Fall River Named One of Nation’s 100 Best Communities for Youth
FORUM
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Courtney Hime
Boston University Washington News Service
September 23, 2008
WASHINGTON – Jamison Souza believes in the power of youth.
“People always come in and talk about how the youth are the leaders of tomorrow, but in reality they are the leaders of today,” he said “They have a voice, and their voice needs to be heard.”
It’s this mentality that brought Souza – along with four other Fall River residents – to the America’s Promise Alliance’s 100 Best Communities for Young People National Forum in Washington on Monday and Tuesday.
The two students and three adults are part of Fall River’s Healthy Youth Task Force and the Fall River Extends Supportive Hands team (team FRESH, it calls itself), two groups that advocate for youth issues. Souza and fellow team FRESH co-adviser Christian McCloskey accompanied Ine Ogagan and students Mei Yu Fang and Lillian Phuong to the two-day forum.
The America’s Promise Alliance is a partnership of corporations, nonprofit organizations and other advocacy groups focused on promising America’s youth access to five essential resources: caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, effective education and opportunities to help others.
Souza and McCloskey said they came up with a “unique approach” to fulfilling the alliance’s promise.
“Other communities embraced the America’s Promise framework and brought it to the youth; we did it backwards,” McCloskey said. “Educate the youth on America’s Promise and have them bring it to the adults, to the community.”
After working to help youth in the Fall River community gain access to these resources, Team FRESH applied to have Fall River be one of the 100 communities recognized by the alliance. Residents of the winning communities were invited to the celebration in Washington.
As the two-day forum drew to a close, B.M.C. Durfee High School junior Phuong and sophomore Yu Fang said they have acquired new ideas for how to help Fall River.
“The whole experience has actually taught me a lot about what we can do,” Fang said.
Phuong, who was just named to the Governor’s Youth Council, came out of the forum with a renewed outlook.
“It takes more than one voice to make a big difference, but it only takes one voice to get it started,” she said.
Souza said talking with representatives from the other communities helped validate the work Team FRESH had been doing.
“It’s been very informative to see that a lot of the communities are doing similar things that Fall River’s doing,” Souza said. “It’s great to see that we’re on the right track.”
McCloskey added, though, that the competition reminded them they still had gaps where improvement was needed – especially in strengthening community partnerships and collaborations.
The team is planning a small gathering of youth and adults on Oct. 25 to begin developing a community agenda for youth.
“We need to identify all the necessary partners that are going to have to be a part of this effort,” McCloskey said
Both days of the forum consisted of workshops to discuss issues facing America’s youth. Monday night brought the community residents together for a celebration, which included opening addresses by Alliance Chairwoman Alma Powell and former Secretary of State Colin Powell as well as performances by American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino and the Howard Gospel Choir of Howard University. ###
