YOUTH

Gov. Ned Lamont and others presided over a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford, Connecticut. Officials unveiled the Creative Complex after the previous facility was destroyed by a fire in 2021.

In 2019, more than a third of eighth-grade students reported sustained sadness or hopelessness that impacted their usual activities.

For the current school year, 55%of students of color who applied to a vocational program in Massachusetts were admitted, compared to approximately 69% of white students.

Thirty-seven hospitals in Massachusetts have started offering intensive home-based mental health care to the families of children stuck in emergency rooms.

The state will be the first of those with a legal recreational marijuana market to incorporate the lessons on cannabis-impaired driving.

Rowing is a sport that’s often associated with wealth and privilege. But some rowing clubs in western Massachusetts are trying to change that by offering free youth programs. Springfield’s Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club invites students from a nearby middle school to get trained in rowing, fitness and nutrition — during the school day.

The 2022 National Youth Poet Laureate Alyssa Gaines visited Holyoke, Massachusetts, this week for a reading of her work with students close to her own age, some who had dropped out of high school and are now working toward graduation.

Although the overall number of youth arrests has gone down in the state, the rate remains disproportionately high for youth of color — especially when they first encounter the police.

LaMar Cook, a community leader in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Clarence Smith, owner of The Final Touch barbershop, organized the event at the Rebecca Johnson school gym and provided free backpacks and school supplies for kids.

The new Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System(MCAS) requirements will apply to students graduating in the class of 2026 to 2029.