Bringing SSYP Values to Public Institutions

By Liz Steinhauser, Senior Director of Community Engagement, SSYP

The pandemic has taken a toll on our public institutions. We don’t need to tell you that! It has been harder to see our friends without safe-from-the-virus public transportation. It has been tough to gain knowledge when our public libraries are closed. It has been more difficult to get recompense with our public courts not operating at full capacity. And it has been challenging to enact our public values in the absence of these public institutions. 

SSYP Parent Organizer Yrmaris talking with Blackstone School parents about COVID safety and SSYP’s Parent Mentor Program (September 2021)

The motivating values at St. Stephen’s Youth Programs (SSYP) are – and have long been – love, mercy, and hope. For SSYP, love means we welcome and include everyone in our circle of community. We demonstrate mercy by treating each other with compassion, giving people more chances when they have hurt us and making amends when we are the ones who have caused harm. Hope is built at SSYP by helping young people and teens imagine their future and build the skills they need to make those dreams a reality. We are a public institution, too, and these are the public values we strive – even, and perhaps especially, in a pandemic – to put forth into the world.

Love, mercy, and hope are also the public values SSYP’s parent organizers have been encouraging within the Boston Public Schools. At all of our partner schools, where we have students enrolled in our B-READY Afterschool Programs, parents working as mentors in classrooms, and volunteers running the school library, we care about everyone in the community. 

More than 60 parents advocating for safe COVID protocols with BPS School Committee President, Jeri Robinson (January 2022)

To show love, we have been advocating for a set of policies and protocols that will keep ALL the students and staff in the schools safe. For example, SSYP parent leaders have been organizing with MassCOSH for clean and healthy air in the school buildings, including long-term investments of funds to improve ventilation, a problem that precedes the COVID crisis. 

Working with FamCOSA, we have been pushing for mercy by asking the Commonwealth’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to understand that families have different circumstances and need choices, including the option of virtual learning. Championing effective COVID testing protocols that are equitable across schools is another way SSYP is providing options for families, by making sure that in-person learning is safe for all. 

Suleika Soto testifying in front of DESE (January 2022)

We work to keep hope alive by supporting the mental health of students, staff, and families. It takes money for enough school social workers, nurses, and counselors to address the trauma and grief of pandemic losses. SSYP parent leaders are pushing for increased budgets at our schools and speaking out on how district-wide federal funds for pandemic relief should be allocated. 

For SSYP families, the impact and pain of the pandemic remains acute. Families are still experiencing under-employment, food insecurity, housing challenges, and crises of health. Nevertheless, SSYP parents are actively modeling what it means to be public leaders for public values that will bring health and wholeness for ALL of us. 

To learn more or to support our next advocacy event, contact liz@ssypboston.org