The Boston Foundation's StreetSafe Boston Summer Grants

StreetSafe Boston is a youth development and safety initiative aimed at reducing violent crime while improving positive youth outcomes among 12 to 24-year-olds in five Boston neighborhoods. Launched in December 2008, StreetSafe is a collaborative effort among local and regional funders, the City of Boston, the Boston Police Department, the Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, the Boston Housing Authority, YMCA of Greater Boston, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, and the Black Ministerial Alliance. The two-part strategy for engaging youth includes the increased deployment of street outreach workers and expanded hours and services at clusters of social service organizations.

The five target neighborhoods identified as centers of violent crime in an analysis of violence by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government include: Dudley Square area in Roxbury, Grove Hall area in Roxbury, South End/Lower Roxbury, Morton and Norfolk Street in Dorchester, and Bowdoin Street and Geneva Avenue in Dorchester.

Competitive StreetSafe Boston Summer Grants are a key component of the initiative as they support innovative summer programming that engages high-risk youth during evening and weekend hours in neighborhoods impacted by violence. The Boston Foundation, through the StreetSafe Boston Initiative, will be granting non-profit agencies, individually and in collaborations, that provide high-quality, summer youth programming at neighborhood-based community organizations and multi-sited agencies. These organizations:

  • serve teens and young adults, ages 12 - 24, living in Boston and/or nearby areas impacted by youth violence with high quality programming;
  • offer gender-specific and/or gender-sensitive programming for girls and young women that is engaging, meaningful, and enriching; and
  • focus on disengaged, system-involved and/or adjudicated teens and young adults, providing quality, alternative programming and supports.

For more information, visit StreetSafe Boston.