From the Boston Globe:
Rafael Salas, an incoming freshman at Westfield State University, dreams of the day when he can help his family leave public housing.
In middle school, when he began attending a youth development program run through the Cambridge Housing Authority, Salas said he already knew his place in society: a “low-income black man.”
His family of immigrants never expected him to attend college: Salas’s father had been deported to his native Mexico, and his mother, who is from Haiti, struggled with a mental illness.
But the Work Force program taught Salas to envision loftier goals, including earning a bachelor’s degree in economics or sociology.
Read the Boston Globe's article "Breaking the cycle of poverty: Cambridge housing program prepares young residents for college," featuring the Cambridge Housing Authority.