• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

By Alana Melanson LOWELL — UTEC members and staff went to Gillette Stadium Monday to give a presentation to the New England Patriots about their mission, and left as the first recipients of the new Patriots Social Justice Fund. Players Devin McCourty and Matthew Slater sur- prised the organization with a $75,000 grant, the first award made from fund. The Patriots shared a video marking the event on the organization’s official Twitter page late Wednesday afternoon. “A group of us have already researched what you do, and you guys might not have known but as players we’ve set up our own player fund and we decided to select you guys as an organization that we want to donate to because we saw the work you do and how great it is, and it’s all the things that we believe in as a team,” McCourty said in With articles about the organization’s successes from The Sun as a the video footage. backdrop, UTEC members pose with Patriots players at Gillette “It’s really special,” UTEC CEO Gregg Croteau said Stadium on Monday where they were granted $75,000 from the Wednesday, reflecting on the experience. “I’m incredibly new Patriots Social Justice Fund. Among those pictured are Patriot Devin McCourty (center in green hoodie holding the check), his proud of all the young adults and the staff who do this twin brother Jason, far right, Duron Harmon, next to Jason, and work, and I think we’re really, really excited that the Pa- Matthew Slater, next to Harmon. UTEC Director Gregg Croteau is triots are choosing the topic of prioritizing programs and at right front. COURTESY OF NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS policies that affect young adults who may have been in- Excited about the possibility of building a partnership carcerated in the past and providing them with multi- with the Patriots, a group of 13, including Croteau, ple chances.” UTEC’s Streetworker team and several UTEC members The new Patriots Social Justice Fund is organized and traveled to Foxboro. They were treated to a tour of Gil- funded by the players, who decide by committee which lette and got to throw a few passes on the field before organizations they’d like to award grants. Patriots owner heading to an auditorium to make their presentation and Robert Kraft also contributes to the fund, often matching rub elbows with the likes of McCourty and his twin broth- the players’ donations. Additional grants are expected to er, Jason, Slater, Duron Harmon, Patrick Chung and Jul- be awarded to other organizations this year. ian Edelman. The Streetworkers talked about their work Croteau said UTEC received a call last week asking the and young adult members Manoushka Gaston and Jose organization to make a presentation before the Patriots Pizzini spoke about how UTEC has helped them change players to discuss its work on street outreach, re-entry their lives. programming to reduce recidivism after incarceration, and Gaston, of Lowell, shared how she overcame her crimi- criminal justice reform. nal record and went to school to become a certified nurs- “We quickly and excitedly said, ‘Yes,’ of course,” he ing assistant. She also discussed how she’s been able to said. “That was a nobrainer.” use her experiences to help inform UTEC’s policy work and advocacy, especially in regard to expunging juve- nile records, Croteau said. Pizzini, of Lawrence, dis- cussed his experiencewith incarceration and the im- portance of the re-entry programming UTEC provides, Croteau said. “UTEC is basically a second chance — a second chance, a second life,” Pizzini said in the video footage. Before they could even get to the planned question and answer session, McCourty and Slater presented the cere- monial check with much fanfare and excitement. Croteau said they often do something called “mood check” with the members of UTEC, asking where their mood is on a scale of zero to 10. “Our young people were already at a 12 before that even happened,” he said, noting they were at about 19 1/2 by the time they left. Croteau called the experience unique, transformative and motivating for both the young adults and the Street- workers. “Sometimes the success is not there everyday,” he said. “So having a day when the sunlight shines so brightly, not only on the issue but our young adults and staff, it’s pretty special.” Croteau expressed his appreciation for the players, the genuine interest they took in UTEC and the time they spent with its people — especially in the midst of prepar- ing for Sunday’s playoff game against the Los Angeles UTEC made a special visit Monday to Gillette Stadium where the Patriots donated a $75,000 check to the group. Chargers. From left are UTEC member Manoushka Gaston, street- workers Linda Ketsith and Mao Kang, UTEC members Fre- do Estevez, Elijah Declet and Jose Pizzini, streetworker Eric Cruz (on ground with football), streetworker Johnny Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/ Chheng, UTEC member Filix Nieves, UTEC CEO Gregg alana.lowellsun or on Twitter @alanamelanson. Croteau, streetworker Carlos Collazo, UTEC Policy Director Geoff Foster, and UTEC member Sean Casado. COURTESY OF NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_32376090/patriots-go-deep-lowells-utec .

Load more

  2

Copy Link