Watch out! Teen Activists Coming Through!

The Teens Lead at Work program, armed with four new peer leaders embarked on a mission. Their mission: prevent a decrease to the funding for Massachusetts after-school and out-of-school programs, and to support 1199SEIU’s efforts to restore patient services that were recently eliminated in a series of drastic funding cuts to Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance. The TL@W peer leaders led the way in calling attention to the programs that support the young people of Massachusetts, as well as, workers who are impacted deeply by the budget cuts.

TL@W attended a rally put on by partner organization, 1199SEIU, along with a crowd of nearly a thousand patients, caregiver and advocates at the Boston Common earlier this month, challenging Governor Deval Patrick to restore the patient services to the facilities that serve the region’s poorest, sickest people.  In addition, the peer leaders have been hard at work talking with legislators about the consequences of funding cuts to BMC and CHA.

The peer leaders not only spoke to their legislators about healthcare workers/patients issues, they also took full advantage of Advocacy Day at the State House. TL@W joined over 400 after-school and out-of-school time providers, families, policymakers and stakeholders at the state house to celebrate their achievements and most importantly, to tell legislators that programs such as TL@W are essential for young people!

Advocacy Day was just the beginning. TL@W is preparing to continue their efforts through one-on-one meetings with their legislators, emphasizing the value of after-school and out-of-school programs until the budget for FY2010 is released.