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Overview
Brockton’s Promise is modeled after the national initiative America’s Promise-The Alliance for Youth. America’s Promise was founded in 1997, when all the living Presidents gather in Philadelphia to talk about what children and youth need to grow up happy and successful. Together with business and faith leaders, community partners, parents and youth, they created the Five Promises – Caring Adults, Safe Places, Healthy Start, Effective Education and Opportunities to Help Others. Research conducted by the Search Institute suggests that the more promises we fulfill for a child, the less likely he is to engage in risky behaviors, like dropping out of school or drug use.
In 1999, the Brockton Blueprint Coalition began looking at different frameworks for addressing youth issues. The Blueprint Coalition consists of the area directors of the State Health and Human Service agencies, as well as representatives from local and county government. After reviewing a number of models, they chose America’s Promise for is strong research, but simple language. The Five Promisesare easy to understand and at the time created the common language Brockton needed to talk about youth issues.
After a lot of planning, Brockton’s Promise kicked off in the Winter of 2003 with over 150 community members attending an event at the Shaw’s Conference Center. It was at this meeting that Brockton formed Five Promise Teams. Each team was charged with helping to fulfill their promise for Brockton youth. Three years later, the entire management structure has been reorganized to help strengthen leadership and communication. Today, there are six agencies (MA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Community Connections of Brockton, Mayors After-School Taskforce, Healthcare of Southeastern MA, Inc., Massasoit Community Collegeand Stonehill College) that host our Promise Teams. These agencies provide the administrative leadership that is essential to sustainability. In addition, they attend monthly Steering Committee meetings to discuss joint projects and common goals. Partners on the Steering Committee have been able to leverage almost $400,000 in grant and private funding for youth related initiatives.
All Brockton’s Promise Steering Committee and Promise Team meetings are open to the public. We invite you to join us.
More Information
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