TEEN EMPOWERMENT NEWS
July 2010

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Teen Empowerment Creates Agents for Positive Change

Check out this excellent article about TE on the Huffington Post!

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Celebration of Hope and Caring 2010

Many thanks to all who supported TE's annual Celebration of Hope and Caring on March 4. It was a great evening! Click here to see the short video shown at the Celebration. Here's an article about the event in the Somerville News. Read about our inspiring honorees, Sonia Alleyne Matthews and Joseph Jackson.

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Teen Empowerment holiday gathering brings local teens together

Check out this article in the Somerville News.

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Moving Beyond Icebreakers on YouTube

Check out some short videos that illustrate how TE works interactively to engage groups of youth. See exercises  from Moving Beyond Icebreakers in action! We've just posted 3 new videos showing The Human Knot, Name Wave, and Warm-up Questions. TE's other "Beyond Icebreakers" videos are: Bag Toss, Zip Zap Zup with Foot-Stamp, and Wind Blows with Word.

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Youth Peace Conferences in Somerville and Boston

The 2009 Youth Peace Conference in Somerville (April 4) and Boston (May 9) were great successes! More information

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Somerville Youth and Police Exchange Views
Read coverage in the Somerville Journal about a recent TE-organized dialogue session: Teen Empowerment, Somerville Police talking to each other.

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"We Are Boston" Award to Diego Medina
TE youth organizer Diego Medina (speaking in photo at right) was one of three recipients of the "We Are Boston" Youth Leadership Award, which recognizes individuals who are immigrants or children of immigrants and who

• demonstrate leadership and have worked effectively and consistently to embrace diversity, and
• empower New Bostonians towards full participation in the life of the City.

The awards were presented by Mayor Thomas Menino on December 3, 2008, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

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Rochester Youth Conference & SpeakOut
Teen Empowerment's Rochester site presented the 5th annual Youth Conference and Speakout on Saturday, November 8, 2008, at Monroe High School. This year's theme was Breaking Generational Curses. See the sidebar for article about the conference. For links to speeches delivered at the conference, visit the Rochester page. For more information, contact us.

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Moving Beyond Icebreakers 101
Teen Empowerment offers a workshop based on our group facilitation book Moving Beyond Icebreakers. Interactive methods are usually ignored or marginalized as "ice breakers" to be used only in the first few moments of a community meeting, or first few hours or days of a group's experience. This workshop demonstrates the depth and richness of several interactive exercises from Moving Beyond Icebreakers and how to use them to engage the hearts, minds, and energies of diverse groups of people. Whether you work with children, teens, or adults, you will leave this workshop with specific tools you can use in the next meeting you facilitate.

Each workshop runs from 9:30-12:30 and is held at Teen Empowerment's  Somerville office, 236A Pearl Street. Cost is $50. The next workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, August 4, 2010. Contact us to register or for more information.

Workshop participants may purchase a copy of Moving Beyond Icebreakers at a 25% discount ($30). Please let us know when you register that you are interested in this promotion.

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TE at the State House
Teen Empowerment joined with Citizens for Public Schools and other cosponsors at the Massachusetts State House in February 2008 for MCAS Reform Lobby Day and in May that year for the Unity Rally for Children Left Behind. See the sidebar for news coverage of these events.

For Lobby Day, Teen Empowerment prepared a booklet entitled Voices of Children Left Behind in Massachusetts Public Schools, which collects the experiences of 31 students and two teachers in urban public schools. Download the book or contact us to obtain a copy.

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Youth Violence: What Is Happening?
Though the terrible upsurge in violence among young people in Boston is fading from the headlines, the tragedies continue. For analysis of why this is happening, see this article by TE's executive director, Stanley Pollack, published in the Boston Globe on July 18, 2006 (the file is a 2-page download), and this article in Salon.com featuring Stanley.

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Shop and Search for TE!
Shopping: Do you shop online? Visit GoodShop.com first and they'll donate an average of 3% of your purchases to TE! GoodShop.com features great stores including BestBuy, Macy's, Apple, eBay, Target, Gap, and more. Go to GoodShop.com, select Teen Empowerment as your charity, click on a store's logo, and then shop as usual. If you make a purchase, TE will automatically receive a donation.

Searching: Do you search the internet? Use GoodSearch.com, which utilizes the Yahoo! search engine, select Teen Empowerment as your charity, and they'll make a donation to TE for each search.

TE a Better Business Bureau Accredited Charity
From the Better Business Bureau, March 2007:
"Congratulations! The Center for Teen Empowerment, Inc. has met all 20 BBB Standards for Charity Accountability with the Better Business Bureau, Inc. Use the BBB Charity Seal to help inform your donors of this accomplishment!" Donate to support our work.

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CARE for Youth
Teen Empowerment is a proud member of CARE for Youth, a state-wide coalition that is working to keep kids safe and healthy by passing legislation to make comprehensive health education a reality for all Massachusetts public school students. To learn more about CARE for Youth and the Health Education Bill, please visit www.careforyouthma.org.

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TE RESOURCES:

Improve your facilitation skills. Check out our interactive exercise of the month!

 

TE Times
TE's annual newsletter, the TE Times, is filled with stories and photos about our work and writings by TE youth. Go to our newsletter page to download copies of any newsletter, or to sign up to receive a hard copy.

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