New teen group working for a better Milton

By NATHAN LAMB | Milton Independent Staff Writer
miltonreporter@yahoo.com

Teens from the Milton Youth Outreach Program helped spruce up the town reacreation park this past Sunday. Volunteers included: (top row, left to right) Chris Place, Debbie Harkins, Aaron Peters, Kristen Shaw, Dylan Shaw, Maggie Sullivan, Brian Hamel, Liza Duchesneau, Bridget Sullivan; (bottom row, left to right) Kym Duchesneau, Kim Dellinger, Nikki Jarvis, Terry Melton

Volunteering to improve a local park and distributing ribbons for Mothers Against Drunk Driving may not sound like activities in the typical teen weekend, but there’s a local group working to change that perception.

It’s called the Milton Youth Outreach program, and it’s all about getting school-aged teens involved with the community in a positive manner, said Kim Dellinger of the Milton Community Youth Coalition.

“I think oftentimes teens are associated with destructive patterns, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” she said, “This group is committed -- I think—to changing that image. They want people to be aware that teens can contribute.”

The group was launched by the coalition in September, following a summer retreat attended by 25 local teens, said Dellinger. Discussions at the retreat focused largely on issues that concern teens in Milton, and what could be done to make it a better place, she said.

While teens were asked what they’d like to see, the Youth Coalition was seeking feedback on how to retool its youth outreach group, which was previously known as Students Against Destructive Decisions.

That group’s focus was on advocating positive messages—such as smoking cessation. While that element has been retained, the new group has more of a local focus and emphasis on peer leadership, explained Dellinger.

“We kind of recreated the group, restructured it, and brought it a little bit closer to home,” she said

That includes the group being active in the community, which began just last weekend. The kids distributed ribbons for MADD at the Friday night football game on Oct. 19 and spent four hours weeding, painting, and doing general maintenance at the town’s recreation area on Middle Road on Oct. 21. Such activities figure to be a staple of the group’s mission, said Dellinger.

Aside from community service, the group is also designing a logo, which will likely appear on the website, miltonyouth.org.

In the long term, the group figures to be involved with advocacy to make Milton more teen-friendly, said Dellinger, who listed a public pool, movie theatre, and larger teen center among the wish list items discussed over the summer.

“They really want to see Milton grow and grow in good ways, and bring in some infrastructure that would be good for teens,” she said. They’d like to see a mall, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”

The group is open free-of-charge to teens from late elementary school though high school. The program is grant funded and offered through the coalition, which is currently a program of the Milton Family Community Center, but is working toward becoming a separate not-for-profit organization.
At this point, there’s 10 teens involved, and Terry Melton—who heads-up the group’s community outreach activities—said there’s plenty of room for more.

“It is very much teen driven,” she said. “They want people to know that the teens of Milton have ideas on how Milton can grow… and that the community and the youth can get together in ways that are positive and enriching for everybody.”

The group meets Monday nights from 5 to 6 at the teen space in the Milton Family Community Center. It can be contacted via phone at 893 1457.