Q. & A. with Catherine Walper

The Brockton Mayor's Youth Council is an organization made up of teens from Brockton that volunteers in the community and hosts the annual Mayor’s Youth Summit. The Summit provides youth in Brockton with a forum to discuss issues in their community and offer suggestions for solving problems that affect the youth. Promise Fellow, Catherine Walper took the time to answer some of my questions about the Mayor’s Youth Council.  

Why did you decide to get involved with the Mayor’s Youth Council?

I wanted to work with students that have a cause and are committed to improving their community. I am also a part of the Mass Promise Fellowship.

How can Brockton Teens join the Mayor’s Youth Council?

Enrollment is open until the first Monday of October and the Council meets every Monday at City Hall 4:30-6:00 p.m. There is an application available online, open to youth in Brockton age 13 through 21, whether they are students at public or private schools in Brockton. We do limit the number of students in the Youth Council to 30 teens and we are up to 14 Members right now so we have room to grow!

How do you get the word out to teens in the Brockton community?

We work with the B.B. Russell, the Champion Charter School, The Keith, and Brockton High School to reach out to students. We put out press releases with The Enterprise and the Brockton Community Cable Television station gets the word out to the community about meetings and events. We also have a Facebook page.

The Mayor’s Youth Council’s website mentions that you do Service Projects in the community.  What are some upcoming projects?

Our big service day is every year on Martin Luther King Day and the teens do a service project in Boston. This year we will be doing volunteer work throughout the community in different places, such as soup kitchens, and we will be doing Christmas in Brockton. We are trying to revamp Brockton’s famous Christmas parade and get local businesses involved like they were in the past. Some of the local businesses do not have the tolls or resources to decorate the floats so we will have students from Brockton High, Champion Charter, and Cardinal Spellman who are artistic and are willing to volunteer, help decorate. We will also be doing service projects in line with the Mass Promise Fellowship, which will be determined during our weekly meetings.

Your website also says that you help teens to build leadership and professional skills. How do you help students build these skills?

We have guest speakers come in, professionals that range from the Mayor herself to professionals in the community from different majors and backgrounds, who tell how they got involved in their fields. We invite speakers from an array of communities and fields so that we do not repeat the same speakers every year. We also hold resume building and college preparatory workshops, working with Stonehill College, Curry College, and Massasoit Community College to get teens ready for the world after high school. We offer these workshops to other teens that are not part of the Mayor’s Youth Council because we do not want to shut out teens that are not a part of the Youth Council.  

 

Does the Mayor’s Youth Council have any fundraising to support their work?

All fundraising that the students do, is always given right back to the Brockton community and this year one of the bigger events is on November 17^th. We are doing a 3 on 3 basketball tournament with Coaching for Change at the Brockton Boys and Girls Club. Also, we will be doing a candle sale around the holidays and other things are in the works, but the students are still in the planning phase.

Every March the Council holds the Mayor’s Youth Summit to reach out to the youth of Brockton and find out what improvements they want made in the community. What were some of the suggestions made at the 2012 Youth Summit and what are your plans for the Summit next year?

Last March the youth wanted the Youth Council to do more in the community. Last year the Council did a handful of service projects, but this year we are making sure that we are more visible and we are doing monthly events. Some of the teens did not know what the Youth Council was, so this year is about branding our name, holding ourselves accountable to the community, and making sure that it is known when the Youth Council is involved when holding events.  The next Mayor’s Youth Summit’s date has not been set yet, but we are trying to set up a more diverse set of programs that will reach out to those individuals who do not feel that the issues that the Mayor’s Youth Council deals with are relevant to them.