From our Friends at UTEC
Please join us at the United Teen Equality Center to attend services to honor Corinna Ouer’s memory
Friday, January 7, 2011. Meet at UTEC at 2.00 PM. UTEC will provide rides to the Wake and Services from 2-4.30 pm (Dolan Funeral Home 106 Middlesex Street. North Chelmsford 01863). Following the wake, there we be a service at the Triratanaram Temple (21 Quigley Ave, N. Chelmsford) from 5-8pm. We will be back by 9 P.M and will drop off at your home.
Saturday, January 8, 2011. Arrive at UTEC at 8.00 AM. We will leave at 8.30 to join a funeral procession at 9am, starting at the Triratanaram Temple and ending at the Linwood Cemetery-Crematory (41 John Ward Avenue, Haverhill). Services will then continue back at the Temple and run from around 12-1. UTEC will provide rides to all services. Service will end by 1pm. Directly following the services, a remembrance ceremony for Corinna Oeur will be held in the UTEC gym.
Sign-up sheet for rides will be at UTEC. Please sign up and please don’t be late for rides. Message us on Facebook or call us at 978-856-3990.
Letter from Executive Director
The staff and youth members of the United Teen Equality Center are deeply saddened by the January 1st shootings on Grand Street. As you may have already heard from the various news reports, 8 young people were shot (all under the age of 21) and one young woman lost her life. We send our condolences to all of the young people who were affected that night, and especially to the family and loved ones of the late Corinna Ouer, only 20 years old.
It’s very troubling to start off 2011 with an incident of youth violence, and especially on this scale. It’s a great loss whenever young people in our city resort to violence. We take heart knowing that so many of Lowell’s young people get involved with UTEC and other positive options, to change their own lives and our community. We have to continue to prioritize the need to reach out to those young people who are the highest-risk in our community through a balanced approach and an increased investment in critically essential services such as employment, alternative education, outreach and wrap-around services.
In addition to combating gang and gun violence, we are also fighting against a variety of forces such as poverty and a lack of opportunities that create the space for such violence to occur.
UTEC thanks the Lower Highlands Neighborhood Association for their immediate action to bring together the community on Sunday afternoon. UTEC staff, teen members, and board members joined the gathering to show support and reach out to the young people in mourning. UTEC Streetworkers stayed at the homemade memorial that friends and neighbors established on Grand Street. “Every time I go to work, I give everything I have to youths like them,” Johnny, a member of the Streetworker team, told the Lowell Sun, speaking of the accused shooters.
Young people who seek a safe place and support can visit UTEC during our hours of operation (Mon-Fri from 9am-6 pm) or call UTEC any time at 978.856.3990.
Learn more about UTEC’s Streetworkers and their efforts to prevent youth violence at
http.//www.utec-lowell.org/press/pdf/jhsph_final.pdf
Gregg Croteau, MSW
Executive Director
