Youth Council Activities

SCI Youth Councils show their commitment, even when times are tough!  Pictured to the left SCI AmeriCorps Youth Leadership Coordinator, Jennifer Ward from the SCI Milford Youth Council and Jim Sanchioni, Director of Milford Youth Center, delivered nearly 300 pairs of children's pajamas to BJ's Wholesale Club, General Manager, Joe Reardon.  BJ's, in collaboration with the Boston Bruins, has been collecting children's new and unused pajamas to give to nonprofit organization, Cradles to Crayons.  SCI Youth Council collections have been extremely successful in helping meet the basic needs of struggling community members; such as SCI Woburn Youth Council’s Jeans for Teens initiative, SCI Lynn’s canned food collection in conjunction with Compare Supermarket, and the Winter Coat Drive in Dorchester.

On Monday, January 25th, eleven Dorchester Youth Council Members and four volunteers helped to gather, sort, and distributed about 600 donated jackets from the Burlington Coat Factory to families in need. Although it was pouring rain, the turnout for the Dorchester Youth Council’s First Annual Warm Coats Warm Hearts Coat Drive was tremendous.

On February 13th, SCI Lynn and Compare Supermarket held a canned food drive that collected 230 canned goods and 26 pounds of pasta (amongst other items) for local food pantries.

The DotWell Teen Center in collaboration with Social Capital Inc. (SCI) hosted its seventh annual Safe Love Dance this Friday, February 19th at the Dorchester House gymnasium. The Safe Love Dance combined a safe place to dance and party with an informative health fair featuring 19 local health organizations, among them Close to Home, Start Strong Boston, MAP for Health, and La Alianza Hispana. In order to enter the dance, teens were required to interact with at least four of the attending organizations and receive information on healthy teen relationships, safe sex, abstinence, STD/HIV/AIDS awareness, self confidence, nutritional health and violence prevention. By the end of the dance, over 160 Dorchester teens successfully engaged with the attending organizations and improved their relationship skills through skits promoting healthy relationships.

DJ Rolling Rick provided the tunes and beats, while volunteers from SCI and the Dorchester community welcomed and engaged the teens. Eddie Brimage and the Powerhouse Krumpers from the Dorchester Youth Collaborative captivated with a spectacular krumping performance, getting the crowd hyped up for the dance.

DotWell is a community-based organization, specifically a formalized collaborative effort of its two founding organizations: the Codman Square Health Center (CSHC) and the Dorchester House Multi-Service Center (DHMSC). DotWell generates trust and respect by providing the highest quality comprehensive clinical and community-based services; a well-maintained physical plant that meets the needs of the community; a team of staff that are both entrepreneurial and practical; state-of-the-art technology available for use by the staff and the community; and unparalleled involvement by a diverse group of stakeholders including staff, clients, board members, elected and appointed officials, and collaborators.