STEAM Team: Our year-round afterschool and summer middle school programming integrates education and enrichment to boost academic achievement, support science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) engagement, build social-emotional skills, and explore careers in STEM-based professions. Youth receive homework help from college tutors and use STEAM to address community issues through service-learning projects. Our youth also have the opportunity to celebrate their cultures and create positive relationships with adults. Many of our middle school youth transition into our Youth Leader program upon entering high school.
Mission Possible: Our year-round afterschool academic support and postsecondary success program is aimed at promoting on-time graduation and opening doors to higher education. Our youth receive tutoring and homework help, mentoring, support with the college-going process, and workshops that support long-term academic success (i.e. time management, communication, effective study skills). Each of our youth meets individually with an academic case manager to develop actionable plans for staying on track in school and reaching their educational goals.
College Access & Success: In grade 11, our youth join our college access and success programming that supports youth through their first year of college. Through bilingual one-on-one coaching, test prep, college visits, application/financial aid support, and post-secondary guidance, we support low-income Latine and English learner youth to graduate from high school and succeed in college.
Latine College & Career Access (LaCCA): Greater Boston Latino Network (GBLN) formed Latine College & Career Access (LaCCA), which consists of five Latine-led organizations in Boston. These five organizations are East Boston Community Council (EBCC) Hyde Square Task Force (HSTF), Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), Sociedad Latina (SL), and Boston Higher Education Resource Center (HERC).
Collectively these organizations have decades of experience with expanding positive educational, professional, and social-emotional outcomes for underserved Latine, Spanish-speaking, and English learner youth. Through our College & Career Access Initiative, GBLN aims to prepare 250 youth of color ages 14-21 on the pathway of postsecondary education by addressing root causes of educational and career inequities. Young people participating in LaCCA are equipped with personalized tools centering holistic, innovative, and culturally relevant approaches that focus on mentoring, skill building, career exploration, sector-specific training, internship placements, academics, and family engagement.
LaCCA was recently awarded a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. This will fund our college access and career readiness efforts for Latine young people in high school and college.