The Center for Teen Empowerment recognizes that before its participants can grow, their most basic needs, like hunger, must be met.
“I have this little thing with our director, Shanterra Mitchum,” jokes Sahiyra Dillard, associate program coordinator and former youth organizer research assistant at The Center for Teen Empowerment. “I tell her I’m coming for her job. I’ve got high goals, and she knows she better watch her back. Shanterra has been here for quite a while. She started as a youth organizer, like me, and then she became an assistant. Now she’s program director. She’s made a perfect path for me to follow!”
Dillard first found The Center for Teen Empowerment though Facebook and met with Mitchum for her initial interview four years ago. Since then, her confidence has grown in myriad ways, as have her dreams for what her future may hold. “Teen Empowerment helped shaped my life by making me want more. I was 14 years old when I found the organization, and as soon as I got my work permit, my first job was at Teen Empowerment,” says Dillard. “I’ve just gone step by step each year, learning and growing. It’s made me recognize how huge and how successful my future can be.” Dillard’s work at Teen Empowerment allows her to participate in ground research, studying topics such as youth violence and homicides in her community. “It’s just such interesting work that even when it does become hard, it still pushes me to want to know more,” Dillard adds. “There could be so much happening that a young person might never know about. I like being in a position where I can learn and just continue to grow.”
Since 1992, The Center for Teen Empowerment has employed, trained, and emboldened local youth to create peace, equity, and justice in their community. The organization’s Rochester, New York, branch has been open for more than 20 years and Mitchum has been there almost from the beginning. “I started off as a youth organizer in the program 18 years go. I remember getting a flyer for a Peace Conference that we do every year,” says Mitchum. “I walked into the auditorium and there were young people who looked like me on the stage, and they’re talking about history. They’re talking about poverty, they’re talking about violence. They were talking about all the things that not only impact me, but the things that I cared about. So, I applied for a job. I was only 16. I’ve basically been here ever since, working in every position.”
Teen Empowerment is a neighborhood-based agency and works strategically to move into communities that they recognize could benefit from youth programming and youth development. Most of their hires are between the ages of 14 and 19 and will spend their time looking at the issues they’re facing in their own communities—issues including addiction, racism, poverty, education, and mental health.
“We’re not a service provider,” explains Mitchum. “We hire young people and pay them to create change. But we’ve also realized that this specific demographic of young people couldn’t come in and look at the issues and talk about the issues and discuss change in the community because they were hungry. They needed some services.” To help with this, Teen Empowerment recently launched a new program—the Reconnections project—to provide more support and services to young people, helping with everything from school reenrollment to healing and skill-building.
“Because our model isn’t service based, we have to partner with local organizations and lean heavily on them. Sometimes our youth are dealing with homelessness and we need to call upon The Center for Youth, which provides temporary housing, or a participant has become a new parent and we reach out to Fatherhood Connection to support them,” says Mitchum. “We also call on our community partners to do what we call our Friday forums, which are geared toward financial literacy, sex education, mental health, and wellness.” Teen Empowerment’s goal is to change the lives of as many Rochester at-risk youth as possible, and they recognize that by partnering with other organizations they can expand their reach and impact.
As for Dillard, Mitchum thinks her future is bright and wide open. “It’s such a beautiful thing for a young person to dream so big. She’s on the right trajectory within the organization, and she’s doing all of this stuff that I couldn’t have even imagined at her age. She says she wants my job, but I think she can surpass me!”