McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation Executive Director Taris Vrcek with BlackTea BrownSuga Network CEO Eszquire Harris during the Little Viking's flag football event at Rangers Field.

Youth Advisory Board

BlackTeaBrownSuga Network CEO Eszquire Harris also spoke April 3 to the gathered parents and youth at the Little Viking’s season launch event about his role in MRCDC’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB). 

The new youth-oriented program being launched by MRCDC focuses on community engagement and leadership while connecting youth to programs and mentors who will help them further their passions or career ambitions.

Harris’s role in YAB is to lead a program based in the Sto-Rox High School for five weeks at the end of the semester. The program will center around a youth-led broadcast created out of his professional recording studio in Stowe.

YAB is currently focused on programs that connect youth to their passions, such as studio recording or art. 
The program will bring valuable life skills and give youth agency and ownership over their own work. They hope to provide youth with support networks that fuel pride in their community and increase their ability to find employment and learn about their job fields. They also hope to expand the YAB into a youth board that provides the MRCDC with feedback and input on its work that affects youth in the Sto-Rox community.

YAB has been organized by the MRCDC, leaders in youth nonprofits, and local entrepreneurs and volunteers.