This article first appeared in the Boston Globe and was co-authored by Camp Harbor View Chief Executive Officer Sharon McNally and chair of the board of the Yawkey Foundation John L. Harrington.
BOSTON (The Boston Globe) – Boston is a hub for excellence in education, innovation, creativity, sports, and connection. But every great city must evolve to thrive in changing times. Such change entails dedicated leadership and investments across many sectors — public, private, philanthropic — to close the gaps to opportunity. Since its inception in 2007, Camp Harbor View has been fulfilling its mission to provide Bostonians and their families one-of-a-kind summer camp for students in grades 6 through 8, year-round leadership development for students in grades 9 through 12, and comprehensive family services, including college and career planning, scholarships, clinical support, and resource coordination — all at no cost to families.
Much has been said about the loss earlier this year of Camp Harbor View cofounder Jack Connors. He was many things to many people, but there is an important common thread pulled across his many endeavors. Jack invested in youth, in families, in communities, and in the potential of every individual in Boston to have the resources and support to achieve their aspirations.
As two people who were privileged to be close to Connors, we know that he would want us to move ahead with what he had placed in motion, and that’s why our two organizations — Camp Harbor View and the Yawkey Foundation — are doubling down on the investments Connors made in the next generation of our city’s leaders.
In the months before his death, Connors was in discussions with the Yawkey Foundation about how to make sure that his investment in Boston’s youth continued to spin off dividends for generations to come. The foundation, perpetuating the philanthropic legacy of Jean and Tom Yawkey, who were owners of the Red Sox, was a natural partner in this goal — Camp Harbor View and the Yawkey Foundation share a mutual commitment to providing young adults with opportunities for out-of-school time and the Yawkey Foundation has provided more than $800,000 over 15 years in support of Camp Harbor View’s teen programs.
Connors and John Harrington, chair of the Yawkey Foundation, carried out their strategic planning over hot dogs at Sullivan’s Castle Island — yet Connors soon learned that he would have less time than he had expected to continue these conversations to map out the long-term plan for the camp.
While many people are aware of its iconic summer camp in the Harbor Islands, few are familiar with the fact that the camp operates after-school and weekend leadership and social-emotional development programs from a modest space in the South End, specifically for teens who are part of the camp community. These year-round programs have been making a difference in the lives of campers, and campers’ families, long after the youth have aged out of the traditional summer program. Yet there’s a wait-list of teens who want to get involved and countless opportunities to grow. It’s clear that the organization needs a new home base, and that was a priority project for Connors that, sadly, he was unable to accomplish. This is where the Yawkey Foundation has decided to step in.
With a $7.5 million grant announced Wednesday, the foundation is helping Camp Harbor View move all of its year-round operations to a space in the Southline Building in Dorchester. Convenient to various modes of public transit and bringing the totality of the camp’s programs and resources under one roof, it will be a game changer for thousands of Boston teens and families. This new space, this hub of year-round youth enrichment, will be named The Connors Leadership Academy. Fittingly, the academy will ensure that all the youth and family programming that Connors invested in when he created the camp will be sustained over generations to come.
Camp Harbor View is not just a camp. It’s a community of teens and families building a more inclusive, equitable, joyful, and connected next generation for our city. From summer camp to year-round leadership workshops and after-school programs, to college prep, college scholarships, and guaranteed monthly income for families — its mission is to be the holistic partner families need to achieve the kind of economic mobility and opportunity that propelled Connors from his humble beginnings to the privilege of being among the many community leaders determined to create a better Boston for all.
Here’s to delivering on Connors’s vision for investing in Boston’s children. And here’s to a new home — a welcoming, supportive, and resource-rich harbor — for Camp Harbor View and its programs so it may continue to provide opportunities for future generations of our great city.