The Southwest Boston CDC’s Hyde Park Green Team summer youth jobs and environmental awareness program, funded by the Boston Youth Fund, the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, and State Street Foundation, provides jobs and skills training, and environmental education for up to 15 Hyde Park youth ages 15-17. In 2010 the Green Team’s activities included clean-up and beautification of the Cleary and Logan Square business district in Hyde Park; clean-up and landscaping at the Dell Rock and Sherrin Woods Urban Wilds in Hyde Park; and lily harvesting for Hyde Park Main Streets. Participants attend trainings, workshops, and field trips focused on various topics geared toward “greening” and sustainability including: basic bike maintenance; bike safety; landscaping; trail building; green building design; and water quality sampling and testing.

Other ‘soft skills’ training sessions and educational components include a career preparation workshop which provided instruction and practice in resume writing; and a two-part workshop on financial fitness focusing on financial literacy and responsibility. Green Team members use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation to and from work sites in order to practice an alternative form of “green” transportation. A major new feature last year was creation of a short video of the Green Team’s work, Educate, Engage, Evolve which explains the program’s mission and goals and chronicles the Green Team experience in the members’ own words.