have what we learned in school, then who will be the ones to step into the roads to keep our communities and our systems running?

These programs are extra and they're essential.

Cutting almost five million dollars from our youth budget isn't just a budget decision, it takes away opportunity growth and a future leadership, and it's making a bold statement.

Our local government lacks real motivation and hope in our youth.

I'm asking you to continue to invest in us because we are worth it, and again, we are the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sean Brown.

Come on, fellas.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sean Brown.

I am the executive director of Youth Guidance Boston.

We'll oversee our two evidence-based school-based counseling programs.

Can everybody hear me?

Yeah, maybe closer to the mic.

Okay.

That's better.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Um, we're overseeing our two evidence-based school-based counseling programs.

Both BAM and WALL are strategically designed to create safe and student-centered support for young people, right?

That enables them to overcome obstacles and challenges that they face in life.

Um, I want to speak to the young people who just came before me, right?

Always say that is the paycheck, right?

This is why I do the work and to hear them advocate for themselves.

I can sit here and talk to them blue in the face about why these programs are important for young people, but it's nothing like hearing from our young people.

So thank you for the work that you do and advocating for yourself.

Um, one of the core components of our youth guidance programming is our out of school time, right?

That's our after school time that provides um opportunities for young people during school breaks, and that's called the at work program.

Our at work is an extension of our Bamma Wow program.

It focuses on workforce development and post-secondary pathways.

I've been doing this work for over 25 years, and one of the things that I always say is that I know our young people are wired to be connected to something.

And if we don't connect them to something positive, there is a whole host of negative things out there for them to be connected to.

So we have an obligation as adults to make sure that our young people are connected and have these opportunities that are gonna allow them not only to support themselves but to support them families.

And you're gonna hear from a couple of young men.

Council Webber, I will say these young men are later on the list.

I just bought them here since they're with me.

Um Ethan is one of them, they're gonna take their two minutes and we're gonna move on.

Um we say right that is not enough just to have our young people being be beneficiaries of our program, but they should be with us at the table when we're making the decisions for these programs.

And these young men have been instrumental in working with our staff and our leaders to talk and tell us what they want for the summer when it comes to employment and opportunities for them.

So I'm gonna step back and I'm gonna give an opportunity for these young kings to speak about why the program and summer jobs are important not only for them but for their peers and how it impacts their family.

Thank you.

Okay.

Just uh give me one second, in terms of like people coming in the room.

If you can't find a seat, we have a mezzanine with a uh a waiting area.

I know I'm calling on people uh just you know, we'll sort it out.

Um, again, if you can't find a seat, uh there's a mezzanine.

You can wait, you can watch, and then you'll have plenty of time to come up and and testify when you're uh when it's your turn.

Okay, so uh Ethan.

Can I just make sure does the microphone work?

Hello, hello?

Yeah, yeah, there you go.

So you gotta be get close to the mic.

Uh you know, that'll then pick up your voice.

Alright.

Good afternoon.

My name is Ethan Torres, and I'm a freshman at East Boston High School.

I personally think that youth programs and youth um jobs are really important because they teach us lots of valuable lessons, and they teach us how to have responsibility and how to be accountable for our actions and deeds and what we do.

And I think that's something that's very important because we can use those type of things in the future and every day in our lives, and that's just something that everyone should know and learn.

Also, um, youth got um youth guidances like BAM and youth programs like BAM, they teach us very valuable lessons, and that's something that everyone should be learning, and it's not fair for students and other people to not be able to be part of these programs and not have jobs.

And yeah, that's it.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh okay, Johnny McGuinness.

Uh yeah, I if you you have a couple more.

They're on a list, but they're next, so since they're here, can they just that's fine, Johnny?

Thank you.

Thank you, Johnny.

You just tell me your name and uh where you're from.

Um, Darwin Zalcime from Hyde Park.

Um, so to pick up back off what he said, um, I think that um youth programs and summer jobs are really important.

Um, not only because you know, like we get paid and everything, it's not sometimes all about the money, but you know, for me, um, working with uh summer jobs at a young age, it really taught me like a sense of responsibility and all that other good stuff.

Um, I feel like over time when I've stuck with these youth programs and all these summer jobs and everything, they taught me like a sense of responsibility and how to see things from like different perspectives.

Um, for someone who used to be a hot hat like me, um, I used to like, you know, see things like how I used to see them, but these jobs, like these read, it really helps kids, and I feel like these shouldn't be taken away because if things like these are taken away, you know, like other kids who are just like me who want to learn and experience different things, um, won't be able to experience them.

And you know, I feel like that's just not fair.

So, you know, you learn.

I feel like these summer jobs are just like very important for kids like me, and we should keep them funded.

Thank you.

Okay, thanks.

Next.

Good afternoon.

My name is Zion Deisus from Roxbury.

I go to Boston English High School.

Um, and the reason why I think that these summer jobs and these programs are important for us and our youth is because due to the simple fact how, yes, to piggyback off what Darwin said.

Yes, the money, of course, you're making money while working, but it also teaches you life skills, for example, for example, like prioritizing your time, time management, and working on social skills, any type of like anything that can build you up for the next level, especially before going to college and sending you off to meet new people.

Um, another thing is that I feel like these kids should have something to do, even during the summer or anything at all, just to keep them distracted from any type of streets activities or doing anything that they're not supposed to be doing.

Um, there's a lot of examples, and a lot of kids, me personally, I know a few kids who've who just stayed not doing anything, decided not to do nothing, or like just doing what they want and end up corrupted and hopping in the street life, which isn't which isn't good.

Um, and I believe like programs like BAM, for example, something I've learned out is most important to me is utilizing your time.

Time management is a very important thing.

That's something you can't get back.

So when you have your time, you should be using the most out of it, and you should be trying your hardest to pursue whatever you can, do whatever is best ability to your dreams.

So that's why, in my opinion, I think these jobs are so important because these teach kids like that there is something in the world for us to do, there is something for us to work for, and there's something bigger and better in the future.

And yes, that's what I think.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you, Bam.

Uh, okay.

Uh so next up we have uh Johnny McGuinness and then Matt.

Uh Rogeri.

Rugerio, maybe, um, and Joaquim Lombos.

All right, good afternoon, Chair Weber, Counselor Warrell and Councillor Pepin.

My name is Johnny McKinsey.

I'm the political director for the Boston Teachers Union who represents over 10,000 members.

I am here to strongly urge this body to continue funding the youth jobs program that has supported thousands of students over the program's implementation.

Youth jobs create a holistic education for Boston students where they get real on the job experience that bolsters their college applic applications and capability in the workforce, depriving students of this would severely impact their academic career and take away a lifeline for a lot of students.

So here is another instance where students lose out on preparing for their future.

I used to mentor students through the ABCD summer works program during my first few years teaching.

And I know firsthand just how important these jobs are to so many students.

These opportunities give students connections, skills, and mentorships that they not they might not get otherwise.

For a lot of struggling students, these jobs also offer critical income to help bring more money into the home at a time when families' wallets are stretched incredibly thin.

And and reflecting on my time, you know, when I work with students during the summer, you know, there's a ripple effect here.

We're talking about jobs, but we also need to look at, you know, the students that I supervise over the summer, you know, they had other students in summer camps.

So what are those summer camps going to do when there's not enough students to support the little kids that they supervise in the summer, rippling into what are the families going to do for child care.

You know, they have to spend more money on child care now, but that's just one example.

And this opportunity is fantastic for the students because I grew up in rural North Carolina, and one of the things I did during the summer, which I hope to never have to do again.

I had to crop tobacco during the summer before school started and picked cucumbers.

That was, you know, different circumstances.

And I'll finish up because I know that the buzzer just went off.

At a time when so many families, you know, are struggling with the effects of what's going on nationally, you know, social media and a lack of access to behavioral health services.

These jobs offer students a clear pipeline to spending their time productively and socially.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Matt and Joaquim, and then uh Navia Barty.

Uh good afternoon.

My name is Matthew Giro.

I am a resident of Jamaica Plain, an ESL teacher at English High School and a member of the Boston Teachers Union Executive Board.

I'm also a graduate of Boston Public Schools, and once I had a city-funded youth job through what was then called the Boston Youth Fund.

And because of city funding, over the course of five years I spent summers and school years working at the New England Aquarium.

It led me to a job in college, supporting teen interns, and I take a lot of those lessons today as a teacher in Boston Public Schools.

The programs and organizations that the city of Boston supports and does the work of, many of which are in the room today, provide a really important opportunity for young people to do meaningful work and be compensated, to take on real responsibility while doing so in a supportive environment.

And I think I recognize this a little bit at the time when I wanted, was a teenager.

What it means for Boston to fund youth jobs.

It sends a message to young people in Boston that we are investing in you and we support you.

It tells young people that they can be leaders in their communities and education programs, that they can be educators and change makers and advocates, and ambassadors of our city that they are the face of our city, and we support them to be that.

Cutting youth jobs says the exact opposite.

It sends the message to young people that we are not investing them.

And so I asked the city council, the mayor's office, the city, what budget are we going to pass, and what message will we send to young people in Boston?

Thank you.

Okay.

We have Joaquim, then Navia, then John Smith St.

Cyr.

Yeah, so good afternoon.

My name is Joaquin Lombos.

I'm a student at Boston Latin Academy.

I live in Roxbury, and I'm also a youth ambassador for Santana's Youth Force.

For the last four years, I've been employed in the city Boston, with the PIC, nonprofit organizations, and the city of Boston itself, my job here.

Youth jobs have been have provided me with the opportunity to not grow, not just as an individual, but is granting me the opportunity to build my community.

The collection of youth gathered here today are a reflection of its importance.

Youth jobs aren't just a meme to make money.

They build unforgettable experiences and relationships for young people all across the city.

I would not be who I am today if it weren't for my work experience.

A five million dollar cut to youth jobs isn't just a money cut, it limits opportunities and experiences for young people everywhere.

I hope that this testimony and the people in this room resonate with the people on stage right now.

And because youth jobs aren't just an outlet, they are solution.

Thank you for the time.

Thank you.

Okay, uh, yeah, sorry, Miss Barti, then John, then Nate Nichols, Avery Snow, and Jamal Alexis.

Okay.

Um, hello, senior council members.

My name is Naveea Barti.

I work with Henry Santana, and I also live in Mission Hill.

Um I'm a senior here in Boston.

I go to Snowden International, and I'm here to talk about how cutting the school job affects me.

Working, having a school job really helped me because I was making my own money, and I didn't have to ask my family for nothing.

Helped me stay focused and busy.

I felt responsible and proud of myself.

When school job funding gets cut, students like me are losing chances.

It makes things harder.

And sometimes I don't have money.

Sometimes I don't have money, and I have to put in the stress that puts on me and my family.

School jobs are better for students because they understand our schedule, makes it easier to work from balance to school.

When we lose these jobs, we are looking forward to other jobs that might not be as flexible or safe.

For me, it's frustrating because we're told to do the right thing and work hard.

But when the opportunities that we need are taken away, it's I'm asking or taken away.

These jobs help students like me grow, stay on track, and prepare for the future.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

John.

Yeah, and then uh Nate Nichols, Avery Snow, Jamal Alexis, and then Javier Arroyo.

That's uh on it if I take a picture of the list so loud we can just am I good?

Yep, uh, whenever you're ready.

All right, so um, one tenth of one percent of the budget, one tenth of one percent of the budget.

That is what all these young people are fighting for, and I think it's really disgusting that we have to stand up here and beg for literal crumbs.

The mayor is saying loudly, we don't even have crumbs for you.

And to all of that, I say it's shame.

Uh my name is John Smith Saints here, and I'm the founder and executive director of the J.L.

Smith Suicide Prevention Center for young black boys.

And this is a rhetorical question, Trend, because I already know the answer.

But are you willing to wait on pick in the private sector to pay your salary?

No?

Can we take any of your salaries out of the city's budget?

No?

Okay.

I bet.

So our taxes are good enough to pay your salary, but not all of these young people in the room.

I'm here today in strong support of fully funding the school year jobs and the fiscal year 27 budget.

But first, I want to speak directly to the narrative around youth employment because too often the conversation is dishonest.

When people talk about youth jobs, they make it sound like young people are only working for extra money, sneakers, clothes, cell phones, spending money, things that make youth employment sound optional.

But that is not the reality for many low-income families in Boston.

Many young people are working during the school year to help their families survive.

They are helping pay rent, they are helping buy groceries, they are helping with phone bills, transportation, school expenses, etc.

etc.

Simply put, they are helping with basic things that allow them to participate in life with dignity.

Counselors keep saying that this is a tough decision, but I want to ask directly, what is tough about it?

The money is there.

We have more than a four and a half billion dollar operating budget.

We have almost 600 million in reserves.

We have a police budget of roughly 450 million dollars.

So this is not a question of whether Boston has money because we do.

This is a question of priorities.

What is difficult is not the math.

What is difficult is whether this council has the integrity to fully fund youth jobs even when it requires political coverage.

What is difficult is whether counselors are willing to stand on their own decisions instead of hiding behind the mayor's agenda.

School year youth jobs are not just about employment, they are public safety, they are violence prevention, they are mental health support, they are family stabilization, they are economic relief for households already living under pressure.

I'm asking, I'm asking this council to fully fund school year youth employment and fiscal year 27 budget, including stronger partnerships with community-based organizations that serve the highest need youth.

In addition, I'm asking this council to stop hiding behind narratives.

The question should not be how does this look politically?

The question should be what happens to families when these jobs disappear.

Fully funding school year youth jobs is not a favorite to young people.

It is a basic responsibility of a city that claims they care about us.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh so we have uh Nate Nichols, Avery Snow, Jamal Alexis.

And then, yeah, I that microphone seems if you're tall, I recommend being on the right.

But uh, shout out to Lena.

Or lean in, yeah.

No, you're good, you're good.

How's it going, everyone?

Uh, my name is Nate McLean Nichols, and I'm the program director for Teen Empowerment's Boston chapter.

Also a lifelong Boston resident.

Uh, you know, Roxbury in the building, you feel me?

Um, currently living in Dorchester.

Um Teen of Primer is a nonprofit organization focused on empowering youth through social change.

Um, and my role includes supervising our program staff team who are highly effective youth workers and youth development practitioners.

Um, these are our essential workers, they're the ones who work tireless hours supporting our youth organizers and helping prepare them for their today and their futures.

Um, and I also serve as a mentor for several of our youth organizers who are here in attendance today, um, and I hope you give their voices um highest priority.

Part of our work is not just employing young people um ages 14 to 19, who you'll hear from today, but we also employ young people um age 18 to 25 to serve as associate program coordinators.

These are vital positions that give young adults opportunities to explore the youth worker and social service fields while also supporting their growth and development as young professionals.

These are uh positions that are funded through Success Links' quote unquote youth leader slots.

Um, and when we face cuts like the proposed six million dollars from school year jobs funding, our teens are put at risk, but so are our young adults.

These are young professionals who are striving to grow into themselves and have been provided an opportunity to have stable employment and environments that cultivate that growth in them.

They're young adults who are transitioning into the working world and are in need of environments that will support them with direct mentorship pathways.

In a day and age where most young people are tossed into the labor force without care, the city has provided stable pipelines to career growth for youth through organizations that they may have already grown a rapport with as youth themselves.

So when you cut youth jobs, you're shredding opportunities for the future of the city's workforce.

You're preventing development at a time where we need to be investing heavily in it.

So that being said, I'm urging the city council reject the mayor's budget proposal.

Propose a new one that prioritizes youth and young adult needs, such as housing, food, and of course, youth jobs.

Because I need you to understand this.

Youth are your constituents too.

We're talking about young adults, you feel me?

Don't forget that the very seats that you sit in, these are seats that are gifted to you by your constituents, by people that you have sworn to represent.

Do not forget about the youth.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh so then uh Avery, Jamal Alexis, Javier Arroyo.

Um, I think it's Lamon.

Avery.

No.

Oh, sorry.

Okay, there you go.

Whenever you're ready.

Um, is it working?

It is.

You just yeah, speak of more, you know, with some more volume.

Okay.

My name is Avery Snow Williams.

I live in Dorchester and I work for Teen Empowerment.

A lot of the people that I know through Teen Empowerment struggle financially, not just during summer, but all year round.

The money these people earn could be used to buy small luxuries, but a lot of them use them for their households to buy what their families cannot supply.

Some of us live alone, and some of us work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Some of us are college students trying to make it through school.

Some of us just want a sense of community and support, but the check is what pushed us to seek it.

Regardless of the circumstance, people rely on these jobs, not just teens, but the community as a whole.

Taking away school year jobs takes away community and leaves people struggling.

Please do what you can to reinstate the six million dollar budget cut to youth school year jobs.

Okay, thank you very much.

Yeah, you don't have to take the whole two minutes.

Uh um, but okay, Jamal Alexis and Javier Arroyo, and then uh Adriana uh Zubietta.

Hello, my name is Jamal Alexis, and I work with the Center of Teen Empowerment as a youth organizer at the Dorchester site.

I know you hear the importance of youth jobs over and over again.

And you will continue to hear this until you see the value the same way we do.

Youth jobs provide real skills, experience, and a chance to show independence.

They help set a strong foundation for future goals such as saving for cars, college, and providing for your loved ones.

Cutting youth jobs should not be a simple solution to increase police pay.

As I like to remind you, we are a priority.

I often hear the importance of you jobs and claims of support.

Well, this is your chance to truly showcase the value of young people.

Reverse the unacceptable six million in city budget cuts that eliminate school year youth job programs.

Save year youth programs.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Javier, uh Adriana Zubieta, and then I think it's a Alonzo Ferrada.

Peace, I'm Javi, a 17-year-old BPS student who's been working at school year youth jobs for the past four years.

I've seen youth jobs have a major impact on people who saw their hopes and dreams as unachievable, introducing them to direct paths and opportunities in which they can meet their professional or personal goals in life.

I've seen youth jobs be the only thing stopping my peers from having to skip dinner tonight so their family can make rent tomorrow.

I've seen people who didn't have jobs suffer with time they should be able to spend on their education on enjoying their youth, instead spent on all-consuming job hunts.

Well, finding to find ways to make way to make trying to find ways to make ends meet in between that are often unsafe and not legal.

In one of the five most expensive cities in the world, families can't afford to live here, especially black and Hispanic Boston families who have been here for generations.

It must be a near impossibility to afford to live in this city.

And a Boston Mary Wu says she wants to be affordable for Bostonians.

The money kids get from these school year youth jobs is a need which is otherwise unmet, and a need which is now under threat of being withheld in the name of increasing the already bloated police budget to those who rationalize difficult decisions, to those who rationalize that difficult decisions need to be made.

I have a clear request that can hopefully make it far less difficult.

My call to you is not only to ensure that this new budget doesn't go through, but to work towards a budget which does the inverse, allocating funds from overfunded police budget to actually addressing community needs through funding school year youth youth jobs and arts and culture in our city.

Thank you.

Okay, uh Adriana and then Alonzo.

After that, we have uh Brianna Perea and Laura Rodriguez.

Okay.

Just gonna keep going down the list.

Uh if you get here, we'll uh call you up to testify.

Um so Laura Rodriguez, uh Camilla Pagan, Omar Sahor, Yasser Blanca, I think.

Okay.

Anyone?

What's your name?

Oh, okay.

I know.

Hello, can you hear me up?

Hi, my name is Camila Amanda Rojas Pinheiro Pagan.

I am one of the co-founders and CEO of Beat the Odds, a creative youth development program in Dorchester, and I also live in Rosendale.

I'm here today to propose because the proposed six million dollar cut to youth jobs is not just a budget decision.

It is a decision that will deeply impact our young people, especially our black and brown who are already lacking resources.

For many of the young people we serve, these jobs are not extra income, they are essential.

They help them support themselves and contribute to their family and stay on the positive path.

And I want to be clear keeping jobs available for young people is preventative work.

It's one of the most effective ways to keep youth engaged, supported, and away from harm.

Programs like Beat the Odds, Teen Empowerment, 617 Peak, Trans Transformative Culture Project, BAM, Young Man with a Plan, all the other organizations that are in this building, we are not just jobs.

We are spaces where young people learn real-life skills, build confidence, develop leadership, and receive the support that they need to succeed in school and in life.

They are also critical to the workforce development spaces where young people gain the tools, experience, and exposure that they need to contribute to a stronger and more equitable Boston.

We work with youth navigating different real life challenges, and through consistent mentorship and community, we have seen them grow into leaders.

So when we cut youth jobs down to just six weeks a year, we are taking away stability and consistency.

And when we make cuts like this from SuccessLink or the Office of Youth Engagement and Advancement that are doing incredible work with alongside with us while also increasing funding elsewhere, like the Boston Police Department, it sends a clear message that instead of investing in the youth of our young people, we are trying to risk it and risk their outcomes.

We cannot afford to take steps backwards.

Our young people deserve sustained opportunities, real support, and spaces where they are seen and heard.

I urge you to reconsider these cuts, continue investing into the future of Boston's youth because they are the future of the city.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

No.

Okay.

Good afternoon.

My name is Omar Sahroor.

I am the education director at Pierce Park Sailing Center in East Boston.

I also happen to live in East Boston.

Pierce Park Sailing Center is a nonprofit organization that serves about 3,000 young people annually this summer.

We will employ 120 young people and also support one of the largest youth job coalitions in the city of Boston.

I know the conversations today are difficult, but I do appreciate all the work that Pedro, Allison, and Trin do.

School year jobs are extremely important to our organization.

They allow young people the opportunity to gain those college and career development skills that they otherwise wouldn't be able to get in school.

They also get all the skills that they would need to be an amazing sailing instructor with us in the summer.

We're able to fill these gaps that otherwise wouldn't be met just in the summer.

So I urge the city council to amend the budget in level fund school year jobs.

And if so, if the mayor needs to dip into the reserves to meet the $6 million budget, the youth need you to fill the gap.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Hello.

Good afternoon.

I'm Rhea, I'll be speaking on behalf of Vizier Blanco.

Um, my name is Rhea Miller.

I'm 16 years old.

I live in Dorchester.

I'm currently a junior at Brighton High School.

I've been working at Pierce Park Sailing Center for just about three years now.

I'm speaking today because jobs are a bigger role than we think or we imagine in this day in this society.

These jobs give young people like myself structured responsibility in a safe place to spend our time, especially in neighborhoods like mine.

Having something positive to do after school can make a real difference.

For many students, this isn't just about experience, it's about survival and support.

I personally know teens who help their family with rents or basic needs.

Others are dealing with foster care or unstable home situations or trying to build independence.

Taking away that doesn't just affect us.

It doesn't just affect us building our resume.

It affects us in real day and everyday time.

Taking away something that's helping us move forward even now that not even every teen has every access to jobs, it seems insane.

Some of us face barriers like transportation, limited connections, or having the same opportunities as others.

Programs like these are supposed to level up the playing field so many young people could get hired and gain experience.

So why take that away from us?

Me personally, even working at Pierce Park Sailing Center, I know many teens who haven't been on a sailing boat or even went kayaking.

So for me living in the area I live in, that's very nice that I have that opportunity.

But taking that opportunity away from me, I don't know what I'll do after school or throughout the weeks during the school year.

As a youth who's currently in the program, I strongly stand with not getting rid of the school year budget.

In fact, I say that you guys increase it and make more resources for teens like me and in other situations.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Um, so next up, I have uh Charis, Nee, Alex, DeFranzo, Corey Evans.

Good afternoon.

My name is Karis, and I'm a junior at Boston Latin School, and I also um work at Pierce Park Sailing Center.

Um, I live in East Boston.

I've been going to the Pierce Park sailing um camp since I was six years old, and now I've been working there for about three years.

Um, I teach sailing both in the summer and after school as part of the school year jobs.

Um, and I love being a summer uh sailing instructor for my summer job, but it's also really important during the school year as it can get really difficult to get outside, and um this provides that.

Um, another important part of having a school job or a school year job is the mentorship from the staff.

It's really important to me to have adults that I trust and that I can connect with to help mentor me and help me with my school work and help me make um important decisions in my life.

In our current youth program at Pierce Park, we have many professionals as well that come in and teach us valuable life skills, such as um interview skills or like building a professional resume.

These youth jobs provide essential life knowledge, both indirectly from experience, such as the fact of having a job and learning these time management skills and how to handle your money, and as well as directly from these professionals.

Um these jobs help youth to manage their time better, manage finances, and learn how to effectively balance work and school with the support that they most likely will not have later in their life when it can be very important.

Um I've learned a many important life lessons from my job, and I hope that those younger than me will also have an opportunity to do this, such as my younger sibling.

Um, these jobs are really essential for the youth of Boston.

Taking them away would be detrimental to our success.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, so we have Alex DeFranzo, Corey Evans, uh Vidaria Pinalos, and Lindsay Blanco Lopez.

Thank you very much.

I'm Alex DeFranzo, the executive director of Pierce Park Sailing Center in East Boston.

I also live in East Boston.

Our summer coalition's 205 jobs, school year is 30.

I also want to express as Omar did how grateful we are to all the staff that make this happen.

We got hooked on this program.

It's been such a positive thing.

The reason that Boston is the safest city in America is because of investments like this.

The reason that we have the educational outcomes that we do is because of investments like this.

And we prove that out with the work that Northeastern does.

So I, you know, want to say the structural uh means of going from 1,721 jobs to zero, is a major problem for also running summer jobs.

The 1,721 young people that are with these employers during the six months of the school year program, they become the leaders that help run those 10,500 jobs in the summertime.

And to not have the opportunity to train and work with them for that period of time is going to be really detrimental to the program as a whole.

Also, uh, as was talked about before, it's an essential part of how we provide programming for younger people in the city.

All of these teens and young adults are the ones that are taking care of our six to 13 year olds in the program throughout the school year after school and in the summer programs as well.

So please do whatever is necessary to make sure that this 5.9 million dollar cut does not happen.

Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, uh Corey Evans, Vidaria, and Lindsay Blanco Lopez, then Turmo Singh.

Good afternoon.

My name is Corey Evans.

I live in Jamaica Plain, and I am Vice President and Senior Director of Education at the Box Center, home of the Wang and Schubert Theaters, located in Chinatown, where I oversee the education and outreach programs for the center.

Most specifically for the purposes of today, our city spotlights leadership program and our school year teen leadership council.

Both youth employment, both youth employment programs that have been proud partners with SuccessLink since 2013.

Our programs offer young people a paid opportunity to learn skills in leadership, advocacy, and how to have a job.

Many are having these jobs for the first time.

This opportunity is so much more than a job for our teen leaders.

Our teen leaders learn to think critically about issues important to them.

They learn that their voices matter.

They are given a platform to advocate for social change through the arts.

Our program, like so many others represented here today, offer young people a safe space to learn and grow, a forgiving place where they are where there are dedicated youth workers, as you can see by the turnout today in this room, educators and others who care deeply and offer not only mentorship but a sounding board often when no one else is listening.

Structure, guidance, and so many other things not found in a traditional work site.

Our teen leaders are paid to go out into the community to BCYF sites, BPS after school programs, libraries, and other community-based sites in Boston to facilitate workshops on messages of positive social change to kids of all ages as well as senior citizens, giving back to their communities, all while learning important skills of public speaking and presentation, facilitation, problem solving, group management, and advocacy.

So many of our teens would not be able to participate in our program if they were not being paid.

For many of our teens, this program, as well as ones represented here today, are transformational and has impacted their future trajectories.

We believe very strongly that we are helping to cultivate the next generation of leaders in our city, state, country, and world.

I had the privilege of interviewing a young woman yesterday for a staff position in our summer program.

She graduated from our program in 2019.

I quote working at City Spotlights as a teen leader was one of the most impactful experiences of my life.

And the community I created became so crucial for my experience as a teen in Boston.

It gave me such an important foundation of knowledge of social justice and professionalism, and I have taken that with me in everything I have done since.

End quote.

It is crucial to be able to tell our young people that they are critical to the success of our democracy, and that starts right here, right now.

If we do not invest in our young people through these programs, we are not thinking about the future of this city, this country, and the world.

If we are not training our young people to be leaders and advocates, what does that mean for the future?

Who will be sitting in this room making these important decisions?

I hope it is the young people who have participated in these programs who are in this room right now, that have been invested in by this city because we need them not just today, but we need them tomorrow and every day after.

Please do not cut funding for school year youth jobs.

The stakes are too high, and our young people need these jobs and these safe places now more than ever.

Thank you for your consideration.

If I have Vidaria and then Lindsay Blanco Lopez, Tomo Singh and Maya Ross.

Sure, sure.

Okay.

Um sorry.

Hello, city counselors.

My name is Riang Pinales.

I'm a BPS student and look at it in Jamaica Plan.

I'm representing Socialidad Latina.

It has come to my attention and hundreds of other teenagers within the job industry designed for teenagers that a cut will be made towards our funding.

But I'm also speaking for all of teenagers who are going to be affected by the sudden budget drop.

Growing up in Boston gave me the privilege of receiving the best education and the privilege of best use jobs for me to partake in.

These jobs, which grant huge opportunities for teenagers like me who are not only in it for the sign money, but essentially like food to eat after school if there's nothing to eat at home.

Parents who are living paycheck to paycheck, who cannot afford the privilege to save for their child's futures, like college and sport-related things.

Parents need their children to have these jobs to ensure that their future careers will not have to be tainted due to lack of budget.

Cutting the funding, cutting the funding of these programs who help these teenagers cut their futures.

Without having the sign money, how will teenagers know that they'll continue having the best education for their future fields?

How will they know that their dreams can be achieved?

How will we know that our future doctors, lawyers, social workers, etc., are here for the people if the ones who strive to be their firm are completely cut off?

For these reasons, I strongly advise to find another way to short the money to ensure the futures of these said teenagers.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Lindsay Blanco Lopez.

Uh, okay, and then Tomo Singh Maya Ross and uh it's uh Germani Gonzalez.

My name is Lindy Blanco Lopez.

I am a Boston public school student at Ruth Batten Academy, and I'm from Dorchester.

I'm here to, I'm here today with Society Latina regarding the city's budget cut.

Michelle Wu's proposal harms all Boston residents.

She's revoking important resources from vulnerable communities, such as immigrants, students, working youth, and the in the workforce.

Immigrants' access to legal support will be limited, which is dangerous in today's political climate.

The removal of protection will be a detriment to the workforce, since without immigrant labor, the economy will tink further.

Teachers will be laid off, not only affecting the workforce, but also compromising the learning of students.

As a student, I am afraid that my learning opportunities will be heavily restricted, will be potentially shattered, limiting my career options for the future.

My teachers have guided me to programs and opportunities that have helped me find my passion.

With these budget cuts, the future of the youth won't be the same.

Budget cuts will reduce youth paychecks and cut programs, leading to youth unemployment due to being taken for granted.

Um, less extracurriculars due to a lack of money and a lack of preparation to young adults entering the workforce.

After harming the workforce, people who have lost their jobs will become dependent on the same resources that the mayor is trying to strip away, like affordable housing and food.

These budget cuts show that the mayor doesn't have the best interest, the best interest in mind for low-income Boston residents and families.

I urge you to consider the ways these budget these budget cuts will affect everyday life in Boston and to deny Mayor Wu's budget cut proposal or to relocate the budget cut to areas that aren't in need, like the rebuilding of the White Stadium or the Boston, the Boston Police Department.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh I've Tomo Singh, Maya Ross, Jermani Gonzalez, Ikra Abbasi, and Christine Blake.

Whenever you're ready.

Uh but yo, what's good?

My name is Tomo Singh.

I'm a multidisciplinary artist from Dorchester.

I make music, I make clothes, do photography, really any medium I need to do to express myself.

Um I'm here today because I also work with teen empowerment um as a program coordinator, but I started off there as a youth.

I was working there when I was 18 as a youth organizer.

I just left college on medical leave because I was dealing with um mental health issues and stuff like that.

And teen empowerment has been a space that I could be able to grow and get support and feel encouraged.

Um, through working with the program, I've been able to grow into the man that I am today.

And it provided me um a lot of opportunity to build skills in my artistry and my organizing.

Uh, being able to work as a program coordinator is mad full circle, because I didn't have stuff like this when I was in high school, or I wasn't aware of it.

And being able to provide spaces like this is mad important because I don't know, you don't get that type of like learning in school.

I didn't have an art class in school, but I've been able to go do everything that I've been trying to do, build my brand, all that.

I just painted all the bus stops up on massive.

I never thought I would be able to do something like that.

You feel me?

And it wouldn't have been able to do that if I was to work with an organization like this.

Um, so I'm here to say that it's important that we keep these because this is important for our future.

You feel me?

We're here right now, but the youth are the future.

So if y'all cut the funding for that, y'all don't care about the future of the city and y'all don't care about the youth.

So I want y'all to reinstate the six million proposed budget cut uh for the success link, school year program, all that.

Um, yeah, that's all I gotta say.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Maya Ross, Germani Gonzalez, Basi, and Christine Blake.

My name is Maya Ross.

It is beyond distasteful that Mayor Wu is choosing to not fund youth employment, but then gives money to the police and their budget.

Mayor Wu isn't just cutting the funding for youth employment, she's also cutting the food budget and affordable housing to then put more money into the police department, fire department, the mayor's office, and more.

Wu is continuing to defund and eradicate youth jobs as the years go by just because she feels like it.

It shows that Michelle Wu doesn't really care about the community and the youth, like she claims she does.

I demand that the city council keeps the same youth funding as before and replaces the six million dollars that was taken from youth opportunities.

Youth jobs have saved youth from homelessness, joblessness, food insecurity, cleanliness, resources, and et cetera.

And to take from the people that need it shows that our youth truly never mattered.

Mayor Wu used the youth as a front to look like a better mayor.

Mayor Wu is shredding our dreams apart.

Please put the six million dollars back for youth jobs and protect our dreams if you really do care about us and protect and protect us like y'all claim y'all do.

Relocating from New York to Boston and seeing little to no youth opportunities in one place.

Grow from opportunities to another place in Boston, just for it to be taken away, is like a smack in the face.

Not to me, not to my staff, but to more than everyone in this room.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

We have Jermani Gonzalez, Nikra Abasi, Christine, Blake, Victoria.

I believe that's uh Victoria White and Ellis Simone.

Hello.

My name is Jormani Gonzalez.

I am 16 years old, and I'm a senior youth organizer at the Center for Teen Empowerment at the Dorchester site.

This is my fifth session with Teen Empowerment, and my experience has proved that youth jobs and community-based nonprofit organizations provide a central programming that fosters character development and builds essential critical skills such as comfortability with self-advocacy through supportive community learning environments.

The city council's approval of this budget cut would send a clear message of Mayor Wu's priorities for the city, consequently betraying the trust of the community that you all as the council are supposed to serve and represent.

Youth jobs are necessary.

They are not optional.

Youth jobs keep young people alive and provide safe spaces.

Youth jobs decrease violence and harm.

These programs assist in the development of necessary skills and equip youth with the necessary abilities for us youth to be successful both now and in the future.

If you believe youth are the future, we can't settle to implement short-term, unsecure, unguaranteed solutions such as private funding.

Youth jobs are always offered up to be taken from rather than considered for an increase.

Our community is deprived of valuable resources, opportunities, and experiences that encourage growth.

So city councilors, reject their proposed budget that cuts $6 million in funding for youth jobs, and instead amend it to include youth jobs year-round.

You would be misrepresenting by underfunded youth jobs for the school year.

Thank you.

Sorry for mispronouncing that.

Christine Blake and uh Victoria.

I'm not sure if it says white or wild.

Okay.

On November 25th, 2000, my parents came to Boston Logan Airport with two suitcases, two young sons, $25 in their wallet, and a dream.

That dream was to give my brothers and I a new life full of opportunity.

The city of Boston has nurtured the dream of my family and countless others, and there should be a strong emphasis to continue that dream.

My name is Ikara Basi, and I'm a junior at Boston Latin School from Brighton, currently serving on the Mayor's Youth Council.

Working in the city government has been the opportunity of a lifetime.

Engaging directly with local officials such as City Councilor Ruth Z.

Lugen, City Councillor John Fitzgerald, Mayor Michelle Wu, and even representatives of many citywide initiatives like Pedro Cruz to talk about the needs for youth in Boston is and should always be a crucial part of how this city operates.

Over the past eight months of being on MYC, I served a newly elected committee called Second Minute, where we developed the creation of a personalized protocol guide that organizations such as Boston Police Department and various non-governmental organizations can now use when responding to a traumatic incident within the 72-hour window following an event.

Without this budget, I couldn't have done this committee work and served our public.

My personal anecdote of youth jobs is one of many you've heard and you will continue to hear.

But I ask that you all keep in mind who you are doing a disservice to if this budget passes.

I've created forever connections with the people on the OEA team, my program coordinators, and feeling secure in that there are adults in my life who want to help me toward my future.

Our budget for youth jobs gives youth the opportunity to enter the workforce that is for them because we are the future, and the best investment that this city can make is the one that looks ahead to our future.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Christine, I think it's Blake, Victoria, and then Ella Simone.

Okay, I'm sorry.

I'm gonna look at one side.

Whenever you're ready.

Hello, my name is Christine Blake.

I'm a student at Boston Latin School in my junior year, a Dorchester resident, and a member of Santana's Youth Force.

I believe that the recent budget cut for year-round youth jobs is particularly harmful towards Boston's youth.

In my experience, having a job during the school year has given me an opportunity to be financially independent.

By balancing a job with school, I'm gaining skills that prepare me for adulthood, like improving my time management and communication, all while forming new connections along the way.

This budget cut not only affects people in my situation who are searching for independence and experience, but also those who are working to support themselves and their families out of necessity.

For some young people, having a year-round youth job is the one thing keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table.

For others, it may be their only source of academic financing.

For young people who live off of year-round jobs, which are more consistent and reliable than solely having a summer job for a period of two months or less.

This budget cut will be devastating.

So when you are making your decision on this budget cut, I urge you to consider how this funding can prevent or reduce these disparities among our youth.

Young people should be focusing on building their futures, not worrying about whether or not they can afford to survive.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh okay.

Uh Victoria Ellis Simone, okay, and then uh I'm sorry, next up, Abel.

I'm not sure.

Uh, Eble, and then Kevin uh Lewis.

Hi, um, it's white, sorry.

I'm just so mad that you know youth jobs are getting cut.

But um, I'm here, I'm a student at John Dee O'Brien.

I've worked um for funding for youth jobs for about four years now.

Um, and I just want to say how disappointed I am that this is a continuing topic.

Um, you know the facts, you know how much youth jobs impact students.

You know how much it provides them with shelter, it provides them food, it provides them with the clothes on their back.

So it's un it's un, it's ridiculous to continue to have this conversation again.

Using privatization of youth jobs provides an implicit message to youth that the city of Boston, you're not worthy of our funding.

We're gonna ask for other people to fund you.

That does not make sense.

And then when Councillor Pepin asks what's the plan for that, I don't know.

We have to have conversations.

So you're going to sit here and impact 17,000 youth.

You're going to impact the food that they eat, you're gonna pack the things that they wear, you're gonna impact their education, and then when someone asks, what's the plan?

I don't know.

That's not that's ridiculous.

What we do know is the facts, and we do know that as city workers, your job is to work for us.

And I find it ridiculous again and again that we have to be in the same spot.

So again, I asked you, please do your job, and please understand and listen to our message that we want youth jobs to be funded, and we do not want it to be privatized, and we do not want it to go to the police.

Thank you.

Ella Simone, uh again, uh Abel and then Kevin Lewis.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Ella Simone James.

I'm a youth organizer at Youth Justice and Power Union.

Um, it's completely unfair that Mayor Wu is cutting school year youth jobs and taking away opportunities for young people in Boston.

A lot of us rely on these youth jobs, and some of us grow up faster and need to afford our necessities.

Mayor Wu is prioritizing other areas over youth development, like BPD, and ignoring how important these programs are for keeping young people safe and building their futures.

I joined my youth job in 2022, and to be honest, it's the best thing I've ever done.

I've not only been able to advocate for my community and issues that I care about, but I've seen uh but I've been able to afford not only my necessities, but also been able to pitch in my household.

I demand that Mayor Wu stop these cuts, restore funding for youth school youth jobs, and invest more in programs that support youth jobs instead of eliminating them.

Youth jobs are important because they help us gain real world experiences, learn responsibility, and support ourselves and our families.

Having a youth job keeps us keeps us something um positive to look forward to and help us prepare for the real world.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um good afternoon.

My name is Kevin Lewis.

Uh, I'm from Hyde Park, and I'm a junior at the John D.

O'Brien, and I'm 17 years old.

I'm here because these cuts are shedding dreams, not just mine, but young people across the city.

And youth jobs are not extra.

They give us stability, direction, and real opportunity while allowing us to give back to our communities.

At the end of December in 2024, my mother was hospitalized and unable to work for over a year.

And I had just turned 16, and I wasn't in the position to fully support myself.

If it wasn't for my school job, the Boston Student Advisory Council, I don't know how I would have gotten through that time.

That job gave me the most stability when I needed it.

So cutting $6 million and 1,700 jobs isn't just a budget decision.

It's dismantling a 20-year program and shedding dreams.

You say we are the future of Boston, but how can we be the future if our opportunities are being taken away?

Private funding is not a resolution.

U job must be the core investment in the city.

And I'm asking the city council to reject this budget and fully restore the funding and jobs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And uh I think it's uh Hach Octor.

Good afternoon.

My name is Najem from Roxbury.

I'm a proud BPS alumni from English, a graduate of Roxbury Community College, and a current sports business student at UMass Boston.

I stand before you today representing the Boston Student Advisory Council and the thousands of young people who rely on city funded to build their futures.

I started my job at a community center.

I was just 14 years old.

At 14, my parents gave me a choice, get a job or stay outside until they got home.

But that job became my classroom.

It taught me how to manage money and how to prioritize my needs over my wants.

It was where I wrote my first resume and learned the team building skills that I still use every day in college.

Today I'm not just a mentee, I'm a college mentor at the Boston Student Advisory Council.

I use the knowledge I've gained to help the students generation, I help the students generations from the next students.

Even with a heavy five course workload this semester, my supervisors, Denise and T have provided the flexibility that I need to succeed both in the office and in the classroom.

Cutting youth jobs is more than just a line item on the budget.

It takes away the very essence of what it means to be a student.

My past experience have allowed me to gain experience in youth counseling, education program, community outreach, and inclusive learning.

Facilitating group discussions and that build student confidence.

When you cut these positions, you aren't just saving money.

You're taking away the tools that turn young men and women into leaders.

You're removing the atmosphere where you learn to solve problems and work as a team.

I urge you to maintain the full funding for youth jobs.

Do not cut the programs that gave me and so many others the foundation to stand here today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, I have uh Iushot uh sorry.

Uh Star News, uh, and James Levesque.

Uh good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Ayush Bajpe.

I'm the political organizer at the Boston Teachers Union, and on behalf of our 10,000 members and in strong support of all the amazing, courageous and intelligent students here.

We are strongly urging the city council to continue funding the youth jobs program that is supported thousands of students over the program's implementation.

Teen wage earnings through this program are not just pocket money.

They are meaningful shares of household resources, particularly for families who need the most.

According to data from the American Community Survey, they found that low-income families in Massachusetts, wage from working teens accounts from for roughly 27% of total family income amongst those low-income families.

This is not just reducing summer pocket money.

This would take away a substantial share of household income from families all across Boston.

Furthermore, a BTU survey showed that one of the top issues in education is student safety.

We know that the safest place for students of peace in the classroom, but after the bell rings, that need does not go away.

After school programs like this one provide students with safe, welcoming, and supervised safe spaces to ensure that our youth are being properly taken care of by the city.

Completely pivoting this program to private sector opportunities right now shows a lack of certainty to the implementation of this program and discourages the city from taking from expanding this program themselves later on in the future.

At the core of good policymaking is an understanding that prevention is more effective, more efficient, and more economical than remediation.

Investing in public education, youth programs, and youth jobs like this are always the most effective preventative measures a body can take because they are felt most in the households that need it, and they are the impact is felt early on.

So it impacts a child for their whole academic career, college career, and professional career.

Please consider restoring the six million to youth jobs and other funding resources.

Thank you so much for the time.

And I managed to go just under two.

Thank you.

Well done.

Okay, uh Hafcha, maybe, Octor, uh Star Nunez, James LeVec, Ali Chase.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Ally Chase, and I am a youth programs manager at the Food Project.

We are a youth development and urban farming nonprofit in the Dorchester Roxbury, Dudley Street neighborhood.

I'm here to advocate for full uh budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

And um at the Food Project, for more than 30 years, we have employed teenagers on our urban farms in Boston and across the region, over 2,000 young people to date.

And uh the summer only model leaves our young people stranded for nine months of the year, and the evidence is clear that year-round employment is where the real transformation happens, as so many young people have testified today.

Right now, Jasmine and Carrie Lee's are peer leaders in my academic year program.

And in this job, they have shown up consistently and thoughtfully in service of their own growth and of our community.

This year they have strengthened their confidence in leading volunteers on our farms, teaching workshops to other youth organizations, and encouraging their peers to push themselves toward deeper curiosity and leadership.

The joy of that payoff is what the work has been about for us and what is what end without full funding for these youth.

The research confirms what we see every season.

A randomized study of Boston's own summer youth employment program by Northeastern's Alicia Modestino found that participants were 6.1 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school and 24.8% less likely to drop out.

Numerous studies have found the same pattern.

Less criminal justice involvement for teens, higher graduation rates, higher adult wages, and lower crime rates citywide.

At the food project, our most recent alumni survey found that 72% of our youth go on to lead social change in their communities.

They become organizers, teachers, food justice advocates, and small business owners who turn around and invest in Boston.

They are addressing food insecurity in their communities because of the work they did with us.

I understand the mayor's proposal would expand the police budget at the expense of food security, urban gardening, and the very programming we're discussing today.

If the goal is safer, healthier neighborhoods, that budget is funding the wrong end of these problems.

These young people are building the Boston we say we want.

Cutting academic year programming does not save money, it costs us graduates, it costs us safer streets, and it costs us the next generation of civic leaders.

Boston's young people work hard year-round, and our budget should too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, yeah.

If I if I called your name before, uh, feel free to come up.

Hi, my name is Star Nunez.

I use she, her pronouns, and I'm here as a youth worker from Roxbury with the city school, who has directly benefited from youth employment during the school year.

Too often are youth jobs categorized as supplemental, as something beneficial but ultimately non-essential.

Something to fund when possible and to cut when necessary.

During the academic year, students operate under structural constraints that significantly limit access to conventional jobs like working at Target and Walmart.

As a result, school year youth employment programs are not supplemental, they are essential infrastructures, providing stability and access to income when the broader labor market is least accessible.

Maintaining them is not a matter of your generosity, but basic logic.

For many students, especially those navigating economic pressure, these jobs are one of the few reliable systems of support outside of school.

Removing them does not simply reduce opportunity, it removes consistency in a period of life where it's critical.

We often say we want young people to be focused, prepared, and engaged, but preparation requires investment.

And engagement requires access to real structured opportunities beyond the classroom.

Eliminating school year youth jobs sends a message, whether intentional or not, that these opportunities are optional rather than foundational.

And the long-term cost of that, this disinvestment is not immediate, but it is predictable.

Decreased engagement, fewer pathways, and less stability for young people who are already navigating absolute uncertainty.

This is not just a budget decision.

It is a question of priority and of what we define as essential in supporting youth development.

Because young people are not asking for access.

They are asking for access.

Access to environments that support our growth, access to opportunities that prepare us for the future that we are constantly told to work hard for.

If we are serious about prevention, equity, and long-term outcomes, then youth employment during the school year cannot be treated as expandable.

I want to call attention to the fact that the Boston Police Department has received a substantial increase in funding.

Clearly, when it comes to that priority, identifying resources is straightforward for you.

Yet when the conversation shifts to youth employment, suddenly the same level of urgency and problem solving seems to disappear.

As a minority, do you not feel responsible?

As a perfect person in privilege, do you not feel the need to feel though to help those underprivileged?

As a person with clear intelligence, as people with clear intelligence, does your inability to find a solution to this problem that seems pretty simple?

Does it not make you feel inadequate?

This must be recognized for what it is: essential infrastructure in the development of young people.

It's simple.

Thank you.

So uh we have uh Gioni Wright, Amani Pagan, Shay uh uh Wynn and Mia Tran.

And then just uh after Mia Tran, I've got uh Tahael uh Fatihi and Alexa Santana.

Okay, that's our okay, thank you.

Afternoon, my name is Gianni Masio Taka Wright.

Others may know me as Macy O'Maze.

I'm from Dorchester, I'm a recording artist, music producer, and community leader.

As somebody who was born and raised in the city and has grown up in programs like Beat the Odds Boston, 617 Peak, BAM, Teen Empowerment, and the Madapantine Center, all of which provide jobs and opportunities for youth.

I know the importance and significance these programs bring to youth in our community.

I know without these spaces, I wouldn't be here today.

The same programs you're proposing to cut funding from help me build the courage and confidence, not just to stand on stage and perform, but to stand here before you and testify.

I know without these programs, some of my peers and their families will not be able to put food on the table or even be able to keep the lights on.

I know without these programs, youth don't get to live in their youth, and they have to grow up a lot faster.

And Idlemine is the devil's workshop.

And if you give a kid nothing to do, they will find something to do.

I know that, and I know you know that, because at the same time, you propose a decrease for funding youth jobs.

You propose an increase in the police budget.

Your actions speak louder than the words you offer by cutting jobs, housing, and police budgets, you are creating the need for more policing.

Like the sons you told us not to hold up, say, fund us or you will fail us.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Amani for God.

And uh Shay Wynn and Beatran child fatigue.

Um hi, my name is Amani Pagan.

I'm 17 years old and a Boston resident from 02125.

And I'm here because I'm honestly confused and a little irritated.

One question is how do you sleep at night?

You may think, why is she even asking that?

I'm not overreacting when I say this.

How can you sleep peacefully?

How can you rest when your job requires action?

Yet some of you still seem hellbent on or unsure of what's right.

This budget doesn't just reduce youth jobs, it completely erases them.

Three years ago, there was 2,500 jobs.

Last year there was 1,800.

Next year they'll be damn near zero.

And at the same time, we're being told that there isn't enough money, but how can that be true when there are millions of dollars going to policing?

So I have to ask how do some of you stand behind an action like this?

How do you justify taking opportunities away from young people while increasing funding in areas that are already heavily resourced?

I shouldn't have to be the one to tell you personally that this isn't something that's going to work.

Giving more money without accountability is not a solution.

And taking funding away from programs that do work, programs that support students, young people of color, LGBTQ plus IA, youth, and communities across Boston sends a message.

So what message are you actually sending?

Because this isn't abstract to me.

I would not have made it through high school without my job.

I was able to save money and buy my first phone.

That might sound small, but like for someone like me in my community, it meant I had something of my own.

And if my story is enough, then listen to the numbers.

Youth employment programs are proven to work.

Studies show that young people who have jobs are more likely to graduate high school and stay connected to school.

In one program, 83% of participants said having a job made them want to continue their education.

Programs like these also reduce involvement in crime.

Research has already proven that participants in youth job programs are less likely to be incarcerated and even less likely to die young.

So when you remove these opportunities, those outcomes don't stay the same, they actually increase.

So I'm asking you, what responsibility do you have to carry out if you allow that to happen?

Because this seems personal.

I am one of the young people you're deciding for.

I'm not just a number, I'm not just a statistic, and neither are the thousands of others who depend on these programs.

Don't be the people who let us down.

Because I know that fits if it's I know that if this was your child, your sibling, or someone you loved, you wouldn't hesitate.

You wouldn't question whether it was worth it.

You would actually act.

So why is it different for us?

I am the I am demanding that the city council restore the six million dollars for youth jobs because there's nothing more important than investing in the youth people who share the okay who will shape the city's future.

And right now, your decision will show us exactly how much we matter.

Thank you.

I have Shay, Mia, Taha, uh, and um Janine and Noel.

Hello, my name is Shay Noen.

I'm the student of Boston Latin Academy, and um uh sorry, um, in the program I work is from um youth leadership program.

I demand that we bring and raise more funds to the youth job for the school year.

Over the past two years, I've been able to improve my skills and was able to learn a lot of new stuff.

My job taught me how to set goals, how to stand on myself, collective care, and how to support others with mental health.

I was able to feel belonging this community.

This program is not just only the job, it's it's more like a family to me.

Um I was able, um, no one ever judged me for my gender, my sexuality, and my interests.

I was able to make friends and I and um cherish all the memories during my program.

Also, this even helped me support my dad financially.

My dad, who helped me race throughout my life, is currently financially struggling.

Seeing him worrying about money while I have to witness my own eyes um only hurts because I felt like I couldn't do anything.

Without this job, I wasn't able to stay um, we weren't able to stabilize our rent or saving monies for our the for food and water.

Teenagers uh all around Boston deserve to have access to jobs, opportunities because of all the benefit it provides.

Furthermore, I acknowledge the fact that I'm not the only one who backgrounds consist of financial struggles, as there are many young individuals who are looking for a job to help their families and possibly kids say to save up for their futures, like colleges in and other such, even with like other like PSC like families who um immigrated here are still struggling to um with housing and food, trying to make their children um to find a better future in the state.

As a mayor, it is important to understand the perspective of the teenagers in Boston.

Do you think it's fair to take all the funds while there are many youth who are struggling to find this job and not able to see themselves in the future?

How do you feel if you were struggling with money and no one was able to um accept you for any jobs?

How does taking money out of the youth jobs um to continue funding the police benefit our future as young teenager?

The community in YOP has helped me grow so much, and I can't ever thank them enough for how much they supported me through.

With this, my ideal vision for the current and future generation is for them to have a privilege to have easily um easily accessed job and able to un um to get unlimited support.

Thank you for listening.

Okay, Mia, Taha, Jane, and then uh I think it's the Dallas uh Baba.

Um, good afternoon.

My name is Mia, and I'm a sophomore at Boston Latin Academy, and I work with the youth leadership program.

I demand that the mayor stop the budget cuts and return the six million dollars back for the school year jobs.

Last summer I was given an opportunity to join my youth program.

Here, I was able to obtain new knowledge about social justice, learn how to collaborate with others, and reflect on my own identity and personal goals.

Before coming here, I never really understood what having what having a community was like.

But after spending long months working with other youth, I was then able to have a community I could call my own.

My youth space is something I treasure dearly.

It is filled with the friendships I built.

It's been a place where I've practiced my leadership skills, and most importantly, it was with my program where I first learned how to advocate for myself and the reason why I'm standing here today.

We as youth have worked very hard to challenge and face the issues within the community, and it would be a shame to throw away all of our efforts.

Therefore, I ask that the mayor's office have some sympathy for our situation and reconsider the budget.

Without youth, there would be no future for the city of Boston.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ta and uh Jania, Noelle, Dallas, uh Beba, and Alanis Lugo.

Samaikum.

Peace be upon everyone.

My name is Rafi, and I'm the success link lead of Taha at Maverick Landing Community Services and in East Boston.

And I'm speaking on his behalf today.

Unfortunately, he couldn't make it.

So um, good evening, members of the city council.

My name is Taha Ed Feti.

I work at Maverick Landing Community Services, and I'm here today because for kids like me.

A job isn't just extra credit.

It's a lifeline.

I want to tell you about a friend of mine.

Let's just call him Leo.

Last year, Leo was at a crossroads when the school bell rang at 2 15 p.m.

He didn't have a quiet home to go to or a team to practice with.

For Leo, the hours were between three o'clock and six p.m.

were the most dangerous hours of the day.

That's when the streets start calling, and when making a bad choice feels like the only choice because you've got nothing else to do and no money in your pocket.

Then Leo got a school year job.

Suddenly, his world changed.

Instead of wandering, he was at a desk or in a community center, learning how to lead.

He wasn't just a kid from the neighborhood anymore.

He was a mentor.

For the first time, he felt like he was part of the city, not just someone living on the edges of it.

If you cut this funding, you aren't just saving money.

You are taking away the place where Leo feels safe.

You are taking away the reason he stays focused in class.

When you cut school year jobs, you leave a hole in our afternoons.

And trust me, something else will fill that hole.

And it won't be something that helps our city grow.

Please, don't just look at the numbers on your paper.

Look at us.

We want to work, we want to contribute.

Don't close the doors on us.

Just as we are learning how to walk through them.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh uh, it could be Jania.

It's Janaya.

Hi.

I apologize.

Uh no, you're totally fine.

Hi, Harry and Santana.

I remember I had a meeting with you like two years ago about the youth jobs, and Ben Wember.

Um, you're the um city council of Jamaica Plain in another district.

First of all, you see how many people are here is like very, you know, and it's it was exciting seeing how many kids can uh sorry, seeing so many city councils here because we know we need the votes to overturn the mayor, and I saw so many, and I don't know why I don't see so many no more.

I know that people had to meet their needs, I know people have personal issues, but I thought I was gonna see more.

I do appreciate y'all still being here, but I do not see majority of them here listening to our testimonies that are point of passion or stories or testaments about, and um I want to say that youth jaws mean a lot to me.

I have a community organization, you know, it's a luxury, and it's sad that I say it's a luxury when it should be a privilege.

And I had I had to be grateful that Jesus gave me this community, but everyone should have it.

Does it matter what you believe in?

It's just everyone should have it.

So when I was introduced to youth jobs, I was like seven or eight.

I was going to actually see team empowerment at a um show they produce.

I didn't really want to go, but my cousin was going, and surprisingly, it opened my little eyes as a little little kid.

They was showing what's actually going on in Boston.

The play was funny, it was educational, and it's still a school going on now.

Fast forward, COVID came.

My mom said, Team Powerman's hiring.

I applied for team empowerment.

I got the job was during COVID.

Everyone knows how COVID was, and it made me step out of my comfort zone, it made me do the things that I didn't want to do, but it made me become a better person.

Staying still doesn't really help, but moving and changing is a way better thing to stay stay still.

And then fast forward, I went to YJPU.

YJPU helped me tremendously.

I had so many mentors.

Now I'm just YJPU, the city school SLP that helped me so much through my years.

I was recently struggling with something very personally the past few days, and then YGPU came around.

It's a safe space for me and other people for the other organizations.

And one thing I have to say is even though that the mayor should be here.

We're where she's the one that's doing this, and she's not here.

I know that y'all um work with the mayor, but she's not here, and I've been coming to youth jobs um hearing.

I mean, city council hearing since I was like younger, and I never saw her here, and she should be here.

She wants to make this big cut and affect the community.

It's not just about youth jobs, it's about housing.

And one more thing.

Before they was cutting youth jobs to zero, we had the city school and SOP fighting for spots that have been around for like at least 20 plus years to help youth, and we've already been struggling, fighting for more spots, and it's getting cut, but now the money is getting cut to zero, it's ridiculous.

So I hope that y'all tell your colleagues to watch these videos of not just me, everyone that did testify about what we need in our community.

Not just about youth jobs, but affordable health, etc.

And I want to say thank you.

I appreciate y'all still being here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, Dallas, Beba, yeah, okay.

Uh Alanis Lugo, Indigo, uh Dion, Diane, and then Josiana Cologne.

Okay.

Good afternoon.

My name is Zalise, but I'd rather go by Beba.

I'm 18.

I live in Deutchester.

I go to school at Boston Day and Evening.

I'm a young person who is directly impacted by youth jobs.

And to be honest, the situation isn't just frustrating.

It's personal.

I've been working with CE, Teen Empowerment.

I started off at 15 and as being as a youth organizer and work my way up to being a youth artist, working on spoken word and more.

When I first joined Teen Empowerment in summer 2023, I had just lost my sister.

I wasn't okay.

I was dealing with grief, anger, confusion all at once.

And I could have easily gone down the wrong path.

I could have shut down.

I could have made choices I wouldn't be proud of.

But having you lose job, having a youth job gave me something different.

It gave me structure, but my life felt out of control.

It gave me a reason to get up when I didn't feel like facing that day.

It gave me people who poured into me when I felt empty.

That job didn't just give me money.

It helped me keep a clear head on my shoulders.

It gave me opportunity to even be on the Boston Bay banner and share my sister's story and how my voice matters.

It helped me heal.

So when I hear school year, youth jobs are being cut.

It doesn't feel like a budget decision.

It feels like something is being taken away from young people who actually need it.

Three years ago, there were 2,500 school year jobs.

Then 1,0800, and now it's being cut to whatever it is or cut to zero.

Zero.

At the same time, millions of dollars are being added to policing while programs like youth jobs, programs that are actually preventing violence are being cut.

That doesn't make sense because youth jobs are prevention.

They keep us busy, they keep us supported, they keep us alive in waves, people don't always see.

Without youth jobs, a lot of young people are left to figure out things on their own.

While dealing with things most adults wouldn't even understand.

And I'm standing here as proof of what happens when you do invest in us.

I'm still here, I'm still pushing forward, I'm still trying, because someone gave me an opportunity when I needed it the most.

So don't take the opportunity away from the next young person who's going through something.

They don't even have the words for yet.

Because cutting youth jobs is like shredding our dreams before we even get the chance to build them.

And we deserve better than that.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh Alanis Lugo, Indigo, Diane, and Josie Hannah Cologne, and Devon Gray.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Alani Slugo, and I am 15 years old.

I live in Dorchester and I work as a youth artist slash dancer at the Center for Teen Empowerment.

For me to hear that Michelle Wolf plans on cutting the budget for youth jobs is very frustrating and overwhelming to me, especially growing up in a home with a single mother who doesn't do the best financially, along with having my little brother to take care of as well.

For me, youth jobs aren't just about the money.

They give me the structure, skills, and a safe space to grow.

They also help me support myself and my mom financially, making a big difference in our household.

These programs don't just support individuals, they support families and entire communities.

Without them, young people will lose opportunities that keep us safe, motivated, and hopeful about our futures.

I ask that you reconsider these cuts and continue to fund these youth programs.

Please invest in our future and don't take our opportunities away.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Okay.

Indigo, Indigo, uh, Josiana Cologne, and I think it's Devon Gray and I uh uh Achbar.

All right.

My name is Indigo from Jamaica Plain.

I'm a BPS and Boston Arts Academy alumni and a sophomore at Berkeley College of Music.

I'm 19 years old, and my occupation is a senior youth artist, specifically a musician at Teen Empowerment Studios.

And I've been working for there for five years since I was a sophomore in high school.

It has helped me shape, it has helped shape me as an artist, pushing me to put out more music when I would be too scared to otherwise.

It has given me a sense of community when I was isolated as an autistic black non-binary person who previously grown up in a PWI.

I currently live with a single mother after my father died, and my brother, and this job helps me, helps out my mom with her bills and groceries and pay for my college tuition, even if my contributions are minimal.

It also helps me put myself out there as an aspiring musician, and it's abhorrent to have to now ask myself this.

What will I do to help out during the rest of the year before and after the summer?

My first impression of a woman of color being the mayor was that there was a chance that things could be better because she would know how we feel.

And now this is making me feel betrayed.

And like all her preaching of caring about the youth is ultimately performative and for the press.

Mayor Michelle Wu has known about me for three years, even called herself a fan when she herself visited Teen Empowerment's Warren site, and she knows that there are people like me that work and care about the city, and especially about the most oppressed class, which are the children that can't even keep up with the job market that clearly wants to keep a geriantocracy, since we need 10 years of experience and a sprinkle of nepotism for an entry-level job that caters to our careers.

But she is failing to understand that these jobs are the only experience we got.

She has seen what we as artists and as workers can do since she has seen me and other youth up on stage of BAA and around the city performing.

And she would know how that feels as a piano player with a child as well.

So what do you mean Mayor Wu is proposing to take funding and giving it to the institution that initially was and still works as Slave Patrol?

What do you mean she's proposing to take funds from us and contribute to the mass incarceration of people of color, especially black people, because of these living, breathing human beings are denied access to opportunity, jobs, food, housing, dreams, and you sit idly by to let this happen.

You and she has failed us, and you have proven to us that you have no sense of humanity left for the youth, and as do most people that get into political power.

Make your decisions wisely.

Thank you.

I think it's Devon Gray, Aya Akbar, and uh, sorry, I think it's uh maybe it's uh someone right, Zariah or right, uh Miss, I think.

Hello, I'm Mariah Williams.

I will be going before Miss Josie because I need to go.

Sorry.

Okay.

My name is Mariah Williams.

I go to one of the high schools that is being shut down by the recently passed through budget cuts, the Dr.

William Henderson Inclusion School.

And now, as an employee of BSAC, the Boston Student Advisory Council, who's also being faced with proposed cuts.

I am one of possibly hundreds of the Bostonian youth who are going to be left without a paycheck for nine months of the year.

I attend a summer program from June 30th to August 3rd.

And like many others, I'm not, I'm unable to work during the summer entirely.

I don't know of any job that would hire me for a month and then let me go.

And this would leave me without a paycheck for essentially the entire year.

God forbid I had to help my family with things.

I am privileged to be one of the few Bostonians who don't have to help my family with financial needs.

My paycheck goes in my pocket, but just God forbid it didn't.

I asked here, what else are you willing to take from us?

I'm a person of color.

I am a woman, and I am a part of my marginalized groups.

What else are you willing to take?

The city of Boston continually pools money into the Boston Police Department each year.

Their proposed budget sitting at a whopping 484 million dollars while the budget for student education and programs dwindles day by day.

Six million dollars in comparison to the 484 million dollar police budget sends a clear message that we value the police over youth.

And like the lovely person who went just before, this system is adapted to keep people down, marginalized groups.

I haven't had a positive, a wholly positive experience with the police since 2018.

It is 2026.

I think that is sad.

I am nervous every time I'm passenger side and we get pulled.

I am a sophomore SUNY junior, and this is something that worries me.

Please reevaluate your interest.

If you are standing here or sitting here as a representative of the Boston interest, act like it.

Please, and thank you.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Josie, Devon Gray, Aya Akbar, and then uh I think it's uh Soraya Wright from Team Empowerment.

Corey uh Thomas.

Hello, good afternoon.

Um, my name is Jose Hannah Cologne, and I am a Boston Public Schools graduate, a current and currently a success worker in the BPS Office of Youth Leadership.

Without and without the resources and supports that have been poured into me, I would just generally not be here today.

As now a Northeastern alum, I concluded my senior capstone focusing on the gap that has continued to disrupt the experiences of our student.

Boston Public Schools has an opportunity achievement gap policy that reads every child in every classroom in every school of Boston Public School system should have the same opportunity to achieve the greatness within them as anybody else.

That also reads that every child should have the same unfettered access to every conceivable tool to unlock the greatness within them.

This six million dollar cut entirely goes against the policy in itself.

And Boston's mission to create the most innovative, resilient and ambitious working bodies in the nation in general, with the opportunity and achievement gap existing and growing, cutting year-round jobs, simply exacerbates it.

We know that when young people do not have access to resources to mentorship, to the opportunity to recognize that they are more than an urban statistic, that they fall through the cracks.

Our literacy rates are scattered, our achievement rates are disproportionately affected by differences in race, income, and gender, and the rates at to which students enroll in and persist through college are disproportionately influenced by the quality of their schools and their ability to afford the experiences that support success.

Yes, we're falling short when it comes to providing consistent access to high quality instruction and enrichment, and that alone will not suffice.

So the the smartest move will not be the budget cut.

That's like a whole step backwards.

A year-round job creates access, it creates community, it creates opportunities.

It helped me, my family who relied on Section 8 and SNAP and Social Security benefits to survive.

It helped me as a college student with an inflexible class schedule to get food in the fridge without dismissing my passion for adequacy work.

For a mayor to lead a campaign based on youth voice and input, only to turn their back on the very young people who helped elect her, sends a very clear message.

Youth are treated as tokens and subjected to further criminalization and economic limitation in the very city that they call home.

And let's really, really, really talk about it.

The room is filled today with young people, and yet the other end of the council, we have people that are missing.

There are people that have already left.

It's giving the decision has already been made for us, and that this is just another ticket to say you've heard us.

If you do not fund us, you fail us.

And if you fail us, you fail the entire city.

And if you'd like to like for us to actually be activated and engaged and excited for Boston's future, work with us and restore the cuts rather than dismissing us and tokenizing us once again.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Devon Gray.

I'm a youth organizer at Teen Empowerment.

And I believe that it is unacceptable that Mayor Wu has intentions to cut school year youth employment opportunities.

So many youth depend on these jobs, not just financially, and not just during the summer.

Youth jobs provide young people so many opportunities.

Opportunities such as building personal and professional connections, gaining life skills, preparing youth for future career paths, and even providing safe spaces for youth.

Cutting youth jobs heavily implies a lack of care towards youth development and the future of this city.

Better develop youth means a better developed future.

If the job cut is moved forward, we'll begin to see effects in no time.

There will be thousands of people in Boston entering adulthood with little to no work experience.

How do you all suppose that that will impact crime rates, mental health issues, homelessness, etc.

Do you think that Boston will continue to excel in education and safety if the youth are left to fend for themselves?

I urge that the city council bequeath the seven the six million dollars and stop the cuts because the youth are the future of the city, and I believe that you should invest in the future.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Hello, my name is Aya Akbar.

I'm 18 years old, and I'm a youth organizer at Teen Empowerment, which is an organization that employs teens to help prepare them for the real for real world decision and while helping them become active members of the community.

I love my job, and I love that it allows me to use my voice for good.

Mayor Wu wants there to be no more jobs for people like me and people like all of us in the stands for school year of 2027, with little to no explanation on this.

This is a direct threat to me and many people's livelihood and freedom.

My job allows me the freedom to be a responsible adult, helps me practice smart financial decisions, and allows me to meet like-minded people who I built strong relationships with.

For the mayor of Boston, that's not enough.

Instead of taking money from the youth, we should be investing in them.

I ask that you say no to the proposed budget and return the six million dollars to the youth budget.

Youth are the future, and you should invest in your future.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Ikea.

I'm a youth organizer at with Tea Empowerment at Dorsha's site.

When I started tea empowerment, I was shy and then for myself out of my cover zone.

Where can you help me become a better self?

To support me and help me build confidence, even outside of work.

I'm still shy, but I'm slowly getting out of it.

If you cut new jobs, you will see more of us on the screen.

Jobs help young people become their better self and connect with people who can help them get where they need to be.

Youth jobs give young people a purpose, a place to belong, and a path forward.

Without them, we lose lose opportunities that can never be replaced.

You cut new jobs, you cut our future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um hi, my name is Corey Thomas.

I'm a youth organizer at TE Mata Pan.

I believe that having a job during the school year helps the youth excel in different ways, such as having income and improving conversational skills.

Youth jobs keep teens out of conflict and trouble with law enforcement.

The current budget cut is outrageous, and I can't stand for that.

A lot of teens need their jobs to feed their families and themselves all year round.

Not just during the summertime.

I asked the city council to restore the full funding for the youth jobs, and thank you.

Thank you, Corey.

I think we have Kari Williams.

And then we have um, we'll go with that.

Hi, my name is Sheri Williams.

I'm 16 years old.

I live in District 5, and I have the privilege of having a school-year job at the city school, but according to our legislation, that isn't going to last very long.

Mayor Wu is honestly the most two-faced mayor I've seen.

One minute she's at the youth job fair taking pictures with children and parents, making us believe she's a part of the community and in support of youth wealth and education.

Then she returns to her office, cuts school year jobs to zero zero dollars, and thinks that we won't realize that almost all of it went to the police.

Youth jobs bring opportunities and prevent issues such as unemployment, mental health crises, incarceration, and have been shown to lower violence in youth.

Youth could be on the streets abusing substances or homeless, but when they can go to a youth job, they are able to be off the streets, they are protecting their well-being and often learning to achieve success.

When you cut youth jobs, it is as if you are removing every child's arms and legs.

You are detrimentally disabling the people who will one day be in your shoes.

So why choose the harder path?

Why choose to cut youth jobs instead of removing institutions that are actually hurting us, such as the incarceration systems?

By keeping youth jobs, you are cashing in a check to a more prosperous, illustrious, and community-led future for Boston.

As for the as a as a matter of the police force, they only exacerbate the issues that youth jobs are helping to address.

Why should I have to be scared that the police will come and take away my cousin because she's struggling with self-harm?

Why should I have to worry about my friends who refuse to talk to the school therapist because they know the minute they share their feelings or thoughts that hints at suicide or harming another person, the police will be called on them.

Cutting youth jobs will not only demolish our dreams, careers, and passions, but also increase rates of suicide, youth violence, depression, etc., because youth don't have the outlets that they need to be safe, fed, and free from all of the other stressors that they experience every single day.

Lastly, Mayor Wu is the biggest coward and hypocrite.

How can you sit up there in that seat that we elected you to sit in and tell us that you're going to support us and give us youth jobs, then cut youth jobs?

When your daughter grows up, do you think she's going to want to hear that her mother was the mayor who claimed to help Boston but then was too scared to actually commit to her words?

Do you think she's going to want to hear that her mother destroyed hundreds of families because she was unaware of the fact that a majority of youth in Boston use the money from their school year jobs to help pay bills?

What legacy are you trying to believe leave behind?

Y'all don't appear to want to be reelected because the actions you have been taking to demonstrate you have been taking demonstrate that you're really just a bunch of entitled, egotistical, conceited, and hypocritical fools in a blazer.

So continue sitting on your behinds, but know that you ain't ready for the smoke we're bringing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have um Cagmelo Howe from the city school.

Sorry, if I'm mispronouncing that.

We have them who's not going to this list.

You're back.

Um, right here.

Yeah, I think I called Sarah.

Okay.

I think it's this, yeah.

Sarah Keno, Carmelo Howe, maybe Ria Miller, and uh Joaquin uh Gutierrez.

Anyone?

I'll keep going.

Yeah, okay.

Sorry, give me one moment.

Um just uh thank you for everyone for sticking with us.

I think Councillor Santana and I have human-sized bladders, and we need to step out occasionally.

So thank you.

Apologize for that.

All right.

Hello, city councillors.

My name is Carmelo Howe.

I am 21 and I live in District 7.

I'm here on behalf of the city school.

Um, yeah.

I'm here because I think that these budget cuts are some of the most destructive actions I have seen a mayor take.

And I've lived in the city my entire life.

Mayor Wu claims to be a champion of the youth, and yet she is over here cutting jobs to zero for the school year.

And I think that's appalling.

These cuts would decimate the youth and make it infinitely harder for them to find any jobs.

I've been someone who is dependent on successing jobs my entire life, my entire working life.

And if I were still a youth, this would decimate me.

This would gut me.

I would have no like readily available way to be able to help my family, help myself.

And it would just be like my life is kind of over.

But I'm not here for myself today.

I'm here for all these youth who might not be able to get a job over the school year.

Like it I truly do not care if I will not be able to find a job with success link anymore.

But these youth will be crushed.

They absolutely need these jobs.

I've seen the just the impact jobs can make on youth in their lives.

I know y'all have heard it.

Everybody has been speaking about how having a youth job has changed their lives.

And without them, you're damning essentially your most vulnerable citizens to a much less safe path of income when y'all should be supporting them as much as you can.

I think it's appalling that a mayor of color would be doing something like this that hurts her youth of color the most.

And like she should be representing them as hard as she as hard as she possibly can.

And I think it's truly telling to say that Mayor Walsh and Mayor Manito didn't even make cuts like these to job to youth jobs, yet someone who prides herself on being a champion of the youth did.

Thank you.

Okay, uh I think I Ria Miller, Joaquim Atala, uh Gutierrez, uh rejoice, uh, I think it's Edgems.

Uh Kiana McGruber, McGruder, sorry.

Um, good afternoon.

My name is Joaquin Atarabutieris, and I'm 17 from High Park in Dorchester.

I'm here with the Youth Justice and Power Union to address the outrageous demolition of school year youth jobs because this is a direct attack on my community's safety and well-being.

This cut to the youth jobs budget show that the city is not prioritizing the community and the youth of Boston.

As you continue to advocate for more funding for the youth jobs budget rather than the police budget, the city continues to ignore us.

I demand that the city council stop the cuts to the youth jobs budget and put the six million dollars back for school year jobs so that the young people from Boston have a job that helps them grow, not just during the summer, but all year round.

And even then, Mayor Wu promised every young person a job over the summer, and in summer of 2024, 15,000 youth applied to youth jobs, and 4,500 young people did not get jobs.

The summer is such a small piece of the year, it is not enough at all.

And if Mayor Wu cuts off school year jobs, but can't even provide a summer job to all the young people in Boston, then what do you expect to happen?

For the people of Boston to just watch that watch you damage our community.

No, we are here to let you know that we are not okay with the city's actions.

Youth jobs are important to my dreams because as a Palestinian Mexican American, I dream of a world free of oppression and danger, and the city cutting youth jobs is a direct attack to the safety of the city of Boston and is funding oppressive forces in our community, which is policing.

According to police Boston police data, when the youth job budget goes up and the police budget goes down, the crime rate in Boston goes down.

Boston is a third most expensive city in the country to live in, and youth jobs are an amazing way for young people to make money as it is needed to support themselves and their family.

And that task has been made even harder than before.

As a mayor also cut the Department of Housing and the Department of Food, all while putting money into the police.

Police don't actually prevent crime at all.

They just show up after it happened and escalate the situation.

Police do not protect us, the community does.

So we can we need to make sure that the community is valued rather than a racist system that puts human beings in cages.

I demand that the city put six million dollars that was in the youth jobs budget back into youth jobs budget from the police budget, and that the city saves the 1,800 jobs that Mayor Wu is trying to erase.

Thank you.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Good evening, all.

My name is Rejoicy James, and I demand that the city council listen to us, the youth, the community, when we say stop cutting you jobs to continue the exponential growth of the police budget.

Cutting school year jobs by six million dollars and leaving nothing left isn't just outrageous.

It's a decision that tells us students don't matter, and that's something we should never accept.

When the school year funding is cut, what will students do that impacts them outside school and home for 10 months?

Does the mayor actually care about the community more importantly?

And who will be the leaders of tomorrow?

My U job is important to my dreams because they have created an environment for me to thrive.

I have worked various U jobs from Big Brother, Big Brother Big Sister Boston, future chefs, Boston Area Health Education Center, and U Justice Empower Union.

I've gained so much knowledge about my city and my community, my high park community.

Without my U job, I wouldn't have helped my dad pay the bills last December when he got laid off.

I wouldn't have been able to be financially independent, and I would have been able to submit my college enrollment deposit last Wednesday.

My U job is critical to who I am today and who what I can do for myself.

I'm not the only youth that feels this way.

Many others today feel the same way.

As our city counselors, who we elected to be a voice for the community, you are failing us.

Your job is to check the mayor and not to make deals under the table.

Use your legislative power and do what is right.

That is why I'm demanding you all add 10 million to the school year youth budget.

Protect our dreams and the generation after me.

Have a good day.

Thank you.

Let's see, Kiana Magruder, Zoe Garcia, Alex Garcia.

Hello, my name is Kiana.

I'm 17 years old, and I'm a senior in high school at Excel High School.

I've been a part of the Center for Teen Empowerment since 2023.

That's five sessions.

I'm currently a senior youth organizer with them.

Teen empowerment came into my life at the perfect time.

I was going through a lot, and I didn't feel like I had any control over anything.

I wasn't focused on my future, and I wasn't using my voice for the right things.

But being in TE changed that for me.

It gave me a space where I could actually be heard and start taking myself seriously.

I learned how to speak up and not just sit back and let things happen.

I learned that my opinion does matter regardless of my age.

A lot of youth in Boston need that same chance.

Not everyone has people pouring into them or giving them these opportunities that are much needed.

Programs like this give us something to be a part of and something to work towards.

I can honestly say TE has helped me grow, and I would not be the same without it.

Because of the motivation and confidence that I found within this youth program, I found my passion and social work and have the motivation to pursue and achieve this goal with the support of the mentors that I've gained working at TE.

This is something all youth should be able to experience.

Most youths in Boston already do not have mentors within their families or within school.

Cutting our funding will be taking a necessity away from our youth.

Reverse this six million in the butt city budget cuts to youth jobs, please, and thank you.

Thank you.

Zoe Garcia, Alex Garcia, and I think it's uh uh Shuge Ron, Randon, Ronda, sorry.

Uh okay.

My name's Zoe Garcia, and I'm 13 years old and I'm in seventh grade.

I live in Rosendale and I go to school in Westwood through the Metco program.

Um, I'm here today because I heard that as of 2027 they are cutting or they're postponing to cut back almost six million dollars of the youth employment gain.

Again, we will not stand by while this happens.

This money is not going to waste, and it will help the the future leaders grow.

Um, if we're not working, then we won't have experience to learn and grow.

I feel some kids my age, um, their wings are getting clipped because um because these um these experiences are getting cut back.

I understand the mayor's point of view.

Inflation is going up due to federal reasons, but I also notice the pressure you guys are receiving for.

Yeah, sorry.

Um basically, yeah.

That's like it.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um, my name is Alex Garcia.

I'm 14 years old, I'm in ninth grade and I live in Rosendale.

I'm here because I want to I want the council and the mayor to listen to us.

It's not fair that in 2027, this uh the city of Boston wants to cut me and other youth of their jobs.

Um for many of us, these jobs are not just something extra.

They are real opportunities that keep us busy, they help support our families, and they let us learn some responsibility.

Um they give us they give us hope and make us feel like we have a future.

When they take away these programs, they not only take away our job, they take away an opportunity to grow.

We we the teen teenagers of Boston need support, not less resources.

We need you to believe in us because if you invest in us today, they're investing in a better tomorrow for the entire community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so I I have Suge Rondon, Simmel Rodriguez, Samuel.

I'm not sure uh what that says.

Uh something with the sorts of S-A-L something.

Falk, maybe, and then Ariano or T's.

Hi everyone, my name is Suhei Rondon.

I'm doing my testimony in Spanish, and Erica to uh translate for me.

That's fine.

Uh so two minutes in Espanyol and then dos minutes in English.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

My uh sorry.

Um 13 and 14 annuals.

No develop the presupposto, especially loss destined to the home.

Uno percent, 50 million dollars.

I'm Su Hay, a Boston resident, and a mother of three children, age six, twelve, and fourteen, two of whom testify today.

As a mom, I'm filled with excitement when I think about them getting their first jobs.

Not so much for the money, but for all the positive things it teaches them.

Learning to be responsible, honoring commitments, meeting new people, and navigating the real world.

After everything we went through with COVID, our children and youth suffered significant social setbacks.

They struggle to reconnect, to communicate, and to feel safe outside the home again.

That is why these youth employment programs are so important.

They are not a luxury, they're a necessity.

They serve as a tool to help our children regain their confidence, develop skills, and find a positive path forward.

Please do not cut the budget, especially the funds specifically allocated for youth employment.

If necessary, the city should seek resources from other areas or reserve funds rather than compromising something that directly impacts the future of our families.

We already live with enough day-to-day uncertainty.

What we need are opportunities, support, and stability for our children.

Investing in them is investing in the entire community.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay.

Okay.

Good afternoon, City Council members.

My name is Simel Rodriguez.

I live in Shrugsbury.

And I'm here today as mom as a mother.

I have a daughter who in a few years will be looking for a first job.

As a mother, I dream of seeing her grow with confidence, learn be independent, and take her first step toward building her future.

But today, that path feel unceps.

The budget for your employment is not just a number.

To me, it's a represent the opportunity for my daughter to have a place where she can learn again experience and begin building her future.

When I heard about cut to this funding, I do not think about numbers.

I think about the moments when my daughter is really to work, is ready to work.

And there are no opportunity available for her.

A first job is not just a paycheck, it is responsibility, confidence, and discovering what you're capable of.

Taking away that access means taking away an important part of the growth.

I want my daughter to have option when her time comes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Just give me a second here.

Oh, yeah.

Samuel from Rosendale.

Yes.

Yeah, great.

And then Ariana Ortiz, Matula, I think it's Sip and Kate Johnson.

After that.

Hello, my name is Samuel Falk.

I'm a senior at the John Deo Bryant.

I have participated in three school year success link jobs, two of which were serving terms on the mayor's youth council.

I think that overall, one of the most underspoken about and most important aspects of youth work is the connection that youth gain through their work.

I've been connected with multiple peers, mentors, and professionals across the city that have shared my displeasure with some of the social policy that has gone into place over the past few years.

And connecting with those people and understanding that there are other people like me helps me have hope for the future, that I will be able to make a change and that there will be change in the world that I want to see.

Additionally, I would like to point out a slight hypocrisy that comes with the spending bill that is proposed.

Um, Boston and Michelle Wu have projected that we are a sanctuary city, that we are in support of people and support of common welfare.

Um, while we are taking a well, cutting youth jobs is cutting funding going to welfare and putting it into law enforcement.

Uh Boston is not the federal government.

You are not federal government employees, and I hope we won't make the same choices that some federal government employees make.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um Ariano Ortiz, Amatula.

Again, I apologize.

I know you've been here before.

Might be SIP.

Uh Kate Johnson, Aria Prasad, and Melissa DeRosena.

Hello, my name is Ariana Retiz.

I'm currently a sophomore at Rufass and Academy, and I'm a part of VSAC, an organization that will be directly affected by this cut.

Michelle Wu is cutting nearly six million from youth jobs and eliminating school year jobs entirely, taking away thousands of opportunities from young people across the city.

These jobs are the first steps to our future.

They can't be taken away and called budgeting.

This is not a small judgment, it is a dismantling program that helps young people grow, learn, and succeed.

It shows that Mayor Michelle Wu is not prioritizing young people the way she said she would.

She bought her message on supporting youth and investing in our futures, but now it feels like she's doing the opposite.

It feels like promises were made to young people and now they are being broken.

Why are youth jobs seen as something that can be cut so easily?

Why are we treating like we matter less?

With Boston Public Schools also losing staff, it feels like younger people the young people are being targeted instead of supported.

As someone with an immigrant dad, this is personal to me.

Youth jobs are not extra.

They help families stay stable and give young people something to rely on.

For me, having a job gives me strong structure, responsibility, and a sense of purpose.

If these jobs are cut, it will not just affect me, it will affect my whole community.

Without these opportunities, more young people will be left without guidance or safe places, and anything that is, and everything that is happening feels like it is setting us up for failure instead of success.

Youth jobs must be protected as a core investment because the future of your city should be viewed as a core investment.

City Council, please hear youth as we are not just a future but also the present.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, yeah.

Good evening, counselors and staff.

Thank you for still being here.

My name is Amantela Sip, and I'm the director of the Unnamed Youth Organizing Network and a faculty member at Boston University School of Social Work.

And I've been doing youth work and community organizing in this city for over a decade.

In all those years, I've never seen such a direct, coordinated attack on young people and their families and on the communities that support to raise them.

I know what youth jobs do because youth jobs did it for me.

They gave me my first understanding of what it means to show up, be on time, contribute, and contribute to community more broadly.

That's not a small thing, that's foundational and fundamental.

And that is what's being taken away with these cuts.

What I want to focus on is the trickle-down effect of these cuts.

It's not just young people under the age of 18 who are losing employment.

It's young adults ages 19 to 21 who learn to be in the workforce by working alongside young people during the school year.

These are the entry-level staff, the junior program coordinators, and youth workers in the making.

When we cut school year programming, you don't just cut jobs, you cut an entire pipeline of people learning to do this work, and the organizations that depend on that pipeline, they feel it too.

When we cut youth employment, we are not just cutting a line item.

We are telling young people that their time doesn't matter, that their development doesn't matter, that they don't matter.

And in a political moment where everything from the federal level down is sending that message that black people don't matter, that they aren't valuable, valuable, that brown people aren't valuable, that immigrants aren't valuable, that poor people aren't valuable, the list goes on.

Boston cannot afford to echo that.

Budgets are not line items.

Budgets are values made visible, and when you eliminate a school year jobs program for the first time in the history of this city, you are making a value statement.

You are making a value statement that young people don't matter.

You are saying that out of school time, economic development, and the safety of young people are expendable.

They are not expendable, they are essential.

The city has a mandate to protect young people, and we are here today to make sure you fulfill it.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Kate Johnson, Aria Prasad, Melissa Dillison.

I was just wondering if I can go because I have to leave, and I hope that's okay with you.

Sure, yeah, just start with your name.

Hello, my name is Desire Rose.

I'm a youth organizer at Teen Empowerment at the Matapan site, and I'm here to let you guys know the impact that cutting the youth jobs budget can cause.

Not only would it force us to be on the streets, but to be on the streets making bad decisions.

Cutting the youth job budget takes away the getaway space when home isn't one of them.

It also makes us harder for us to find a good paying job, which clearly you guys are seeking for.

I myself have met and talked to the mayor personally, genuinely believing the things that she said when it comes to us youth.

The way the budget even becomes a thing is from our parents, adults, and even some youth youth paying taxes, which supports a lot of important things like the youth jobs.

But now Michelle Wu believes it should support and pay for everything but youth jobs, which shows how the mayor sees us youth, and it will show us how you guys see us too if you guys accept it.

I demand that the city council keeps our youth job budget exactly how it was.

So we not only work during the summer, which is only a few weeks of pay, but we only work during, but we also work during the school year.

I demand our mayor's actions align with her words.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Kate Johnson, Arya Prasad, Melissa.

Hi, can I go next?

Okay.

Well, I I I um I, you know, I know everyone wants to go.

I just we're gonna have to go in order.

Uh um it just there's still a lot of people left.

If everyone, you know, I'm sure everyone needs to go somewhere else, but uh, you know, we're just here for the long haul.

So I'm sorry, uh Kate Johnson.

I'm Kate Johnson.

I'll be brief because I know there's lots of young people in this room that really need to speak.

I'm the deputy director of the Phillips Brooks House Association, and I've been in this room, figuratively, advocating for youth jobs since 2003, which is over 20 years of being in this space.

And in 2004, young people like the young people here on the night when the Red Sox were gonna win the World Series were in a church downtown coming up with what their needs were, a hundred of them, right?

We hadn't won the World Series in forever, and what they said was we need year-round youth employment.

You heard from all these young people why they need you year-round youth employment so they have mentors so they can build the woman from um the food project said, build the Boston we believe in.

They're asking to be leaders, they're asking to be respected economically, they're asking to make sure that they have mentors who support their mental health, and then they're offering to be that for other people.

And since those young people put that agenda out in 2004, and in 2005, this city made that happen, and it's grown since then, right?

And it's grown since then.

2005, we made it happen.

A mentor of mine once said that your budget is your vision.

A zero in a line item in a budget is a vision for the elimination of a program, and to say that we are gonna put zero dollars into year-round youth jobs.

We've shown you the data, we can show you data till we are gray or blue in the face.

These young people have shared their impact, right?

Zero means gone.

Things do not come back from a zero budget for another decade or two decades of fighting.

I'm tired.

I don't want these young people tired.

I want them to know that we believe in them.

And so we need a budget that says the vision that all young people and all of our most vulnerable citizens can thrive.

Thank you.

Okay, yeah.

Hello.

Hi, my name is Elise.

I'm 17 years old, and I go by Shiday Pronouns.

I'm here for I'm here from Dorchester, and a little bit to know about me is that I work with the city school.

I've been homeless for over 80% of my life, and personally, my youth job has been assisting me throughout that experience.

Two minutes won't be enough for me to stress to you the importance of youth jobs.

They need even more than six million.

That's how important and how underfunded they are.

What do what do youth jobs do?

What do youth jobs do for us?

Well, if youth jobs don't just benefit young people, they benefit their families and their communities.

When I got my first paycheck, do you want to know what I spent it on?

I spent my first paycheck on a mattress and a bed frame because I was sleeping on the couch.

My upbringing was ridiculously difficult, and to finally have access to money, the thing that the world depends on, I felt liberated.

Don't strip the next generation of that liberation.

Let's talk about all the other things youth spend their money on.

When youth go home, they're eating, they're sleeping, they're doing homework, they're interacting with family and they go outside.

They use money to feed their families, they use their money for comfort, they use their money for school projects, they use that money to take care of siblings, and sometimes they use that money to go to the mall and connect with their peers.

Don't take that money they use to do things away to do things away from them.

I brought this computer right here with the money I earned this year.

I'm using it for college in the fall.

We deserve jobs just like you.

Exploitation is a whole nother thing.

If you jobs are cut, what does that mean for youth exploitation?

Youth are already being exploited daily through expu through abusive employers, difficult extended chips, some turn to unethical ways of obtaining money.

This means on working, this means working on lawful and exploitative positions, selling substances, taking money they didn't work for, and participating in activities that you claim funding the police budget will prevent.

I felt obligated to work a job that I shouldn't have because I didn't have the resources to find a real job that wasn't putting my health on the line.

I was risking third degree burns.

I was risking my life to support my poverty stricken family.

There is there shouldn't be negotiation for youth jobs, especially without them, youth are in danger.

Why are youth jobs collateral damage for y'all?

My childhood was filled with wishing I had a bed to sleep in, wishing that my family had money to support me, wishing that I had something I could get something my peers had so I can interact with them, wishing that my life didn't consist of staying inside because the world outside was hungry for money.

Those were barriers that define my childhood.

They define me.

A youth job removed those barriers for me.

Now you you guys are putting those the same barrier back for the next generation.

I hope that doesn't sit well with you.

This that is a crime that you should be ashamed of yourself for committing because I know damn well you're not the ones getting arrested for or dealing with the impact.

Okay, thank you.

Arya Prasad, Melissa De Rosina, then uh Justin Granado Ochoa.

Good afternoon.

My name is Arya Prasad.

I'm a junior, president of the Phillips Brooks House Association, and an after-school volunteer in the Mission Hill neighborhood.

I'm the product of city-funded youth term time jobs in New York City.

And today I'm testifying to request that the city restore the six million dollars that have been out of uh been taken out of termtime youth job funding.

In speaking today, I could talk through all the statistics that back up that request, including how term time job programs have been linked to meaningful outcomes in workforce preparedness, academic outcomes, and violence prevention, just to name a couple.

But instead, I want to talk about our high school-age junior counselors in Mission Hill.

I've seen these kids grow from participants in programming, um, from timid first-time junior counselors to adults who care deeply for their communities and feel empowered to keep working to support our kids.

Um, one even interns in city council now, Nivea, who you heard testify earlier, who's going on to study early educ early childhood education in college in the fall.

When our kids in after school look at our high school JCs, they see not just role models, but they see someone they could become.

I find it no coincidence that when Nivea came to program two days after choosing college, uh, which college she was going to attend in the fall, all of our kids said, when can I start preparing to go to college?

With each junior counselor that we have that we hire, we are able to take on five more kids, and their impacts have downstream effects in all areas of our work.

At the end of the day, a budget is a moral document.

This budget decision tells our young adults that we think of their growth, preparedness, and ability to support their families as expendable.

It tells our kids in after school that we think their futures and dreams are expendable.

Whether police or public servant, I think we can all agree that cutting youth jobs and losing ground in this fight for education and for outcomes is something that we all are against, and I urge you to reconsider this decision.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Melissa, and then uh Justin uh Granado Ochoa, then Devil Moore.

Good evening.

My name is Melissa Dorisina.

I'm from Dorchester, and I'm also an 18-year-old artist manager and a dancer at Teen Empowerment.

It is frustrating that Mayor Wu is cutting youth jobs because youth jobs make it possible for me and my community to showcase not only our talents but our personalities and a way to implement change in our community that could better us and future generations to come.

These are not just jobs to us, these are also safe spaces for youth to be themselves and share how they feel about certain things with full support and without judgment.

I get to express the feelings that I cannot put into words and convert it into dance moves that help to tell my story in a beautiful and sentimental way.

When I first joined TE, I was quiet and reserved.

Now being here for about two and a half years, TE has helped help me tremendously.

Especially since I'm starting college in the fall, going into a more mature setting, I have learned and developed better skills like leadership and communication, as well as coming out of my bubble more.

This cut shows that Mayor Wu only cares about herself and her status rather than the current generation that has the power to change the future.

Without us and our voices, the community will go downhill.

Funding it to the police that doesn't even make us feel safe is ludicrous.

Most people wouldn't even think to call 911 if they had an emergency, because I know I don't.

The police do more harm than they do good, and we see that not only in Boston, but as well as around the world.

How is it that you are taking away funding from our youth jobs and expect teens to stay away from illegal ways of making money?

I demand that the city council listen to these testimonies today with open ears and empathy for what we all have to say about how cutting these jobs can change our lives, not for the good, but for the worse.

Please reinstate the six million proposed cut to the budget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Uh Justin Ochoa, and then I I'm not sure it's DeVelle or I'm misreading this.

Uh more.

It's Develle.

Okay, okay, thank you.

Uh Brandon uh say.

So DeVelle, I think you're up next.

Although I won't be 17 forever, I still want these opportunities for the current youth and the rising youth.

What I want is for the youth to feel heard without needing to scream.

And what I want is for the youth to feel seen without being left behind.

My name is Develle Moore, and I am an 11th grade MECO student at Weston High School and a senior youth organizer at Teen Empowerment's Dorchester site.

And today, I want you all to do some reflecting.

So, City Councilors, I got a question for you all.

Are you serious?

If Boston is facing a reallocation of funds, why is the youth jobs budget even on the chopping block?

For money to be taken away and redirected to the police.

Did they ask for a raise again?

What good are youth opportunities without supplying them year-round?

24-7, 365.

Or is it conditional?

Is it too much funding when we continuously see youth on the curb or failing all of their classes or misusing substances?

Or is it too much funding when we see teens being empowered, beating the odds, and with the greatest minds?

We don't want to be limited to working retail or fast food or pushing grocery carts to a hub.

We want programs that will expand our perspective, help us understand the world better, and comprehend who we want to be.

This is a telling example of who our leaders truly are.

So fix the six.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Brandon uh say and um, sorry, my I mean, my handwriting is bad.

I thought my handwriting was bad, but uh bo uh, I'm not even sure what that is from Dorchester Teen Empowerment.

Um it might be.

Is that what it says?

It's like it may be Eli Elizer.

Is that how you wrote it?

Um uh Boba Dia, um, and then uh Rayan uh Fuzi.

Faouzi.

Sorry.

Okay, next.

Good afternoon.

My name is Brandon.

I work as a youth organizer for the Center of Teen Empowerment living in Dorchester.

With this opportunity, I've learned how to be more confident and more collaborative, and I've gained experience from organizing events and working behind the scenes of these events.

After hearing about the $6 million dollar cut to youth jobs and opportunities that may occur, I felt worried and concerned because I realized that the youth would lose access to these paid opportunities that support them in building many skills and gaining experience.

This could seriously limit their belief they had to gain experience and how prepared they are in the future.

Right now, I wouldn't be here speaking up to you guys as a youth organization if it weren't for the skills and the voice I developed from my time with team empowerment.

I hope that many youth just like me can have the chance to grow and succeed through youth jobs and opportunities, but this may not happen due to the cuts.

If changes are made, many of you just many youth just like me will lose opportunities to grow and succeed.

So we must continue investing in youth jobs and opportunities so we can help many youth boot a future and shrink their schools.

Okay, thank you uh very much.

I guess this is Eli, uh, then Rain, Ozy, Jerome Wells, Maddox, Rosario.

My name is Eliza Bobadia, and I'm a youth organizer in the Center of Teen Empowerment's Dorchester site.

And I'm here to tell you that this job is more than a paycheck to the youth.

This job is an experience many are missing out on because of the constant disrespect from those with suits and ties above us.

Those whose carelessness is portrayed because of their social titles, and those who think we are nothing more than wasted money.

And this job has changed the path for many of those before me, those who are around me, and in God's will, those after me.

Coming from a first-time youth organizer, this job has matured and enhanced me socially, mentally, and emotionally.

Unlocking these new perspectives, friendships, and opportunities is only a chunk of the positives I've gained from this job.

And to hear that this job is getting cut short just to save a couple of bucks is more than absurd.

We the youth are now demanding our respect, and our silence will no longer linger.

So give us the opportunities we deserve.

Put back the six million dollars that you guys are taking for us and the future of Boston.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Uh Ryan, uh Fauzi, Jerome Wells, Maddox Rosario, David, uh, Obasaire, Obisare, uh, or uh Keith Robinson.

I'll be going next.

Okay.

Just start with your name.

Uh my name is Jerome.

Um today ain't going well, and I ain't feeling like myself.

Nobody has the answers.

I don't ask for any help.

My mind is so complacent when it comes to mental health.

I handle issues later, another problem on the shelf.

I want to feel scene, but don't nobody pay attention, hesitant to speak because I knew you wouldn't listen.

So even if I did, would it really make a difference?

I put it in a sentence, all the pain it was written.

Once again, my name is Jerome Wells.

I'm from Roxbury.

I'm 18 years old, and I go to Franklin Cummings.

Youth jobs shouldn't be cut because that's what Mary Wu campaign was all about.

She made the youth feel seen.

It felt like somebody was speaking up for us.

And for her to take that away is the ultimate betrayal.

Also, I know many others can relate to this, but when it comes to single parent households, especially with siblings, I can't go to my mom and ask her for some money.

Youth jobs help me provide for myself and my needs.

Youth jobs aren't just about money.

They install core values that carry into the real world.

They create memories and provide us a space for us to get away.

So, to the city council, I'm asking that you return the six million back to youth jobs for the school year.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

My name's Maddox Cesario.

I'm a youth organizer at Teen Empowerment, and this is my first session at CE.

To start off, my experience with my youth job has opened me up to so much resources and new experience that I would have never experienced without it.

And has opened me to so much new things, new perspectives, and more.

Like being able to see things from different views.

Quite frankly, I don't think I would be in a good place in life without teen empowerment and their support.

It's more than just money.

It's a safe haven for me and so much other youth I work with and will continue to be for future youth.

And all youth jobs give that type of support system, even in the money category.

That money provides to help us youth.

Make sure there's never a night when we're hungry, and make sure we can provide for ourselves and support our family in lots of cases.

To sum it up, the cut of youth job budgets mean thousands of youth back on the streets, possibly back without food and more.

It means teens going back to activities they shouldn't be doing, and so much more I can't get into due to time.

So I'm not begging, I'm telling for all you city counselors in here to hear and acknowledge our words and not just sit here and look at us because you have to.

Okay, uh, thank you.

Um, so David, uh, I think it's Oba Sarah, Robesari, Keith Robinson, Norlene Valbran, and uh Kaylee Harrington.

Good afternoon.

My name is Samir Marin.

I am 17 years old, and I'm a youth organizer at Teen Empowerment.

Youth jobs are important to me because as a youth who has a single mother of three, living in a low income, not being able to hang out with friends because I don't have money for it.

Having a job after school helps me out a lot.

Especially as a teenage girl that plays sports, that try and try new things.

Oop, that loves to meet new people and try new things.

I hope you understand a summer check is not lasting the whole school year.

Hearing that jobs and programs funds are being cut to fund the police force is far more disturbing.

It is ludicrous to hear that Mayor Wu might possibly make a budget cut in youth jobs and employment.

Defunding youth jobs shouldn't be a thought.

When one of your goals as mayor is to ensure us youth summer jobs.

And squee your jobs.

And to give our money, our opportunities to the police is ridiculous.

This shows that Michelle Wu isn't the right person to speak for me and my youth.

We are the future, and we, the youth, are demanding the city council to return our six million dollars back to fund our youth jobs and programs, not only for the money, but for the experiences and skills we gain along the way.

Thank you so much, guys.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, uh just start with your name.

Uh hello, counselors.

My name is David O'Sashri.

I'm 15 and I work for the city of school in District 3 in Boston.

I am here today, along with many other young people because what Mayor Wu is doing to our younger generation is a robbery.

Uh, me and many others feel as if Mayor Wu is stealing money from the younger generation because she feels as if the police need more money, which they clearly already had.

It shows that Mayor Wu is not thinking about the future of this youth, but is but to give uh the already spoiled police force more money.

I request your help to getting Mayor Wu to return the six million that was stolen from the budget and give it back to the youth.

Youth jobs are important to myself and others because they provide experience as well as helping people who you may not know might be going through different issues, such as housing, food, and etc.

The youth need these jobs to help better their future.

The absence of youth jobs will also help facilitate crime with young people who need to provide for themselves and their family who will go to desperate measures.

Please help return the six million.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, thanks.

Uh, Keith Robinson, uh Norlene Valbron, Kaylee Harrington, uh I think it's uh Demilia Ruiz.

Okay.

I'm gonna speak for Keith, he's a little recovering from a vocal thing, but you know, I think it's important that he's here still.

You feel me?

Again, it just shows that is how significant the cut would be to young people that folks who, even when they're not feeling their brightest, they're still able to show up.

So, you know, he'll be like acting behind me and all that.

But you know, it's Keith Robinson, youth organizer at Tina Parma Matapan.

Um, it's come to my attention that Mayor Wuh Mayor Wu is trying to cut funding for jobs for youth and put it under other things like police.

As a working teen, I demand that the city council put all six million dollars they took from us back into the budget.

Personally, I think that cutting the budget will hurt the youth in so many ways, both mentally and physically.

It will push kids out of a job into the streets because they won't have anything else to do.

Youth jobs has had a personal effect on my life in a massive way.

Because of my job experience, I find it easier to talk to people and ask for help when I need it.

I also find it easier to advocate for myself because of the skills I learned from working a youth job.

He asked me to do this.

Look at that.

It's tough.

I urge you to return the jobs budget back to its original funding, and thank you for your time.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Robinson.

Okay, uh, I have Norlene Valbryn, Kaylee Harrington, Damelia Ruiz, I think uh Colleek Williams, uh Gismery Guzman, and I think it's Felicia, although I'm uh Kamal, maybe.

Um, okay.

Okay.

Hello, my name is Nolan Valboy.

I'm 17 years old, and I've been working with Teen Empowerment for the past three years.

And it's only fair to ask for the six million back into the budget because the funding youth jobs is very hypocritical since all of the youth should be in your shoes one day.

And remember that this is our example right now.

I remember once with Teen Empowerment, I was about to walk on the stage of the Paramount Theater, about to perform a dance.

And although I was tremendously proud of myself for this accomplishment, I was unfortunate and I couldn't see the proud faces of my parents, and I was worried no one would have noticed me.

No one would have clapped for me when I was done, but after all my co-workers with Teen Empowerment and my bosses were able to fulfill that support that I needed that day.

And I had to realize that I won't be able to get that anywhere.

And also, I'm super passionate about the work that I do with Teen Empowerment.

Me and the mayor both have the job of community engagement.

How is it fair that the mayor can get over 200 grand annually, but I don't get paid at all when it comes to 2027?

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh we have Kaylee Harrington.

Um, sure my staff is working on a video of me just uh butchering names, uh, but uh look forward to watching that.

And then a Demilia Ruiz, colleague uh Williams, is Mary Guzman and Felicia, and I'm not um, okay.

Okay, okay.

Well, uh, go ahead.

Um, hi everyone.

My name is Kayleigh Harrington, and I go to the John D.

O'Brien of School of Mathematics and Science, and I also work at the Youth Leadership Program.

Um, I am here to uh today to demand Mayor Wu to bring back funding for youth jobs for the 2026 and 2020 school year.

Um every year, thousands of young people, including myself, um, depend on youth jobs as a way to support our families and other important responsibilities that we have.

Um, youth jobs are the reason that young people in Boston have somewhere to be, have their own voice and a reason to protect their own future.

When youth are employed, our communities are safer, and younger people become invested in the places that they consider as their home.

For example, many young people work in community centers and also run programs for kids and also fight for advocacy and serve our neighbors.

Um, cutting this funding won't really save the city of Boston any type of money, but it would rather destroy our future and other young people's futures.

Um you guys already kind of already know the stats, and you kind of know the number of youth that it's affecting.