Inspired by Our Mission
Since 1981, Roxbury Youthworks, Inc (RYI) has provided community-based non-residential services to youth and their families. Our mission is to help youth caught in cycles of poverty, victimization and violence successfully transition into adulthood.
RYI currently provides programming in seven different locations in Roxbury, Dorchester, Roslindale and Chelsea.
Guided by Our Principles
We bring our authentic selves and our core values to govern all agency-wide interactions and communication. These values inspire and guide our work:
Social Justice
Quality Relationships
Respect
Integrity
Community
Interested in learning more about our programs and how our principles guide our interactions?
Rooted in Our Rich History
Judge Julian Houston,
Founder of Roxbury Youthworks
Founders Judge Julian Houston
and Hubie Jones
Julian Houston was appointed as the Judge of the Juvenile Session of the Roxbury District Court by Governor Michael Dukakis on January 2, 1979. At that time, the court had not heard juvenile cases for thirteen years, so a service infrastructure had to be created to meet the needs of the young people before the court. Judge Houston (ret.) appointed a small committee of professionals experienced with children's issues to advise him on how best to create a system of services for troubled children. The committee was chaired by Dean Hubie Jones of the Boston University School of Social Work. The committee met regularly for a year, and recommended that the Court create its own program to serve the needs of young people before the court. Roxbury Youthworks grew out of this recommendation.
In the early days, Roxbury Youthworks sponsored restitution programs and diversion programs for juveniles before the Roxbury court. As it became apparent that gang activity and drugs, both distribution and use, were becoming widespread, we worked to identify juveniles at risk and to refer them to appropriate agencies. With support from the Department of Youth Services, we closely monitored at-risk young people before the court, until 1993 when the state's juvenile justice system was reorganized and the Roxbury District Court no longer heard juvenile cases.
By the year 2000, with support from the Department of Youth Services, Roxbury Youthworks began to open a series of Day Reporting Programs for youth supervised by the Department of Youth Services. RYI is the only agency that has ever held these contracts.
