40 Under Forty 2024: Raquel Castro-Corazzini, leads Worcester recreation
Photo I Erika Sidor
Raquel Castro-Corazzini
Photo | MATT WRIGHT
At the Worcester Historical Museum are 40 Under Forty winners and alumni (from left) Joe Santa Maria (Class of 2002), Idaliana Medina (Class of 2024), Nicole Zea (Class of 2016), and Raquel Castro-Corazzini (Class of 2024)
- Title and organization Director of the Division of Youth Opportunities, City of Worcester
- Title and organization Co-founder and board president, Casita Cultura Latina, in Worcester
- Residence Worcester
- Birthplace Ecuador
- Colleges Worcester State University, Boston University
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Not only did Castro-Corazzini found Worcester’s Division of Youth Opportunities, she herself grew the department's team from a staff from one in 2016 to more than 100 in less than a decade.
Today, her division serves more than 3,000 youth annually through initiatives including Recreation Worcester, a free, year-round out-of-school program, the Worcester Youth Council, and internship opportunities. As co-founder and board president of Casita Cultura Latina, Castro-Corazzini volunteers working to highlight societal issues affecting the Latino/a/e/x community while bringing cultural and artistic events to Central Massachusetts, including the nonprofit’s Dia de los Muertos festival. The annual event, which began in 2021, serves more than 1,000 attendees each year with cultural food, local dance performances, and art installations. For the past 10 years, Castro-Corazzini has been a consultant on anti-racist organizational practices with a concentration in leadership development. Seeing the young as not only the future but the present, she co-founded Youth Empowerment & Activism in 2013, a youth group focused on anti-racist education and activism, running educational workshops for high-school-aged youth on the impacts of systemic racism in their everyday lives.
For an entire year, would you rather give up access to your cell phone or to your favorite food? I have 23-year-old twins. Without my cellphone, I would never hear from them again.
Favorite place you visited? The Galápagos Islands
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