One of our goals as a culture office, is to engage with young people as well as folks from all different generations, but youth being a really important demographic. So we're often working with the colleges. We work with Worcester Public Schools quite a bit. We have a couple youth programs, so we have Create 508, which is a youth entrepreneurship program where we teach young people about creativity. And then also the youth poet laureate who's an ambassador to poetry is a program run out of our office. So we're always trying to think, how can we engage more young people? And during college and high school, and when I was younger as well, I was really passionate about always working with young people. So that's something that I'm really excited that I get to bring to this work.
Yaffa Fain was born in Hamden Connecticut in 1995 and attended Hamden High School. Yaffa’s mother was born in Pittsburgh., PA and her father was born in Hartford, CT. She is the youngest of three children, having two older brothers. Yaffa attended Clark University in Worcester, MA from 2013-2018 and has worked in Worcester since 2017. She is currently working for the City of Worcester's culture department as the deputy cultural officer. In this interview, Yaffa discusses the significance of her position in relation to her life and how she has come into the position. Yaffa also mentions the women who have shaped her life and where she is today and the identity she has found among her friends and family. Yaffa touches on her creativity and role that this characteristic and others have taken in how she relates to others, specifically the youth that she is working with in the community of Worcester. In this interview, Yaffa also expresses the feeling of inspiration she felt from her parents to help others as much as she could throughout her life and career.