In December, 2009, Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office received nearly $1.5 million in settlements funds from drug companies Merck Vioxx, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer. Now, almost two years later, the benefits from those funds are showing in Dorchester’s community centers.

The funds, which were earmarked to go toward programs that promote health, were distributed to some Dorchester centers including the Catholic Charities Teen Center at St. Peter’s Parish on Bowdoin Street, and the Bird Street Community Center on Columbia Road.

The goal of the funds was to provide employment opportunities for youth and to curb neighborhood violence. The local programs have been successful in sending its members to college, also.

“As we have unfortunately seen funding for youth jobs dwindle during this difficult economy, it is more important than ever that we find additional ways to support these programs and invest in our children,” Coakley said in a 2010 statement.

Teen employment reached a low of 30 percent in 2009, the year the funds were allocated. A report by the Center for Market Labor Studies at Northeastern University pegged the teen employment rate at about 5 percent.

“These youth jobs offer teens an opportunity to work as part of a team, to give back to their community, and to help support themselves and their families,” Coakley said. “As we head into the summer months, these jobs also help get kids off the streets and offer positive alternatives to violence.”

In addition to providing employment opportunities to youth, the Catholic Charity Center at St. Peter’s has made education a high priority for its students as well. This year, 28 of the 29 seniors at the St. Peter’s program will be graduating high school and 27 of them will be going to a four-year college or a two-year college with the intent to transfer to a four-year college. One of the students was selected as a finalist in the United Way’s Marian L. Heard Scholarship.