Programming

Engaged Institution Strategy

Roca has built creative collaborations with a wide variety of institutions that affect young people’s lives and infused them with hope and energy to increase our shared capacity for long-term positive change. Roca shares resources and builds trust to effect informal and formal changes in practices, procedures and policies. Our engaged institution strategy has allowed us to develop deep and rich local, national and international partnerships.

Our collaborators include government, state, education, religious, health, criminal justice and community organizations. Among Roca’s partners are: The Cities of Chelsea, Revere and Boston; Chelsea and Revere Public Schools; Chelsea and Revere Police Departments; Bunker Hill Community College; North Shore Community College; The Massachusetts Department of Youth Services; The Massachusetts Department of Social Services, The Suffolk County House of Corrections; The Chelsea/Revere District Court; Massachusetts General Hospital; The Columbian, Salvadoran and Guatemalan Consulates; MIRA; Employment Resources Inc.; Father Young Industries; and, a wide array of non-profits and other organizations.

The Engaged Institutions strategy is aimed at building relationships with organizations, institutions and systems in order to better support young people in achieving self sufficiency and living out of harm’s way. Specific examples of this work include: finding a counselor for a young adult who has slipped through the cracks; accessing medical coverage for an uninsured young person; clearing warrants in court; or developing pathways for success for young people in long-term suspension or expulsions. More complex examples with multiple layers include: gang intervention and public safety; positively impacting youth with CHINS (Children in Need of Services) cases; the challenge of youth and young adult employment; addressing the barriers facing refugees and immigrants; drop-out rates; intervention for high risk young adults; alternatives to suspension; youth courts; re-entry for ex-offenders; teen prostitution; and youth participation in governance and policy change.