# After School Matters Youth Center Ribbon Cutting Ceremony 11.8.25 - Date: November 10, 2025 - Type: Video - Length: 5:00 - Topic: Openings and groundbreakings - Video: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur2aXqYXJ6w) - Transcript: Machine transcription, 849 words ([text](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/files/transcripts/youtube/ur2aXqYXJ6w.txt)) - Mayor: [Brandon Johnson](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor) ## Description Mayor Johnson attends the After School Matters Youth Center Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. ## Transcript [0:00](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=0) Well, good afternoon, everyone. Okay, sounds like you all are hungover. All right, here, is everybody over 18, 21? All right, good afternoon, everyone. Yeah, it's so good to be with you all, and congratulations to After School Matters and Senate President. So I got my political start with Senate President Don Harmon, and then I got further politicized by picketing Alderman Burnett's father. So this is full circle for me. but I'm really grateful to be here [0:31](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=31) and I really want to appreciate Mary Ellen because I'm finally at an event an exciting event where there's at least one person in the room who knows exactly how I'm feeling and that's Mayor Lori Lightfoot so thank you for being here and then there's at least one person who knows exactly how both of us feel and that's Amy thank you for being here You know, we were here, as Senate President indicated, just a little bit over a year ago, breaking ground on a promise. [1:04](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=64) And, you know, After School Matters has kept its promise for a generation of young people. I'm grateful that we have an opportunity to cut the ribbon on a new phase in our effort to ensure that young people can find their purpose. Again, to the state of Illinois, to both of our senators, my political mentor, Senator Don Harmon, my colleague, Senator Keisha Collins, you're going to hear from, apparently, well, not apparently, we all know this, [1:35](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=95) the most boisterous commissioner of planning and development in the second, Sierra Boatwright, and again to Mary Ellen and the entire After School Matters team and everyone who made today possible. My heart is, quite frankly, overjoyed. But, you know, the best way to offend, you know, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is to cause a young person to stumble. It was Jesus that said if you cause a young person to stumble, you're better off tying a millstone around your neck and jumping into the lake. And not to be overly dramatic, but for too long we have not invested enough in our young people because too many people have seen them as a problem and not as an opportunity. [2:15](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=135) But thank God for After School Matters. Thank you for this incredible investment, another space. This allows our young people to have more exposure and for after-school matters to reach more young people, to offer more programs, and to continue to expand their reach in every corner of the city. We know that when young people have access to meaningful opportunities, when they have support beyond the classroom, they better respond and they are better equipped to succeed and to lead a fulfilling life. [2:47](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=167) You know, I worked here in Cabrini-Green. Many of you all remember the New City YMCA. And I taught at Jenner and worked at Byrd Elementary School. My aunt, who was a teacher's assistant, and my uncle, who was a truck driver, raised my cousins in this community. And two of them went on to become educators. When we ensure that our young people have safe spaces to be in where they can learn and grow and thrive, that's an investment in our future. the talents and the skills that they will be able to explore to help ignite their passions and ideas will be the innovators of today and posterity. [3:20](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=200) In addition, ASM also gives these stipends to participate. So, you know, I know Mary Ellen was talking about how Mayor Lightfoot and I support young people and teenagers. That's because we're raising them. So some of our investments might be the provocation of our trauma, But we know how important it is to ensure that our young people have access to space. And so these programs for job trainings where they get paid and STEM programs, the arts and sports communication, it's ultimately developed in the next layer of leadership. [3:51](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=231) And that's why, in closing, today is so important. This new building provides an expansion of opportunity for the culinary arts, the theater, art and dance studios, lab spaces. I mean, we're talking about the first ASM-owned gymnasium, right? So 19,000 students a year for the past 34 years after School Matters, you have shown up. You are the soul of Chicago. This newest space is just a testament to the importance of the work that we do to invest in young people. [4:26](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=266) So I can't wait. I will not be in rollerblades like the other aldermen. I promise you I'm not going to do that. But I want to see all the innovation that's going to come from this space. Now, let's get ready to cut the ribbon. But before we do, I just want you to know, Mary Ellen, you know, Sierra Boatwright, you're right. She has such an incredible level of energy. I've written her up three times for it. And it doesn't change anything. But Chicago, after school matters. Please put your hands together for the most energetic commissioner of Department of Planning and Development in the history of the world, [4:57](https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w?t=297) Sierra Boatwright. Sources and methods: [how we get and count this data](/about#methods) · [report an error](/about#corrections) --- Source: https://www.chicagopolitics.org/mayor/videos/ur2aXqYXJ6w · Chicago Politics, an independent tracker of the Chicago City Council. Guide for agents: https://www.chicagopolitics.org/llms.txt