Charlie Rose has been a youth worker, organizer, and entrepreneur in Boston for the past 45 years. He was the Director of Youth Services for the City of Boston’s Community Centers (now Boston Centers for Youth and Families BCYF) for nine years during the Mayor Raymond L. Flynn Administration. Before that, he was a VISTA volunteer, and a community organizer. He is an accomplished trainer, presenter, facilitator, auctioneer, poet, and public speaker.

He is currently Senior Vice President and Dean of City Year. He has helped build City Year into a national and international model for youth community service organizations and has been involved in all aspects of organizational development for the past 36 years.

City Year’s 2,000 AmeriCorps members currently serve full-time in over 350 schools across 29 US sites in 25 States. City Year also operates in South Africa and Great Britain.

He co-founded the City of Boston’s nationally recognized violence and gang prevention program called the Street worker Program and has been a leader in the community peace movement in Boston for nearly two generations.

He was the co-founder and co-owner of a Boston neighborhood restaurant (Bella Luna) and entertainment complex which includes a nightclub and lounge (Milky Way Lounge). The for-profit venture was started as a community economic development project in Jamaica Plain section of Boston 32 years ago and was forced to close permanently due to the pandemic in 2020.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Jackson Square LLC for Urban Edge Community Development Corporation and is Board Chair of the Statewide Youth Leadership organization, Project 351 as well as serving on the Board of Advisors of the UMass Boston Sports Leadership Degree Program.

In 2011, Charlie was awarded an honorary doctorate from U-Mass Boston. He is also the father of two beautiful children, AJ and Ruby, and the husband of the amazing Carol Downs.