BAM Boston
(Pictured left to right): National BAM Director AJ Watson, Youth Guidance Board Chair John Raitt, Executive Director of BAM Boston Shawn Brown, & Senior BAM Curriculum Specialist Marshaun Bacon.
Cities across the United States have expressed interest in exploring and bringing BAM to local school districts. After a careful mutual selection process with Boston Public Schools, in 2017, Youth Guidance announced its piloting of the BAM program in the city of Boston!
The pilot program, now expanding to more schools, seeks the same nationally-recognized outcomes, for young men of color at risk for poor academic outcomes and/or involvement in the juvenile justice system, as BAM has achieved in Chicago. Research by the University of Chicago Crime Lab has found that BAM reduces violent crime arrests by 50% and increases on-time high school graduation rates for youth in under-resourced communities.
Under the leadership of BAM Boston Executive Director Shawn Brown, BAM is now serving about 150 young men at the English High School, the Jeremiah Burke High School & Dearborn STEM Academy shared campus and the John O’Bryant School of Mathematics. Future plans include expansion to nine Boston schools by the 2019-20 academic year to support more than 450 young men.
BAM Boston is made possible through a wonderful partnership with Boston Public Schools and with philanthropic support from Strategic Grant Partners (SGP), The GreenLight Fund and the Boston Foundation. To ensure sustainability, a BAM-Boston Advisory Council has also been implemented. Each council member has a strong desire be actively involved in solving the issues inner-city youth face, and will devote his or her time, talent and expertise to the current and future work of the Boston program. Members include:
Thaddeus Miles, Director of Community Housing, MassHousing (Chairman)
Kate Barrett, Director of Development Strategy, Upstream
Turahn Dorsey, Former Chief of Education, City of Boston
Emerson Foster, VP, Human Resources, Sodexo
Latoya Gayle, Phenomenal Moms, Boston Public Schools
Matt Hamilton, Managing Director, Summit Partners
Conan Harris, Director My Brother’s Keeper, City of Boston
Hon. Leslie Harris Retired Judge, Massachusetts Trial Courts
Allan Kiser, VP and Compliance Officer at Fidelity Investments
Melissa Luna, Executive Director, GreenLight Fund
Makeeba McCreary, Managing Dir. & Senior Advisor for External Affairs, Boston Public Schools
William Morales Commissioner of BCYF, City of Boston
Barbara Sullivan, Director of Education, Strategic Grant Partner
Building upon Youth Guidance’s BAM program’s success last year, we have now launched into two new Boston schools: East Boston High School and Tech Boston Academy. As a result, BAM is growing to serve 300 students, we call scholars, across Boston’s Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and East Boston neighborhoods during the 2018-19 school year. And to deepen BAM’s impact, Boston Public Schools recently announced a two-year funding commitment that will grow to serve 450 students by 2020. Great news!
The BAM Boston team is supported by the Youth Guidance National Office in Chicago which includes the BAM Training Academy and the areas of Program Evaluation, Finance, Human Resources, IT, Communications and Development