TEEP Recognized as a Top Massachusetts College Access Program
Posted by Louise Packard on Fri, Sep 24, 2010
This past September 11, I spent the morning with members of Team Trinity training for the Rodman Ride. It was lovely, with perfect weather and wonderful companions who fixed my bicycle seat and gave me extra water. And even as I was delighting in the ride, I was also thinking about the equally beautiful day nine years ago when the planes crashed and the towers fell. To all of you who lost friends, family and/or colleagues on that day, my heart is with you.
Seems like this is how it always goes in our life together -- the highs and the lows demanding that we hold them at the same time. Last week was no exception.
A Cambridge-based organization, Root Cause, studied 50 college access programs in Massachusetts and announced its selection of TEEP and six other organizations as recommended for philanthropic investment. You can read the entire study on TEEP here. Hearty congratulations to Paul Bowen, to the TEEP students, staff and faculty, and to all of you who have provided the funds and the volunteer hours to help TEEP grow.
As we celebrate this milestone for TEEP, we are also grieving. Lakeem Toombs, who participated in Street Potential a couple years ago, and Virgilio Dipre, a young man Nate knew through his work at DYS, both died of gunshot wounds in the last week. Earlier this summer, a Street Potential alum many of us know well was shot in the jaw. Our sorrow brings with it lots of questions – including how to make more of a difference with the Foundation’s resources and in partnership with others. Over the summer, the Foundation staff and Board has been reading a book by Father Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart, which chronicles the author’s work in the midst of a violence-filled neighborhood in Los Angeles. I don’t know where those conversations will go, but I am sure that the themes of violence, trauma and resilience will be central to our work this year.
Through all the highs and lows, I am grateful to be part of this Trinity Boston Foundation community. And I hope to see many of you on September 30th at our Fall Dinner. Thank you to all who have offered to host the tapas parties or bring dessert to Trinity following (still looking for a few more volunteers!).