Bird Street Community Center

CONTACT:

500 Columbia Road
Dorchester, MA 02125
617-282-6110
www.birdstreet.org

Andrea Kaiser, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

Bird Street began in 1904 as a gym in Dorchester; today it is a thriving community center for Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, and Roxbury—grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, have histories of athletics at Bird Street. Over 95% of the youth in its programs are from low-income households, most headed by single mothers. In half, English is not the primary language; gangs and violence threaten everyone. Bird Street’s greatest challenge is to provide these young people with positive options and the skills to make healthy choices. One of its innovative programs is the Youth Arts Entrepreneurs Project. Launched in 2006 to provide work experience for high-risk middle-school girls, it proved so successful that a parallel project for boys began a year later; it now runs on three tracks serving 65 youth: Fashion Design and Dance Intensive for girls, and Glass Blowing for boys. Another winner is its growing Connections to College program, which enables 20 participants to live for six weeks on the Suffolk University campus, and another 50 students working at the Center during the school year, taking college-level courses. Bird Street’s licensed after-school and summer programs give working parents a haven for their children that is also educational. In its Peer Leadership and Sports Intern programs, older teenagers help younger children and learn responsibility doing it. Bird Street, in over a century, has never run a deficit, but they need your help to stay strong.

(2008: HUMAN SERVICES: Children & Youth)