The Hyde Square Task Force has frequently been recognized for its work in youth development and community building. Our youth have also been recognized for their dedication to creating a brighter future for themselves and those around them.
2008
The Hyde Square Task Force wins the Jamaica Plain Gazette's 'Best of JP 2008: Non-Profit' award. Winners were selected by JP Gazette readers.
Click here to view the list of winners and nominees.
Chrismaldi Vasquez, the Coordinator of Organizing and Policy Initiatives at HSTF, was one of 15 women to graduate from the first Emerge Massachusetts training program for Democratic women candidates and officials.
Click here to read more about Chrismaldi and Emerge.
Angeiris Encarnacion, a youth leader in the Hyde Square Task Force's Ritmo en Acción dance program, was selected to receive the 2008 Massachusetts Arts Education Collaborative Award for Outstanding Student Leader.
Click here to read more about this award.
Brenda Rodriguez-Andújar, the Director of School-based and Cultural Programs, and Nashira Baril, Vice-President of the Hyde Square Task Force's Board of Directors and Director of the REACH Center of Excellence at the Boston Public Health Commission, were both honored by the Boston Celtics with the Heroes Among Us Award for their exceptional and lasting contributions to our community.
2007
The Hyde Square Task Force was named a Coming Up Taller winner for its Ritmo en Acción Afro-Latin and contemporary dance program. The Coming Up Taller award, given by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, is the nation's highest honor for out of school arts and humanities programs. Youth and adult representatives of the program traveled to Washington, D.C. for a ceremony where they performed and accepted the award, presented at the White House by first lady Laura Bush.
2006
HSTF’s Ritmo en Acción Youth Dance Troupe was recognized as a Coming Up Taller Semi-finalist by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. This distinction placed HSTF among the top 50 arts and humanities-based programs for youth during their out of school hours.
Our Youth Community Organizers received a Founder’s Award from Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE).
A 2006 Reader's Poll by the Jamaica Plain Gazette recently named the Hyde Square Task Force as "Jamaica Plain's Best Non-Profit."
The Harvard Family Research Project recognized HSTF’s after school programs, praising our “High levels of family engagement and… a clear commitment to families and communities.”
2005
In February 2005, the Hyde Square Task Force was recognized by Boston's After School For All Partnership for excellence in the category of "Teen Leadership & Achievement."
In 2005, Executive Director Claudio Martinez was chosen as a Fellow by The Barr Foundation. The 2005 Barr Fellows Program honors the contributions of twelve of the most gifted and experienced nonprofit leaders in Boston.
Also in 2005, The Philanthropic Initiative and Mayor Thomas M. Menino presented seven Bostonians, including HSTF's Jesús Gerena, with the 'Boston Neighborhood Fellows Award,' in recognition of the power of the individual to make a difference. As the leader of the Youth Organizing Initiative at Hyde Square Task Force, Jesús was recognized as "an inspirational organizer who has mobilized hundreds of local teens to participate fully in the plans to redevelop their neighborhood."
The Hyde Square Task Force Youth Community Organizers (YCOs) were presented with a community leadership award before an audience of several hundred local residents at the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation's 2005 Annual Meeting. State Senator Diane Wilkerson, the keynote speaker at the event, also praised the HSTF youth organizers
Bentley College named Youth Organizer Lashay Shepard as one of the TOMORROW 25. Chosen from hundreds of nominations from around the world, the 25 winners received national recognition at the inaugural Bentley Leadership Forum in cooperation with TIME magazine. The Tomorrow 25 students also appeared in a national ad in TIME magazine as part of Bentley's national campaign.
A 2005 Reader's Poll by the Jamaica Plain Gazette named the Hyde Square Task Force as "Jamaica Plain's Best Non-Profit" for the third time.
The Boston Public Health Commission awarded HSTF youth a Public Health Hero Award in 2005 for their work in promoting the new Tobacco Health Ordinance.
2001-2004
In 2004, HSTF’s Coalition to Educate, Mobilize and Vote! received a “Good City Civic Leadership Award” from the Boston Foundation.
Since 2000, our teens have helped to mobilize hundreds of area youth and adults in the planning process regarding a $200 million urban development project proposed for vacant land on the Roxbury/Jamaica Plain border. A Request for Proposals on behalf of this development, released in July 2004 by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, states: “Several hundred youth from the Greater Jackson area participated in community meetings…the level of youth participation in this development is unprecedented in recent history.”
The Hyde Square Task Force was featured in 2003’s United Way of Massachusetts Bay promotion materials, where it was stated that HSTF is a “cutting edge” agency whose impact “on one of Boston’s largest youth populations is palpable.” The UWMB also chose to feature in many of its marketing materials former Youth Community Organizer Leonardo Peguero.
2000 and earlier
Our Youth Community Organizers won the “2000 Progressive Leadership Award” from the Commonwealth Coalition.
In 1999, HSTF received the City Excellence Award in the category of “Innovations in Education” from the Boston Management Consortium. In an article describing this award, Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools Payzant stated: “This inspiring collaboration has brought together every party with a stake in the community’s well-being. This is a leadership model that we would like to see repeated throughout Boston.”
The Boston Educator, a publication of the Boston Public Schools, featured our Youth Literacy Tutors Program at the Kennedy School, stating that the Hyde Square Task Force “is fast becoming a model of the ways that a school and community can work together to improve the lives of everyone in the neighborhood.”
Photo Credits: Carol Palmer c 2003 www.BrilliantPictures.com