Center for Teen Empowerment

The Center for Teen Empowerment empowers youth and adults as agents of positive individual, institutional, and social change. We envision a world in which youth, including those of highest risk, work with adults in mutually respectful and supportive relationships, to use their voices creatively to inspire, lead, and empower their communities to achieve justice and peace.

Since 1992, TE has engaged young people as leaders of efforts to turn their peers away from violence, gangs, and drugs, and toward positive community involvement. Working in Boston and Somerville, MA and in Rochester, NY, TE employs low-income, urban teens to identify the most pressing issues in their communities and to develop a strategy to address those issues. Each year, more than 80 TE youth organizers conduct over 150 initiatives that involve over 5,000 youth, residents, public officials, and police in efforts to build peace, tolerance, and community. In addition, TE provides consulting and training to help other service providers adapt our methods for use in their own programs.