Remembering a Rising Youth Leader

Katherine Perez, 17, was a shining example of a young person making positive change in her community. Ms. Perez lived at Betances Houses and as a member of the South Bronx Youth Leadership Council (SBYLC), was instrumental in planning programs that promoted community unity. She passed away on December 24, 2017, leaving behind a host of family, friends, and neighbors who will forever remember her commitment to community, her compassion, and her smile.

Katherine Perez, May 29, 2000-December 24, 2017

Katherine Perez, 17, was a shining example of a young person making positive change in her community. Ms. Perez lived at Betances Houses and as a member of the South Bronx Youth Leadership Council (SBYLC), was instrumental in planning programs that promoted community unity. She passed away on December 24, 2017, leaving behind a host of family, friends, and neighbors who will forever remember her commitment to community, her compassion, and her smile.

Ms. Perez was a dedicated member of the SBYLC, one of NYCHA’s 15 YLCs, which provide NYCHA residents ages 14 to 21 with training and mentoring. In turn, the members develop and create solutions to important issues in their neighborhoods. Ms. Perez played a major role in events including the April 2017 Green Day, held at multiple NYCHA Bronx developments; an anti-violence art campaign; an intergenerational Christmas tree planting in November 2017; and a tree lighting ceremony in December 2017.

She joined the SBYLC because she “wanted to see change in the community, especially with teens. Teens should be doing something good, helping out those who need it most, especially the elderly,” Ms. Perez said in the May 2017 issue of The NYCHA Journal.

David Soto, a Community Coordinator at NYCHA and advisor to the SBYLC, remembers Ms. Perez as being “very humble, kind, and supportive of the Youth Council. She wanted to make her neighborhood a safer place. She especially loved spending time with seniors, talking to them and supporting them however she could.”

Ms. Perez is the youngest daughter of the Nytza and the late Ramón Perez, sister of Christine and Amanda. She was a senior at MS/HS 223 The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology and wanted to attend Cornell University.

The Betances Community Center held a memorial for Ms. Perez on January 24.