Youth Programs

Robinson Gardens Youth Group members Jose Gonzalez, Abo Moge, Youth Engagement Coordinator Jimmie Mitchell and Joshua Rivera are committed to keeping teens involved.

Robinson Gardens Apartments is the place to be on Monday afternoons for teens, now that the YEAH! Network’s Teen Leadership Training Program has found a home there for the next several months.

The YEAH! (Youth Engagement Adolescent Health) Network provides leadership, health awareness and future job and education planning skills to youth in Springfield and Holyoke. This year, the Springfield branch will be located at the Springfield Housing Authority family development in the Pine Point section of the city.

On a recent Monday, two dozen teens packed into Robinson’s Community Room as Jonencia Wood of YEAH! introduced herself and outlined the program, which promises leadership training, healthy choice learning and fun.

Jonencia Wood of the YEAH! Network explains the program to youth at Robinson Gardens Apartments.

“We’re here to give you a voice, and help you see what you can do with that voice,” Wood explained. “We’re about advocacy, making good health decisions and focusing on leadership.”

For the young residents, the message sounded all good.

“It sounds great,” said 14-year-old Michelle Velez. “I’m looking forward to it. I’ll definitely be here on Monday afternoons.”

Velez, an eighth-grader at the Renaissance School, said she hopes the program will help steer her to educational as well as job success. The events schedule sounds fine, too.

YEAH! Network officials came to the development with assistance from the Robinson Gardens Youth Group, formed last year as part of SHA’s involvement with the Talk/Read/Succeed! program. T/R/S! is funded with a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, managed by the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation to promote family literacy.

SHA Youth Engagement Coordinator Jimmie Mitchell said he welcomed the program to Robinson Gardens as soon as he heard about it.

“We know this will be a good thing for our young people, and we want as many involved as possible. Leadership skills? Great. Health education? Great. Just having them get together in a positive way is going to be great,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell canvassed Robinson Gardens several times with his own Youth Group, including Jack Towles, Jose Gonzalez, Joshua Rivera, and Abo Moge. All agreed they are looking forward to the new program, and hope to lure as many young people as possible to the Monday afternoon events.

As project coordinator, Wood will help run the weekly sessions at Robinson. The curriculum for the program is evidence-based, modeled after the Wyman Teen Outreach Program of the Wyman Institute for Teen Development. Part of the program focuses on pregnancy prevention, in a city where about a fifth of births each year are to teens aged 15 to 19.

Workshops and sessions will focus on leadership and health, and will include a retreat, attending and participating in health advocacy events, acting as hosts of a ‘Night at the Clinic’ at Tapestry Health Center, developing activities and communication for a teen pregnancy prevention month in May. There will also be a visit with Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse.

YEAH! Network teams from Robinson Gardens and Holyoke will get together occasionally for socializing and working together on projects. At the end of the 26 weeks, each teen will get a certificate showing they completed leadership training.

Jack Towles and Jimmie Mitchell explain the YEAH! Network program to Robinson Gardens teen Richard Napolitan.

Robinson Gardens participants say they plan to stick with the program.

Kamila Garcia, a student at Central High School, said she believes leadership skills will help her with her goal to go to Westfield State University to study journalism and communication.

“It sounds really interesting. I like the leadership part of it. That’s always a good skill to have,” she said.

Seventeen-year-old Joseph Gonzalez said that when Jimmie Mitchell is involved with a youth program, it’s bound to be good.

“I always come to Mr. Mitchell’s group,” Gonzalez said. “He helps us, and he gives good advice. He’s always doing good things at Robinson.”