Mayor's Office of Early Childhood

Mission:

The Office of Early Childhood (OEC), Streets Cabinet (Streets), Park and Recreation Department (BPRD), and Boston Centers for Youth and Family (BCYF) are partnering to expand the Connect, Learn, Explore: Youth Cycling Program across Boston's neighborhoods. OEC aims to promote policies, systems, and infrastructure to increase the number of young children accessing the resources they need to thrive in the area of health and wellbeing. Biking helps children explore their neighborhood, have fun, and develop gross motor and socio-emotional skills. This program aims to provide the resources and support so every child in Boston has the opportunity to learn to ride a bike from an early age. Our overarching goal is to improve equity and increase access to programs that promote healthy lifestyle changes through physical activity. These programs are driven by our commitment to health equity, aiming to serve neighborhoods with the highest rates of chronic disease and prioritizing opportunities for families of color and lower-income households. The Connect, Learn, Explore: Youth Cycling Program is an initiative designed to help young children in Boston learn to ride a bike, develop essential motor skills, and engage in physical activity. The program aims to enhance health equity by focusing on neighborhoods with the highest rates of chronic disease and prioritizing access for families of color and lower-income households.

As part of the initiative, we are expanding the Summer Youth Cycling Program to provide hands-on bike education and maintenance skills to children across various neighborhoods. This program is designed to ensure that every child in Boston has the opportunity to learn to bike from an early age, while also improving their overall health and well-being.

.Last summer, we offered a professional development day that introduced a variety of bike-related jobs and organizations. We provided three workshop visits that included opportunities for both near-term employment (i.e. jobs available to youth or young adults who are interested in building on skills developed during their summer employment) and for longer-term career development (i.e. diverse career paths related to biking, transportation, or policy and programming). We visited Bikes Not Bombs, a 40-year-old Boston-based non-profit bike shop and youth training organization with a strong track record in youth development; the Bluebikes operator, the vendor responsible for our regional bike share system’s bike maintenance, operations and logistics management, customer service, and equipment repair; City Hall, where we met with engineers, transportation planners, and data analysts; and the Leventhal Map & Education Center where we visited a transportation exhibit.

Due to the overwhelming success and positive feedback, we plan to offer similar professional development workshops this summer, and fine tune it by increasing opportunities for job skills development. Building on last year’s experience, and incorporating some feedback from the 2024 summer Bike Crew, we will break out professional development visits into different days, and space them throughout the summer. Each visit will be paired with a hands-on skill building activity. Potential topics for skill-building activities include resume or email writing, interview skills, or job-specific workshops (such as advanced bike repair workshop). Our goal is to ensure each Bike Crew member has an opportunity to view this job as a window into potential careers, and other employment opportunities.

Each Crew Member will be asked to complete a self-assessment at the beginning of their summer employment, identifying their skills, interests, and biggest areas for growth. Crew Members will review this assessment with the Boston Bikes Youth Cycling Program Manager. At the midpoint of the summer, and again at the conclusion of their employment, each Crew member will revisit their self-assessment, together with Boston Bikes Youth Cycling Program Manager, noting progress and areas for improvement.

During the 2024-2025 school year, we piloted a school-year expansion to our program by continuing to support bike programming at BCYF Gallivan. Next year (SY 2025-2026), we plan to like to expand the School Year Bike Crew at two locations, BCYF Gallivan and another location that will be determined.

The Bike Supervisor will be responsible for overseeing the bike program that is focused on children building skills and confidence on a bike, while engaging in safe, engaging outdoor activities.