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Local Voices, Big Impact: BranchOut! Meets Mayor Marc Laredo
At BranchOut!, our mission is to create real community impact, whether that’s organizing hands-on STEM workshops for underserved youth at the John M. Barry Boys and Girls’ Club or bringing student perspectives directly to local leadership. Late this September, that mission brought our chapter of middle and high school students to Newton City Hall for a sit-down with Mayor Marc Laredo. Arriving early as chapter leader, I greeted our team in the lobby, ran through our agenda, and then headed upstairs with them. When we reached his office, Mayor Laredo popped out almost without warning in a plaid button-up and slacks, welcoming us with a broad smile: "Come on in!"
In the shadow of an old, wood-paneled map of the city, we settled into our chairs. We dove right into the heart of our work: sharing how our student mentors spent the summer building interactive STEM activities to spark a passion for math and science in local kids. Seeing Mayor Laredo nod along in genuine interest set the tone for an open, hour-long conversation that quickly expanded beyond our summer program to volunteer opportunities across the city, municipal governance, and what it truly takes to drive local change.
Thinking of the arrest of two people by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) before Newton City Hall in September, I asked Mayor Laredo what he– and we– could do. He said he could stonewall ICE if they asked the city to help make arrests, but the city could only do so much to resist federal law enforcement. He had signed an executive order earlier in the year, joining a number of Massachusetts cities blocking cooperation with immigration enforcement, including Boston– a network of sanctuary cities.
But where the city ends is where we begin.
With the midterms fast approaching, it is more important than ever that we keep trying to make a positive change in our own communities. It’s easy to succumb to a kind of fatalism about national politics, especially in these polarized and uncertain times– what does one vote really matter? What does one person matter? It’s tempting to remove yourself from the equation entirely. It’s easier on the heart than trying and failing to avert disaster, so we can shirk responsibility.
But change does not begin and end with voting. The seeds are there, in the hearts and minds of those around you. Volunteer organizations, food drives, food pantries, and community centers that help elderly people and children live off the community's unpaid efforts are often more effective at improving people’s lives around you immediately than national or even state institutions.
For an example of the effectiveness of civic organization combined with institutions, let’s look abroad.
For the past two years, Serbia has been rocked by a wave of student protests against the authoritarian, right-wing populist government of Aleksandar Vučić. The 2024 collapse of a concrete train station awning, killing 16, sparked national uproar over institutional corruption, media censorship, and government negligence. However, instead of sputtering out like so many protest movements worldwide, it stuck around. The movement grew because of its formal organization, a broad, well-oiled effort against the government. Road blockades, walkouts, demonstrations, even blockades of the national broadcasting company's headquarters, eventually led to the formation of a Student List of candidates to contest this year’s parliamentary elections. As of the time of writing, vote-counting has not yet finished, but the Student List has gained a commanding lead, and Vučić has already conceded defeat.
All of this to say that voting is one part of building lasting change. It requires steady organization, often at the community level, as happened in Serbia. It requires the ability to build a movement in partnership with state institutions, while also being able and willing to operate outside them. Something bigger than the individuals that constitute them. Community organizing, then, is planting the seeds of a tree we could one day sit in the shade of.
They’re calling events like those in Serbia the ‘Gen Z revolutions’ already. A wave of protests, often student-led, has toppled governments in countries like Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Madagascar, and South Korea, and forced needed reforms in India, Morocco, Nigeria, and Kenya. As of writing, protests are ongoing in France, Georgia, and Serbia.
So what can we do, then? Aside from the volunteering opportunities I mentioned earlier, we can educate ourselves on local issues and raise them with our elected officials. Thanks to the Sunshine Laws, most government agencies at every level have public records and public meetings. Get involved with advocacy in your own city or community. These are the seeds of democracy, and if given the right water and sun, they could grow taller than we could ever imagine.
About the Author
Oliver Chi is a leader of the BranchOut! Newton Chapter. As a senior at Newton North High School in Newton, MA, he is deeply interested in history, public policy, and community involvement. Through AmeriCorps, he assisted with the 2024 election by guiding voters through procedures and supporting the overall process, and he has done canvassing for a few Newton candidates. Oliver captains Newton North High School’s varsity History Team. He wrote an independent research paper on the impact of the War of 1812 on American nationalism, which was later published in the American Journal of Student Research.
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