April 2017 - BRIDGE Program Service Trip
“To be able to provide these amazing teens with the opportunity for service is an incredible experience.”
For many of us, myself included, the ability to travel and see new places, engage with different cultures, and learn through experiences, is something that is often taken for granted. I personally can attest that some of my early experiences traveling the country and the world were some of the most formative experiences of my life. For the teens of St. Stephen’s Youth Programs, that is simply not always a given, which is one of the main reasons why we decided to create a yearly service learning trip. The vision was to be able to provide our teens with a unique opportunity to travel to a new environment, experience a completely different culture, and bring what they learned back to continue to be leaders in the community. Over the past three year, the BRIDGE service learning trip has become just that: a chance for 15 teens from Boston to travel to Marshall, North Carolina, and experience a culture that is very different than the urban environment they are used to.
On this trip, teens not only engage in a service learning, but they also visit colleges, hike along the Appalachian trail, eat southern BBQ, and go rafting down the French Broad. Our service project is done through an organization called the Community Housing Coalition, which is a local non-profit in Marshall that helps to match groups with local families that are in need of a little additional support. This past spring, our teens got to learn how to strip and put on a new roof, chop wood, tear down a shed, build an extension on a porch, and so much more. Students not only got to learn some of these life-long practical skills, but also got to connect with a family that was experiencing a completely different form of poverty than many of our teens experience here in Boston.
This trip ultimately costs the organization about $20,000. The group itself is responsible for raising about $8,000, and does this through bake sales, a teacher campaign, a raffle, as well as partnerships with different groups and sponsors. When I brought this to MITZVOTERS, we were in need of some last minute help. The teens had done a tremendous amount of fundraising, but we were still short of our overall group goal, with just a couple of weeks left to go. The support from MITZVOTERS made a tremendous difference, and allowed us to fly to North Carolina, knowing that we were going to be able to provide all of our teens with many different experiences that they all wanted to do.
I know that for me, the support of my friends was a truly amazing thing. Knowing that the bonds I had forged in college are still so strong that they are all willing to support me and all our amazing teens was a reminder that CC is a truly tremendous place. Our experience at CC helped create the space and environment for us to all live our own passions, and continue to learn and grow along the way. I know that I wouldn't be where I am today without the constant support of all my amazing friends!
Like CC, building bridges and connections is a big part of what we do here at St. Stephen’s Youth Programs, and it is at the very heart of this trip. At St. Stephen’s, we aim to create long-term relationships with young people, starting with students as early as five in our elementary program, and supporting them until they graduate high school and beyond. If you are interested in learning more about St. Stephen’s and all the work we do, or to donate yourself, visit www.ssypboston.org.
— Jeremy Kazanjian-Amory, Project Lead