GBIO Senetorial Event

On October 15th, we had a GBIO Senatorial Action, with a special guest, candidate Elizabeth Warren. The goals of the night were to build relationships with potential U.S Senators, and negotiate on issues that GBIO cares about. Sadly one of the candidates, Sen. Scott Brown declined our invitation. However, Democrat candidate Elizabeth Warren, agreed on all terms which was a victory for GBIO and its members. One of our YouthForce members spoke at the event on behalf of the Youth Jobs Coalition and YMORE. She talked about the importance of youth jobs and candidate Warren agreed. This was an amazing opportunity and it encouraged youth to stay tuned with upcoming political events and stress to all how important youth jobs are to everyone. 

Last week members of the ARTE committee went to Brockton to train the local teens at the health center. At this meeting we talked about our last rally during February vacation which was a big success! We shared pictures with these teens to give them a common understanding of what a rally should and would look like in case some did not attend. For those who did attend the February 23rd rally, they shared they're personal experiences and feelings about this rally. After, we talked about our personal experiences with meeting politicians. We then trained them on how to meet with politicians to prepare them for their upcoming meeting with their representatives. The teens gave us good feed back and told us they had learned a lot!

REFLECTION DAY

Last week there was a reflection day of the Rally at the City School. There was suppose to be tons of people attending this meeting, but it turned out that there really wasn't alot of people that ended up attending this program. Since the organizations that ended up remaining at the meeting, the reflection was just the same as the other reflection that was held a few weeks before. People were very engaging and made the meeting very successful.The get to know you day was really fun. Since many people did not know each other, there was a get to know you game, which was a mirror game, in this game you would find a partner that would have mirror how the other persons day was. For Ex. I just want to get home today- I would make a house and the other person would have to mirror what you did. The day turned out to be great even though many people did not show up.

YMOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :)

Yesterday there was an event at St.Peters, which was the monthly YMORE event. A bunch of teens from across Massachusetts came together to, A)learn more about YMORE and their diesel campaign to, B) build relationships with other teens and C) have fun!

   The YMORE diesel campaign talks about how city areas have higher asthma rates verses suburban areas that have lower asthma rates. There were many testimonies and skits that depicted the asthma problem. I personally am not effected by having asthma, but hearing the testimonies and participating in skits really motivated me to help fight the cause. It's really unfair that West Roxbury (Caucasians)are not effected by this issue but Roxbury (African-American populated) is. In my opinion, this issue is deeper than West Roxbury/ Robury and there should be a solution.

To be continued...

                             

QUALITY JOBS

What comes to mind when i think about a quality job, i look back at personal experiences such as my summer internship at Eaton Vance, which is an investment management company. I learned so much while working with this big company. Getting up early at nine in the morning can really take one a long way. I had to get up in the summer time, just to get to work on time. I learned that it can take me a long way for the fact that i have to get up for school in the morning and so it helps because i already processed what it feels like to get up early in the morning. I also learned how to take responsibility into consideration. I had a passion for what i was doing on a day to day basis. Anyone who has a passion for their job that they attend each day is a quality job. In terms of youth i feel that anyone who goes to a job and learns a lot and gives them the skills that they need to grow and develop in school and in their daily lives is a quality job.

          WHAT DO FEEL IS A GOOD QUALITY JOB???????????

RALLY

      February 23, 2012, was the youth jobs rally. Teens from Youth Force met at Fidelity, for their creative action. There was around 30 teens that was ready to get their voices heard by getting the public's attention, and let people know that Fidelity doesn't hire teens. When teens began to approach the entrance, teens were quickly turned down, and they could not even enter the building. Workers at Fidelity became quickly aggravated, and decided that they would shut the door in our faces. WE have reached our goal, with letting Fidelity be aware that they don't hire teens. Justice has been served.
       Other organizations were in the Tremont Temple church  and people that came in support of youth jobs, whether it be senators, parents, teens, or everyone, people were being entertained. There was Music, speeches, dances, also rapping by a young and talented men.
       After the entertainment, people were heading outside of the church to start rallying. There were chanters that got everyone that came to support rallied up and also people that were on the streets walking by in the financial district and also in Downtown. People were looking from all directions and wondering what was going on. The rally was loud and we really had the crowd going. People all over, and even though they were not in the area they were informed by channel 25. The rally was even mentioned in the Boston Globe paper. Teens showed their power by the chants that we marched around protesting, such as "Youth United will never be defeated". At many points, youth would put up their fist and every person had a green ribbon around their fist, which showed that youth were united and that we wanted to fight against the issue of jobs.

       The rally turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to youth in the community. GO YOUTH JOBS!

Rally Prep Meeting

Yesterday on February 15th around 4:30 pm, Youth Force facilitated a training that taught the teens about rallies and what they should look like. Since we will be meeting with our State Representatives and Senators, we also taught and prepared the teens on how to meet with a legislative figure. I feel as though the teens were very engaging and willing to learn more about the issue of youth jobs. We told them that this would be a great way or start to get more involved with the campaign. Even if they were just learning about this, attending the rally would be a great learning experience. I also feel like they took a lot in from this and can relay this information to their friends to spread the power. This was a great training and I hope we can continue to build our base in power in numbers and continue to conduct a successful campaign for more youth opportunities.