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Escaping Reality: Brooklyn Youth Group Comes To Cape Cod

by Courtney Alex

It is not often you find a 15-year-old who knows housing rights and laws. Or an 18-year-old who is fighting the standardization of the education system Adriana Mendoza, 15, and Karla Lopez, 19 founded the Y-ACT (Youth Action Changes Things) in Brooklyn, N.Y. They recently came to town with 2001 Chatham High School graduate Brett Tolley, along with over a dozen of children ages nine to 19 to get these kids out of the city to see what’s out there.

Tolley, who graduated from Elon University in North Carolina, currently lives in New York with his wife. He works for the Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn as an immigrant advocate. He helps new immigrants advance justice around issues of education, work, health and immigration. He started helping with Y-ACT last May, when Mendoza and Lopez started the group.


The group takes a ride on Stuart Tolley’s boat at the Fish Pier. BRETT TOLLEY PHOTO
“The youth in Brooklyn face many problems such as discrimination, racism and unequal opportunities like in school,â€