Dreamers Fellowship

Summary

The Dreamers Fellowship is a leadership development and work preparedness program for Boston’s undocumented immigrant youth. The participants are paired with local immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations to gain hands-on experience and acquire life skills. This fellowship has provided leadership development and work-readiness experience to more than 450 immigrant youth “Dreamers” by placing them at one of 10 immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations or 2 Boston Public Schools to support COVID-19-related food and basic needs assistance. Each Dreamer received an average stipend of $1,500 for their participation. This is one of the only programs Dreamers (immigrant youth who entered the U.S. as minors and have limited access to programs that are essential to their economic and social inclusion) are eligible for to gain critical hands-on work experience and readiness skills and mentorship for professional growth while earning a stipend towards their professional development in the City of Boston.

Impact

The Dreamers Fellowship provides leadership development and professional skills attainment opportunities for Boston Dreamers (immigrant youth who entered the U.S. as minors and have limited access to programs that are essential to their economic and social inclusion). The program model ensures immigrant youth attain 21st-century skills to succeed when they enter the workforce by offering work readiness, life skills and mentoring development training. Since its inception, there has been an impact evaluation conducted by the nonprofit partners to assess the effectiveness and impact of the program in youth and to gather information on how to improve the program. 

Lessons learnt

1. The Dreamers Fellowship was the result of a strong collaboration between the City of Boston and non-profit organizations. We also consulted with other municipalities that had created similar programs and used that information as a framework when developing this program. Knowing that other municipalities had successfully run a  similar program served as a proof of concept to bring on board other municipal agencies and collaborators.
2. The creation of this program shed light on the lack of work readiness opportunities for undocumented youth. Since its inception the program has significantly grown and there’s too much interest and not enough resources to be able to meet the demand. The first iterations of the Dreamers Fellowship did not have stable funding, and it was difficult to expand the program. We are hoping to resolve this issue by permanently funding the program in the City’s operating budget to ensure its stability and potential continued growth.