Boston Inner City Outings
Trip Report Archive
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About the Sierra Club's ICO Program
The Sierra Club Inner City Outings is a community outreach program that is run by trained volunteer members of the Sierra Club with the goal of taking children from urban areas in and around Boston out to the mountains, woods, lakes, anywhere where there aren't buildings...
The ICO mission is to promote personal development by linking cultures, fostering respect of self and others, providing leadership skills, and an appreciation of our local and global environments through a process of outdoor exploration, education, spiritual growth, and sharing.
The outdoors can seem a scary place for children who grow up in the city. These trips replace that feeling with a knowledge of what it's like to hike a trail, to read a map and figure out the way, and ultimately to reach the top (and get down again!) It fosters a sense of accomplishment, increases self-confidence and enhances camaraderie amongst the youth and their group leaders. Beyond these immediate benefits, we are sowing the seeds for the next generation's appreciation of the environment and (hopefully) the preservation of open spaces through active recreational use.
We currently work with five Boston area agencies:
Boston Area Health Education Center (BAHEC)
East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNMC)
Project Health (Boston Medical Center) Sportnut Boys Program and
Fitnut Girls Program
Teen Center at St. Peter's
Zumix
Boston Area Health Education Center (BAHEC)
Arthur Collins
729 Mass Ave, Boston MA
(617) 534-5259
Youth to Health Careers Program
Boston Area Health Education Center
The Youth to Health Careers (Y2HC) Program at the Boston Area Health Education Center offers an innovative approach that increases awareness of health professions and public health issues, concepts and practice among young people in Boston. Emphasizing careers in preventive medicine and primary care, allied health, public health, and complementary medicine, the rich combination of coursework, mentoring and practical experiences create a pathway for young people towards educational opportunities in health related fields, while working to eliminate the many barriers faced by youth today.
Founded in 1978 to increase the pool of health professionals in medically underserved and underrepresented communities of Boston, Y2HC -BAHEC is a program hosted by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC). Within the Commission, BAHEC is an integral part of the Family, Adolescent, and Child Health Bureau. BAHEC is physically located on the Boston Medical Center campus.
East Boston Neighborhood Health Center
Alden Caldwell, Sports Health Coordinator
East Boston Community Health Center
10 Gove Street
East Boston, MA 02128
Boston ICO group since 6/2005
Ages and Ethnicities: middle and high school, predominantly Hispanic
Mission: The program provides a diverse array of fitness opportunities and
healthy living guidance to youth from the East Boston area.
Participants are screened by body mass index (BMI) and those over a certain
BMI are given priority for the program.
Project Health- Sportnut Boys Program and Fitnut Girls Program
Javier Velle SCICO since 1/2003
Matt Leiszler [African American and Hispanic]
1 Boston Medical Center
Dowling South, Room 301
Boston, MA 02118
617-610-4981
Project Health's Sportnut and Fitnut programs are run by Boston Medical
Center, they are community programs to help youth with learning healthier
lifestyle choices. It is an after-school program that the youth participate
in to learn about nutrition and to exercise. Most of the youth that are in
this program suffer from health ailments related to poor nutrition and lack
of exercise.
Teen Center at St. Peter's
Paulo De Barros SCICO since 5/2003
Teen Center at St. Peter's [Cape Verdean]
284 Bowdoin Street
Dorchester, MA 02122
617-287-1150 x106
The Teen Center encompasses educational, enrichment, leadership development
and recreational activities for adolescents. They have two programs, The
After School Program, focuses on homework help, specialized and remedial
tutoring, SAT prep, College prep, job readiness, adolescent development
issues, teen council, community service, counsellors in training and
recreational activities: The Summer Enrichment Program, also offers a New
Arrivals Group, which helps youth that are newly arrived immigrants, along
with the above mentioned programs.
Zumix
Madeline Steczynski SCICO since 4/1997
202 Maverick Street [Heterogeneous population]
East Boston, MA 02128
617-568-9777
www.zumix.org
Zumix was founded in 1991, near Maverick Square in East Boston to give
neighborhood youth training in music composition, performance and production
free of charge. Its mission"to build community through the arts" has been
phenomenally successful as a constructive outlet for strong positive,
negative and conflicted feelings in a neighborhood of instability. In 1996,
Zumix programs served over 230 youth and 100 adults, while its summer
concert series "Music in Maverick Square" attracted a total audience of over
4000. Zumix offers practice, recording and performance facilities and five
core programs: The Street Program, where youth compose and produce their own
music for citywide concerts: The Warmth Program, where young people connect
with seniors in the community to learn popular songs from the past, and
perform at nursing homes: Adventures in Music, offering music instruction:
Music Mentors, providing professional mentoring for young musicians; and
Z-Tech, a 6 month technical training program for audio, visual and computer
technology.
© 2004-2010 Sierra Club, Inner City Outings
For more information, please contact