The City of Boston announced the grantees for the 2025 Youth Development Fund on Nov. 25, aiming to provide positive outlets for Boston youth and increase a variety of free youth programming.
Efraín Arias, director of strategic initiatives and partnerships at the Mayor’s Office of Human Services, said this fund helps ensure that young people are supported as they develop.
“We want to make sure that young people are uplifted, heard and listened to,” Arias said. “Making sure that we have an ecosystem that really supports their development is really important to that.”
Arias said the YDF are “providing opportunities” in sports, arts and culinary arts to young people.
“These are skills that deserve to be essential for folks who are growing up in the city,” Arias said.
Arias also said the YDF has been providing grants for the past five years, and in the past, the YDF allocated $1.7 million to 88 non-profit organizations.
This year, the YDF allocated $1.5 million to 99 “emerging” youth development programs and already established programs, according to the City.
These organizations are chosen by a board of members in City Hall that represent different offices. Then, the applicants are reviewed to ensure they match the criteria of the YDF and that all communities are being served, Arias said.
“We’re looking as much as possible to support all of the neighborhoods just based on where young people in Boston live,” Arias said. “But, we want to make sure that regardless of where you live that there’s high-quality programming for you.”
The grantees of this program will have their success tracked with an end-of-the-year report that the Office for Human Services asks every grantee to complete, Arias said.
For Marie Firmin, president of Black Biz Dev Inc., a nonprofit training students in entrepreneurship, the YDF was one of the first grants to give her money, which allowed her to start the Entrepreneurship Apprentice Practicum training program.
Firmin uses the grant to encourage her students to keep coming to class and learning, giving them $50 and feeding them each class.
“They come for the money initially,” Firmin said. “When they finish, they’re like, ‘Wow, we got money and we learned something.’”
Joshua Reed, education coordinator at Speak for the Trees Boston, said their organization was “so excited” when receiving the notification that the group was one of the grantees.
“All funding helps, but this is really a big help,” Reed said.
Reed said the grant money will be used to help support the organization’s staff, pay for equipment and finance their Teen Tree Summit, an event celebrating the environmental work of youth groups.
Hayes Hart-Thompson, executive director of The Stateless Collective, an organization providing accessible education to underprivileged students, said the funding allows the group to continue supporting their program coordinators while aiding students.
“This grant allows us not only to invest in young folks at the secondary level but invest in our young folks at the collegiate and recently-graduated level so that it’s kind of end-to-end support,” Hart-Thompson said.
Michael Rendon, senior program coordinator at Soccer Without Borders, a nonprofit focused on creating a safe space for youth immigrants and YDF grantee, said these funds help both the programs and the communities that they engage with.
“It’s due to these funds that we received and different grants that we applied for to help us spread to communities that we know there’s need,” said Rendon. “This just helps us reach more kids.”
Lorrin Van Evra, director of development at the Chica Project, a leadership and female empowerment program, said the group was “honored” to be an YDF grantee.
“We know that it’s really competitive, and so just being recognized by the city was appreciating,” Van Evra said. “Knowing that we’re a grantee along other really amazing organizations just feels great to be in those ranks.”
Nice article!