Who We Are

History

Roca means “rock” in Spanish. We are creating a foundation as solid as a rock for young people to change their lives through truth, trust, and transformation. Founded in 1988, Roca is a youth development organization committed to serving the most disenfranchised and disengaged young people ages 14-24 (street/court/gang involved; drop-outs; young parents; and refugees and immigrants) in the Greater Boston area including the communities of Chelsea, Revere, East Boston, and Charlestown, MA. Roca’s purpose is to relentlessly build relationships with high-risk young people and the institutions in their lives (criminal justice, child welfare, education, health, etc.). We provide the opportunities necessary for young people to live and succeed. Through intensive relationship building, Roca helps young people re-engage in society – moving them into educational, employment, and life skills programming.

Launched from a single grant from the Teen Challenge Fund of Massachusetts, a passionate group of young people and adults started Roca to address teen pregnancy prevention and violence in Chelsea. Roca has helped more than 15,000 young people make positive, profound changes in their lives, creating a nationally acclaimed model of transformational relationships as a vehicle for youth development, and pioneering effective local, regional, and national relationships with government, state, religious, health, and community partners.

While we have had a marked impact to date, we are at a very important point in our organizational life, where our model has become widely-recognized. Roca has evolved into an adaptive, effective, and entrepreneurial organization that has established a reputation for successful multi-cultural work with very high-risk young people, Roca’s work has elicited national attention from a variety of organizations seeking to serve and/or fund programming for high-risk youth. Roca receives ongoing requests for information about program design and implementation and is working with partner organizations and leadership to impact legislation to better serve these young people. Roca has been touted as a national best practice in youth transitional employment by many governments, advocates, and services providers, including the National Transitional Jobs Network, and has been sought after regionally, nationally, and internationally for its intervention model.

We are committed to rigor in outcomes, continuous learning from best practices, and excellence in our programming, staff development, management, and leadership. Now twenty, Roca has set the goals for the next horizon, facing new challenges and opportunities.