Blackstone.

Storytelling & Advocacy

With funding from the Boston Foundation, the Activist Lab engaged members of the BCYF-Blackstone Community Center in a project called “Neighborhood Empowerment through Storytelling and Advocacy.”  We worked with adolescents to teach them the skills to craft and tell stories of their personal experiences, describing their accomplishments and the challenges they face. On October 30, 2019, the students presented their stories to friends, family, and members of the Blackstone and Boston University communities in a storytelling showcase. In the second phase of the project, we will work with community members to use their stories to inform advocacy activities to improve the health of their communities.

BU Fitwell Center

The FitWell Center is a gym at the Blackstone Community Center funded and staffed by Boston University. It serves as a focal point for collaborative work among Sargent College, BU School of Social Work and BU School of Public Health. Students have the opportunity to complete practica, contribute to the functioning of the FitWell Center, and interact with and learn about the community.

Salsa In The Park

A free and popular outdoor summer series for all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, Salsa In The Park is an innovative community engagement project that transforms public space for public benefit through music, dance and education. A public health initiative, featuring movement as a key to wellness, it draws over 500 people from all walks of life every Monday evening from 6 pm to 9 pm for salsa instruction (dance and percussion), high-quality performances showcasing a variety of cultures and genres, social dancing and health and wellness promotion. Salsa In The Park is held weekly in the Blackstone Community Center courtyard every summer.

One Hood Youth Peace Basketball League

Uniting South End and Lower Roxbury teenagers since 2007, the One Hood Youth Peace Basketball League recruits players from rival neighborhoods that share a history of conflict. In 2009, league organizers began using a new strategy to defuse the tension: placing teens from different neighborhoods on the same team. Now, kids from the Cathedral housing development play with kids from Villa Victoria. Teens from Lenox Street shoot hoops with teens from Castle Square Apartments, racing across a court as they shoot balls instead of bullets.

This league has proved to have the power of bringing people together and fighting harmful stereotypes. “When people think about the word ‘hood’ it has a negative connotation. Although we live in a poor neighborhood, our reality is not always negative, there’s also something beautiful within that crack,” says one of the league participants. “And when we come together it’s not just for basketball it’s also to communicate and for entertainment. If there is ever any tension, it’s always left on the court, rather than with guns, knives, or even physical altercations.”