Kimberly Smith, right, and Eronica Aljo are members of Dorchester Youth Council, a group organized through SCI Dorchester in Fields Corner.

Kimberly Smith, 15, joined the Dorchester Youth Council because on top of dance lessons and her homework at Boston Latin Academy, she felt she should be doing something positive for her community.

"I saw a lot of kids I knew volunteering here or there, and I thought I should get involved, too," she says.

Eronica Aljo, 17, who attends the Community Academy of Science and Health, said she was drawn to the council as a chance to help her peers make positive choices.

"Most kids, they come home from school, and they don't have anything to do," she said. "They haven't had the right motivation to help them get into the right activities."

The Dorchester Youth Council was founded through the non-profit SCI Dorchester two years ago as a forum for neighborhood teens to discuss the needs of their community and come up with some practical solutions. The fifty-member council meets every Monday, to plan events like conferences and can drives, and award mini-grants to peers who are running positive programming across the city.

Smith, who lives in Fields Corner, says there is no question violence is a reality of her daily life.

"There were four shootings in one day in my neighborhood," said Smith.

But, says Aljo, the reality of violence needs to be balanced against the positive things that youth are accomplishing in places like her Four Corners neighborhood.

"Even though all the negative things are happening and it gets me a little scared, I also think there's room to do positive things, working with a group like this," said Aljo. "We need people to do outreach to teens, because most of them don't really know about programs in the community, or the right people to ask. They probably won't commit there and then, but if you keep talking to them, they'll do it, and bring their friends too."

Smith agreed, adding that while teens need to make sure their friends and classmates are exposed to the right kind of opportunities, the adults in their lives also need to be accountable.

"Everybody says it starts at home, but since teens now are looking to friends, and the place they see their friends most is at school," said Smith. "I think it starts there. Some of their teachers are not helping them go for higher things. I know when my friends have a good teacher they say, 'I'll do anything that teacher says.' We need more people like that."

-Patrick McGroarty