Center Created in Former CityStage Is Designed to Educate, Inspire
Work of Arts
As he talks about Hope for Youth & Families (HYF), the foundation he created in 2022 after selling his Pride chain of gas stations and stores, Bob Bolduc will inevitably reference the “three legs of the stool,” as he puts it, meaning its main focus points.
One is literacy, where the family foundation is making progress in efforts to help young people who fall behind in reading proficiency and are in danger of dropping out of school as a result. The initiative, involving interns and peer-to-peer support, has yielded results, with half of those involved moving up a full grade in reading level and another quarter moving up two grades.
The second stool involves high-achieving students and providing them with avenues to a college education. And the third is participation in the arts, something that is in many ways lacking in Springfield, said Bolduc, due to funding restrictions in the schools.
It is this third leg, the arts, that is … well, taking center stage recently through a massive, ongoing effort to transform the former CityStage in downtown Springfield, dormant for several years now, into an arts hub for Springfield youth.