Last Friday, over 250 Dorchester teens convened at the Dorchester Neighborhood Service Center (NSC) cafeteria to commemorate their summer working in the ABCD summer jobs program.

The youth workers received their last paychecks for their summer jobs and were given certificates recognizing leadership, communication skills, and improvement over the summer.

The workers, who range in age from 14-23, worked at sites throughout the neighborhood for pay and received training in financial literacy from the center’s councilors throughout the six-week work period.
For Eric Mitchell, director of the Dorchester NSC, the take-away message for the teens is financial responsibility – learning not to spend more than you make.

“How many of you are going to save the money you made this summer?” Mitchell asked the students as several dozen hands sprung up throughout the crowd.

“Wealth is not how much you earn, it’s how much you save,” Mitchell said. “If you made a million dollars last week, but you spent one million and one dollars, you’re in the hole.”

Making money and learning to save it are not the only benefits offered by the summer job program. According to John Drew, president and CEO of ABCD, the program helps youths feel more connected to their community, their families, and their schools.

“A lot of these kids live in laces that are fairly scary,” Drew said. “Obviously, by being in a work environment and off the streets, their caregivers are more at ease.”

The job program also teaches how to dress for a job interview, how to interact with an employer, and how to settle conflicts in an office environment – skills necessary to thrive in the workplace.

Drew said he regrets that ABCD could not have taken more youth in this summer for the program. This year was a particularly competitive one with 6,000 program applicants for 1,200 spots throughout the city. Dorchester’s NSC was even more selective, with 250 youths picked from a pool of 1,563 applicants – a 15 percent acceptance rate. All the youth workers were picked by lottery.

Drew made a spirited appearance at last Friday’s commemoration, shaking hands with the workers as they received their checks and awards. Speaking at the event, Drew rallied the crowd asking, “Are you going to work in the winter? Going to stay in school? Going to go to college?” and receiving a united “yes!” to each of his questions that echoed down the hall.

Drew has high aspirations for the jobs program, which began in 1965. ABCD is one of the few employers of 14-year-olds in Boston, but Drew said he would like to extend the program down to help 11 to 13-year-olds find activities to do in the time they’re not in school.

“We want to catch kids and give them their first work experience,” he said. “It might be the only type of job they can find other than jobs we don’t want them to find.”

The Dorchester NSC is looking to further promote financial literacy in the community this fall with its tax return workshops and its senior financial workshops for those on fixed incomes. The message, however, remains the same and is one Mitchell believes is best instilled at an early age.

“Everyone has to know it,” he said. “It’s a lesson that’s applicable to everyone.”