French/Haitian Creole

Catholic Charities Greater Boston is a community service center of Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Boston. Catholic Charities Greater Boston provides direct service in Dorchester at the Yawkey Center, in Somerville, and in other Boston neighborhoods through an array of programs and services including Basic Needs Services, parenting programs, an after-school program for teens, a summer camp for inner-city children, elder social services, and a variety of residential programs. All are designed to address the complex issues that many individuals and families face today. More than 38,000 are served each year.

The program addresses the unique needs of high-risk urban youth and their families by placing licensed clinical social workers in district police stations throughout the city. YSPN social workers receive referrals from police officers, incident reports, Boston Cares and walk-ins. YSPN services include intake/assessment, crisis intervention, advocacy, referral, clinical case management and ongoing individual and family therapy. Additionally, when there is an incidence of community violence, YSPN provides critical incident trauma services to individuals, groups, and the community. Since its inception in 1996, YSPN has served more than 8,000 youth (80% between the ages of 13-21) and families from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

The purpose of the program is to provide opportunities and services to the culturally diverse families in the Dorchester neighborhood. It is a comprehensive Head Start program in partnership with parents. It serves families for twenty-five hours weekly, assisting them in self-sufficiency and success in life. The program's philosophy is to promote self-help and self-sufficiency. Its goals are as follows:
1. To provide an education that improves children's ability to think, reason, communicate and develop self-esteem through meaningful social interaction with peers and teachers.
2. To provide integrated services in the areas of education, health, nutrition and social and mental health.
3. To serve healthy breakfast, lunches and snacks to ensure good nutrition.

The purpose of Urban Scholars is to provide talented urban students with the academic skills and the motivation to achieve at the limits of their potential. Our overarching goal is to enable our students to assume positions of leadership and achievement in society. To this end, our academic program is governed by the following core goals:
-To a graduating Urban Scholar, critical thinking is a habit of mind that is both creative and analytical.
-A graduating Urban Scholar expresses his or her thinking effectively in both written and oral form.
-Competency, confidence and resourcefulness in academic settings and beyond are hallmarks of every graduating Urban Scholar.
-A graduating Urban Scholar respects human dignity, accepts responsibility for his/her actions and exercises his/her rights and responsibilities as a citizen.

To empower youth and adults as agents of positive individual, institutional, and social change.