Activists like @TeensTakeCharge are doing all they can to #savesyep. These are crucial $$$ for NYC children and families and they're needed NOW.

And there's more.
A short story about Harlem, summer youth work, learning, and life. /thread

In 1962-1964, a group of Harlem-based educators & social workers hired local youth as co-researchers, to study what their community needed and plan how to provide it.
Their work was widely distributed & became part of the basis for Kenneth Clark's bestselling *Dark Ghetto.*

The next summer, the program expanded - with students working in programs in the arts and dance, housing advocacy, childcare and community work, and more.
(I don't yet know the exact link, but this is at least one key precursor to SYEP's start in 1964).

I got to interview a few alumni, and what was striking was how much those summer jobs shaped their trajectory. They found the art form, or the mentors, or the work habits, that set them on a lifelong career path.

They told stories about what it felt like to do work they loved, to be in places where people held high expectations and supported them in meeting them, where they knew they were contributing in ways their community needed.

No claim that every student felt that way, or that every SYEP worker feels that way today. But some do, and that matters. This was learning, valuable if different than school.

#savesyep because $$$
AND
#savesyep because summer work can be a learning space.

[But if org's can't find the way to make the learning happen because of COVID, then just give the $$$].

More on that summer program called HARYOU here in the @eduharlem book …http://harlemeducationhistory.library.columbia.edu/book/chapters/07