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‘The work doesn’t stop and it can’t stop’: Teen Empowerment presses on after fire

“The power within those walls weren’t the walls themselves.”

The Teen Empowerment center in Dorchester suffered a fire in June. Boston Fire Department

June 24, 2020

4 minutes to read

On the evening of June 13, Miguel Cabrera got a call asking if he could check on the Teen Empowerment center on Balfour Street. It wasn’t an unusual request for the 20-year-old, who works as a program coordinator with the nonprofit focused on supporting youth empowerment. He lives nearby and describes himself as having “grown up” around the center, which works to help young people create change in their communities. But on June 13, the building at 21 Balfour St. was on fire. According to the Boston Fire Department, no one was injured in the blaze, but it resulted in an estimated $100,000 in damages. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

At approximately 7:30 pm a building fire at 21 Balfour St. Dor . There were no injuries to report and damages are estimated at 100,000. BFD-FIU investigating the cause of the fire. pic.twitter.com/LFUmAoV2md

— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) June 15, 2020

Teen Empowerment, which also has locations in Roxbury, Somerville, and Rochester, New York, had occupied the building, owned by Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, for almost 11 years.

“We are thankful that no one was injured and grateful for the outpouring of support we’ve received,” Stephanie Berkowitz, director of external relations for Teen Empowerment, told Boston.com. “We know that the space was really important to the community and especially to the youth who have worked there to build community over the last decade. We will continue that important work engaging youth as the leaders of efforts to create positive change in the neighborhood and we will work with Nuestra CDC to rebuild as quickly as we can.”

Cabrera, who started working with Teen Empowerment as a youth organizer in 2017, said when he arrived at the scene on the night of the fire, people were gathered around.

“They were like, ‘You know what’s crazy, this building brought us closer than anything else has ever done before,’” Cabrera told Boston.com. “Somebody said that — and they didn’t know I worked there — I turned around and was like, ‘Huh, that is so true.’”

Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, in recent months the center on Balfour Street has not been occupied the way it normally would be, he said. With COVID-19, it’s been mainly used by adult staff when needed, checking in.

Typically, the center would be the site of events and groups focused on Teen Empowerment’s mission of educating young people, by providing employment and training, to show them the power they have to create peace, equity, and justice in their communities. With the pandemic, group sessions have been happening virtually, Cabrera said.

But even though the building wasn’t serving the same functions with the pandemic, and now the fire, Cabrera said it’s clear the space is known and recognized for the work that took place there and the work that “will continue to happen regardless of if it’s there or not.”

That’s why the 20-year-old said he was surprised to find that seeing the building destroyed didn’t “hurt” him as much as he thought it would.

“It doesn’t really matter where the building is or what the building represents,” the 20-year-old said. “What matters more than that is the people that are working inside those buildings for the community. So people recognize that building as a space where you can be safe, where you can speak your mind and not be judged. And when it was on fire, it made us realize that it wasn’t the walls that protected us — it was the people working inside those walls. And the goals and the motivation and inspiration and everything — pretty much I’m trying to say the power within those walls, weren’t the walls themselves.”

Teen Empowerment has been established for almost 29 years, he pointed out, and the weight of its impact is evident in the youth, current and former, who continue to do the work of achieving peace and justice — whether or not they’re inside the nonprofit’s walls. Many of the organizers participating in protests against racism and police brutality are Teen Empowerment youth organizers, he said.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA6BJRAAg97/

It’s been incredible to see, the program coordinator said.

“Whether it be speaking at the protests, leading the protests, organizing the protests, the youth at Teen Empowerment are doing great,” he said. “They’re crazy in a good way. As a former youth organizer and now adult staff, I have to really back them up and help them in every single way possible. If it means picking somebody up if they can’t get home and dropping them off, then that’s something that every single Teen Empowerment staff is willing to do. As long as they’re safe and we can provide them with the resources and knowledge that they can use to educate people and use to be a force for change in the community, then we’ll do it.”

The work of Teen Empowerment can’t — and won’t — stop just because of the fire, Cabrera said.

Everyone is moving forward with the work.

“The work doesn’t stop and it can’t stop,” the 20-year-old said. “We literally have no time to stop and worry about the walls. We just have to keep moving forward — that’s Teen Empowerment for you.”

For adult staff and youth staff, it’s their livelihood to continue to talk about racism and violence in the community and how they can achieve change.

“Yesterday was a good day to talk about those things — today would be a great day to talk about those things, but most importantly, today would be a great day to solve those things,” Cabrera said. “So if there’s not a solution, how do we create that solution? And we won’t come to a solution if we stop.”

The nonprofit is accepting donations both through its website and on Facebook to assist with its programming.