Senior Vice President and Dean, City Year

Charlie Rose has been a Youth Worker, Organizer and Entrepreneur in Boston for the past 40 years.  He was the Director of Youth Services for the City of Boston’s Community Centers (now Boston Centers for Youth and Families) for nine years.  Previous to that he was a VISTA volunteer, and a community organizer.  He is an accomplished trainer, presenter, facilitator, auctioneer, poet and public speaker. 

He is currently Senior Vice President and Dean of City Year.  He has helped build City Year into a national and international model for youth community service organizations and has been involved in all aspects of organizational development. City Year’s 3,000 AmeriCorps members currently serve full-time in over 330 schools across 29 US sites in 24 States as well as in the UK and South Africa.

He co-founded the City of Boston’s nationally recognized violence and gang prevention program called the Street worker Program and has been a leader in the community peace movement in Boston for nearly two generations.  He founded the Youth Outreach Program (YOP), The City of Boston Peer Leadership Program, The Festival of HOPE and the Citywide Youth Congress, the Boston Youth Olympics and the Youth Worker Alliance (YWA).

He is the co-founder and co-owner of a Boston neighborhood restaurant (Bella Luna) and entertainment complex which includes a nightclub and lounge (Milky Way Lounge).  The for-profit venture was started as a community economic development project in Jamaica Plain section of Boston 27 years ago. 

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Jackson Square LLC for Urban Edge Community Development Corporation and is actively involved with Project 351 as well as serving on the Board of Advisors of the UMass Boston Sports Leadership Degree Program.

In 2011, Charlie was awarded an honorary doctorate from U-Mass Boston. He is also the father of two beautiful children, AJ and Ruby, and the husband of the amazing Carol Downs.