Juancarlos Rivera

With twenty-eight years of youth development experience, JuanCarlos has dedicated himself to strengthening his community and the youth within it. His involvement has included peer leadership for Planned Parenthood, youth organizing for Coalition for a Better Acre, program coordinating for the YWCA Tobacco Prevention Program, six years of gang prevention and intervention as a Street outreach worker, Director of Operations and one of the founding member of the United Teen Equality Center (UTEC) and most recently, he serves as the Director of Operations for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell. As the Director of Operations of the Boys & Girls Club, JuanCarlos supports the BGCGL team in providing comprehensive strategic planning, youth development programming, educational programming, healthy Lifestyles, and good Character/ Citizenship values to those youths who are most disconnected in the city. JuanCarlos is well respected as a leader in the field of youth work. Throughout his career his work in youth violence prevention and peacemaking has been published by Johns Hopkins University Press. JuanCarlos has also received the following awards, National Professional of the Year-The Association of Boys & Girls Club Professionals, Nonprofit of the Year- Enterprise Bank Celebration of Excellence, Service to Youth Award-Boys & Girls Club of America, Community Partner Award – Lowell Police Department, Life Time Service Award – UTEC, Adult Ally Award- Lowell Community Health Center’s Teen Block.

JuanCarlos has served or is currently serving on the following community boards: Enterprise Community Advisory Board, CDBG Advisory Board, Big Brother & Big Sister of Lowell Board, City of Lowell Gang Advisory Board, City of Lowell End Homeless Advisory Board, GLWIB Youth Advisory, Get there, Start now Foundation Board, Greater Lowell Community Foundation Board, and UTEC Board. This year JuanCarlos was appointed by the Governor to the Community Empowerment and Reinvestment Board. JuanCarlos is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He earned a Bachelor of Arts & Science degree with concentrations in Psychology and Legal Studies. He is also a graduate of the Institute for Nonprofit Management and Leadership through Tufts University. JuanCarlos is certified as a national Boys & Girls Club of America learning coach and a Weikart Youth work methods trainer. Of Puerto Rican descent, JuanCarlos is a native speaker of Spanish.