SSYP BRIDGE Trips

This fundraiser is for St. Stephen's Youth Programs (SSYP) in the South End of Boston. SSYP was founded by Tim Crellin -- the Vicar of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church -- in 2000.  Tim continues to lead SSYP today.  Kasey Boston, the Director of Youth Development at SSYP for the last five years, has been the lead staff person in charge of organizing and fundraising for these trips. 

The students and staff going on the BRIDGE trips who are sharing and supporting this campaign will use the funds directly for the two trips. At the close of the campaign, all funds will be transferred to the SSYP operating account.

BRIDGE Trips: The purpose of the BRIDGE (Building Relationships; Investing in Domestic and Global Experiences) program is to provide teens with the opportunity to engage in new experiences, including travel, college and career exposure, service-learning, and cultural enrichment. This year we have two week long trips that students can apply for, one during February break and one during April break.

College & Career Trips: This February break, 11 High School students and 4 SSYP staff will be travelling to Western, Massachusetts, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia for a College and Career trip focused on exposing students to the variety of opportunities and paths that exist for them after high school. The group will be visiting seven different colleges, meeting with professionals from a variety of fields, meet with the Obama Foundation, visit the African American History Museum, and partner with CARECEN (The Central American Resource Center) in D.C. in order to do a service project with other teens. 

This April break 15 teens and  5 SSYP staff will travel to North Carolina for the 5th year in a row. The group will participate in a service learning trip, where they will learn about rural poverty, Appalachian culture, and the coal industry. They will be performing home repairs and creating new, affordable housing for community members. The group has the opportunity to hike on the Appalachian trail, go white water rafting, eat local cuisine, and dance and sing along to the banjo music with the locals.  We look forward to deepening our continued relationships  with the Madison County community during this trip.

The money donated to the BRIDGE trips will help the groups to cover the costs of travel, lodging, food, service project supplies and cultural enrichment activities.  Your donations are what make these trips possible and provide service and travel opportunities to the teens!