Councilors Say SuccessLink Was Quietly Discontinued, Leaving 400 City-Funded School-Year Jobs

Twelve Boston city councilors have called for a hearing on the end of SuccessLink, the city's school-year youth employment program, saying in a filed order that the administration discontinued it and replaced it with the Boston City Youth Corps "without a traditional announcement or public comment process."

The order, Docket 2026-1966, was filed on Oct. 16 by Councilor Henry Santana. At the council's Oct. 21 meeting, Councilors Julia Mejia and Brian Worrell were added as original co-sponsors, and the order was referred to the Committee on Labor and Economic Development, according to the council's Legistar record. Nine other councilors are listed as co-sponsors on the filed text.

According to the order, SuccessLink connected employers with Boston youth for after-school jobs and placed more than 1,700 students in school-year jobs in the 2025-26 year, fully subsidized by the city. The order cites research, including work by Northeastern University economist Alicia Modestino, finding that the city's youth job programs are associated with reductions in violent and property crime and improved high school graduation rates.

The order says the council approved a fiscal 2027 operating budget that contained "a large cut to the afterschool portion" of SuccessLink. The Boston Globe reported in May that City Hall was moving to cut the teen jobs program as part of that budget. The order states that the council and the public were told in the summer of 2026 that a public-private coalition would fund 2,000 year-round school-year "learn-and-earn" jobs.

The new filing says that "recent communication from the Administration stated that the SuccessLink Program has been discontinued and replaced by the Boston City Youth Corps," also known as the Red Shirts program. The order does not quote or attach that communication, and it does not say when it was sent.

The city described the new structure in a Sept. 15 release from Mayor Michelle Wu's office announcing the start of the School Year Youth Jobs program. That release does not use the word SuccessLink. It says school-year jobs are funded through three streams: a publicly funded Boston City Youth Corps with 400 jobs across city agencies and programs, including the Boston Housing Authority, Boston Centers for Youth and Families and the Boston Public Library; 340 jobs at partner organizations paid for by philanthropic contributions; and direct commitments from corporate, nonprofit and institutional employers to hire 663 young people. It also describes a stipend-based career readiness model for 200 students and immigrant youth.

The release says the founding coalition, which includes the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, the YMCA of Greater Boston, Artists for Humanity, the Boston Private Industry Council, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, committed an initial 475 jobs, and that with other partners the city had reached 80 percent of its goal and was "on pace to connect 2,000 young people with school year jobs by January 2027."

The hearing order focuses on the publicly funded piece. "Only 400 positions for young people will be available through the Boston City Youth Corps, far below the stated goal of 2,000 school-year jobs, and even farther below the demonstrated need," it says. It calls for the Youth Corps to be available to every Boston resident ages 14 to 18 who wants an after-school job.

The order also says that some nonprofit organizations that had been SuccessLink employer partners "were neither informed of the changes being made to the program nor given the opportunity to be awarded a spot in the new Boston City Youth Corps pilot program until numerous other partners had been selected." It says those organizations relied on SuccessLink funding each year and were left "in a dangerous fiscal situation." The order does not name the organizations. Boston 25 News has reported that East Boston Social Centers was working to preserve its teen jobs program after losing city funding.

Several councilors praised the new program when it was announced. In the Sept. 15 release, Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata said she introduced the budget amendment that made the Youth Corps investment possible, "reimagining the historic Red Shirts." Santana, who filed the new hearing order, was quoted in the same release saying the city should "celebrate this progress while recognizing that the work isn't done," and that he would keep fighting to expand youth jobs in fiscal 2028.

The order asks the committee to hold a hearing on "the current status of the SuccessLink Youth Employment Program and its replacement, the Boston City Youth Corps, as well as opportunities to support and find additional funding for SuccessLink Employer Partners." No hearing date had been posted as of Friday morning. The city's release said all paid youth opportunities would be open for applications starting Sept. 30.