Highlighting America’s 100 Best Communities for Young People
The 100 Best Communities for Young People competition honors outstanding efforts on behalf of young people by multiple sectors of communities. In cities, suburbs, small towns and counties across the country, this annual competition is leading communities to assess their efforts, work more effectively together for young people, and share best practices. Each week one of the 2007 100 Best Communities will be highlighted in the America’s Promise Bulletin and on our web site.
Bedford, Massachusetts
By Christopher Epps
Settled in 1640, Bedford is home to one of the nation’s oldest known surviving intact flags—on display at the Bedford Free Public Library. Bedford is fortunate to have developed a variety of one-on-one and small-group partnerships that are child and youth friendly. Within Bedford’s households, nearly 35 percent contain children under the age of 18.
This culturally diverse Boston suburb embraces its differences, exceeding state-mandated goals for affordable housing and spearheading efforts to support not only housing, but conservation and recreation as well. Bedford's youth policy, Blueprint for Youth, identifies gaps in meeting goals to support its children, and the resulting peer mentor program pairs high school mentors with middle school students.
In 2005, the findings of a youth behavior risk survey caught adults in Bedford by surprise. It revealed that 6 percent of their middle and high school youth reported having no one to talk to. The small percentage yielded a big reaction. The community listened. Within a short time the Youth Policy Task Force posted a youth-driven web site, and local officials launched a search for a teen center locale.
There are various established mechanisms to support youth leadership and give youth a voice in policy decisions in the Bedford community. Student government at the middle and high school levels afford youth regular opportunities to impact decision making at the schools while youth also sit on school councils with school administration and parent representatives.
In addition to offering opportunities for youth to lead, members of this community recognize that in order to be a good leader, he or she must be healthy. Consequently, health goes far beyond regular pediatrician visits but extends into daily life. Because of this, several initiatives have been created to impact daily habits such as the Board of Health’s Healthy Eating initiative encouraging schools, after-school programs and daycares to only serve healthy snacks. Other organizations promote mental health and family health through the Bedford Unplugged program which encourages families to participate in activities together rather than in front of a television or computer screen. In addition, the community’s recreational facilities provide multiple sports and other active programs targeting youth.
As resourceful New Englanders, the people of Bedford have learned to use partnerships to improve the lives of their children. Successful examples that led this community to become one of 100 Best include:
Bedford Business Education Alliance
(BBEA), a school/business collaboration, benefits youth at all levels by funding materials and projects outside the established budget. Since 2005, over $145, 000 has been distributed to fund pilot programs, enrichment, innovation and advanced technology.
Bedford Community Partnership
(BCP) works to promote, collaborate and partner strategies that nurture the physical, sociological, and emotional health of Bedford’s young people. All youth-serving organizations in Bedford are represented in the BCP, which has been instrumental in developing a youth web site and other initiatives such as the Bedford Families Unplugged program and an online town events calendar.
Community Partnership for Children
(CPC) is a community-based program funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education. The CPC’s mission focuses on securing the accessibility, affordability and availability of appropriate care and education for young people and families from diverse economic and cultural backgrounds, through a collaboration with all community resources. CPC includes a broad range of child care providers, early intervention specialists and community leaders including the librarian from the Bedford Public Library.