Boston –The Boston Foundation and United Way of Massachusetts Bay and 10 other local funders have joined together to provide $500,000 to expand programs serving at-risk youth in Boston this summer. The Summer Safety Funding Collaborative announced the grants to 41 agencies serving more than 4,000 young people in Boston at the Blue Hill Boys and Girls Club of Boston on Talbot Avenue in Dorchester today.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino (second from left) joins Linda Whitlock, President and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston (left), Paul Grogan, President and CEO of The Boston Foundation and Marilyn Anderson Chase (right), Senior Vice President for Community Impact at United Way of Massachusetts Bay, at the announcement of grants totaling $500,000 to expand summer programs for Boston youth.

Partnering with the Boston Foundation and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, through its Today’s Girls … Tomorrow’s Leaders Initiative, are the Barr Foundation, the Baupost Group, the Clipper Ship Foundation, the Foundation to be Named Later, the Hyams Foundation, the Klarman Family Foundation, the Lenny Zakim Fund, the Linde Family Foundation, the Ruth and Carl Shapiro Family Foundation, and the Yawkey Foundation.

“Boston is well served by organizations in neighborhoods across the city that can provide thoughtful and effective programming to help keep our young people safe this summer,” said Paul Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “This summer everyone needs to do more, and this partnership makes that possible.”

The programs selected for funding serve young people across the city, and include a new focus on serving girls.

“There is an alarming trend of increasing violence and delinquency among high-risk girls,” said Milton J. Little, Jr., President and CEO at United Way of Massachusetts Bay.  “This funding will allow many effective programs that are designed specifically to engage girls through sports, recreation and leadership development activities to continue operating throughout the summer or to expand to serve more girls.  These new resources reflect a tremendous spirit of collaboration in our city.”

The funding will bolster efforts at 15 major organizations, including five YMCAs, two Boys & Girls Clubs, as well as nine Boston Community Center sites. It will enable existing programs to remain open later in the evening—until midnight in the case of the Dorchester Boys and Girls Club—and will put an additional nine street outreach workers into targeted neighborhoods deemed especially at risk.

 “We all need to work together to keep young people in Boston safe and secure this summer, and good summer programs in the neighborhoods are an important part of the solution,” said Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who attended the event today. “I want to thank the Boston Foundation, United Way and the other foundations for answering the City of Boston’s call to action on this.  This will help the city serve as many young people as possible.”