Growing the Field

In a first-of-its-kind partnership, ENGAGE worked with Emerson College’s Engagement Lab, Niantic (the creators of Pokémon GO), and the city of Boston to engage youth in civic life through the most popular smartphone game of all time. Over 100 PokéStops (game locations) in the summer of 2017 were at stake for students to allocate where they saw fit! Youth were asked to go through the process of neighborhood exploration, identifying locations of personal or cultural import to select a location. Students then created submitted a 60-second video advocating for their location. A youth delegation decided which stops were permanently added to the game.

In 2016, we launched a campaign to saturate East Boston (a 46,000 neighborhood in the city of Boston) with the ENGAGE model. 1) With over 40 partner agencies, we are working with every single educator, parent, and youth workers to weave community member development into all existing schools and programs. 2) Through the East Boston Corps and service year members, we are ensuring that every young person has access to quality out of school time offerings. 3) We are launching a community campaign focused on all community members celebrating and involved in the success of the neighborhood’s young people.

ENGAGE is leading a process to define what it means to be a well-rounded community member. We need standards equivalent to what we have for Math and English Language Arts. We are also supporting legislation and coalitions in our various service regions.