At Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, we believe every person has a story worth telling, if you just take the time to listen, and this spring, the teens at the Jordan Club in Chelsea got the opportunity to begin writing theirs.
Led by Ready to Work Employment Specialist Karen Sabillon, a recent workshop invited teens to reflect on their personal journeys, explore their values, and take their first steps into storytelling. Part creative writing session, part self-exploration, the workshop gave participants the chance to write chapter titles from their lives, sketch book covers representing their identities, and imagine how their experiences could shape the future.
It was a powerful exercise—not just in writing, but in voice, agency, and belonging.
Karen, who joined the Boys & Girls Club team earlier this year, knows firsthand the impact of being seen and heard. She immigrated from Honduras at age five and grew up without role models who looked like her or shared her story. Now, as she supports teens in Chelsea, many of whom are Central American themselves, she sees the importance of representation every day.
“Being able to serve kids who come from the same place I did, who speak the same language, who’ve faced similar challenges, it’s personal,” Karen says. “I want them to know their stories matter.”
The writing workshop was designed to help teens explore those stories. Each member was asked to think about their “core values” what defines them, drives them, and grounds them. Karen encouraged them to include both highlights and hardships. “Some of our most powerful chapters come from struggle,” she shared during the session. “What matters is what we’ve learned and how we’ve grown.”
The workshop wasn’t part of BGCB’s standard Ready to Work programming, it was an added opportunity sparked by Karen’s own journey as a writer. She recently published The Price of Migration, a memoir chronicling her family’s path to the U.S. and her experience growing up as an undocumented student. Rather than focus on her book, though, Karen used the event to turn the spotlight on the members. The goal: help them see that their stories have value, too.
It’s a message she reinforces every week during BGCB’s Ready to Work Thursday night sessions, where high schoolers build professional skills through mock interviews, resume building, and career exploration. The work is practical, but deeply personal. And it begins with one simple question: “Who are you?”
“For so many of our Members, English isn’t their first language. They’ve had to navigate family responsibilities, immigration stress, or financial hardship. But they also have incredible drive, creativity, and heart,” Karen says. “My job is to help them recognize that—and use it to chart their own path.”
Whether they dream of becoming nurses, writers, or artists, BGCB teens leave Karen’s sessions not just with job skills, but with a deeper understanding of who they are and what they bring to the table.
As Karen puts it, “Everybody has a story. I just help them start writing it.”
