Youth Guide Development Program
Multicultural Youth Tour of What's Now

Christina Tilghman leads the Know Thy Neighborhood tour in Boston’s South End.

Photo: Stephen Martineau

For more than seven years, Multicultural Youth Tour Of What's Now, or MYTOWN, has engaged residents and visitors of all ages in learning about Boston's neighborhoods. Karilyn Crockett's purpose in founding MYTOWN is evident in the name: The organization fosters increased civic participation by connecting young people to local history.

Each year, MYTOWN employs 40 Youth Guides who research, write, and lead walking tours of city neighborhoods. Residents share their stories of immigration and migration, activism, and service—often not documented anywhere else—with Youth Guides. Such prominent public historians as professors Robert Hayden, Northeastern University; James Green, University of Massachusetts, Boston; and Robert Allison, Suffolk University, train the youth guides to use library resources to research and create stories based on historical facts.

Youth Guides begin their work by learning more about their own heritage. Researching the stories of how their families came to Boston helps local teens find a connection to the city.

In addition, by learning about local links to national historic movements—such as the Union United Methodist Church, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad—MYTOWN students discover the strategic role that their hometown has played in American history.

After completing their research, MYTOWN participants teach the public what they have learned. By leading walking tours and taking part in other public education activities, they develop cultural competence and communications, critical thinking, and leadership skills. They learn to speak clearly and audibly, to ask and answer questions professionally, to interact as team members, and to show respect for people from different ethnic backgrounds-all important skills for becoming engaged, successful community members. For one-third of the Youth Guides, MYTOWN is a first, formative employment experience.

At the end of the 2002 program period, 100 percent of the Youth Guides reported that MYTOWN taught them local and national history that they had not learned in school or elsewhere. And 60 percent said that MYTOWN "challenged their negative perception of their neighborhoods by helping them understand and identify local community assets."

The MYTOWN experience is so well regarded that its curriculum has been selected as an official learning program for out-of-school programs supported by the City of Boston.