The Burgess Urban Fund is creating social change
Thanks to support from BUF….
A community land trust working to build affordable housing for extremely low income families in Lawrence, Bread and Roses Housing (BRH), expanded their staff. True to the memory of the “Bread and Roses” labor strike of 1912, BHR is founded on the principles of human dignity and economic justice. This past year BRH hired part time staff person whose focus is Family Support, Education and Advocacy. As a BRH homeowner who has shown remarkable leadership and initiative in her involvement with BRH on a volunteer basis, she joins the staff to help them focus and expand the family empowerment portion of their mission.
T Riders Union (TRU), the only organization of its kind in Boston and one of very few in the county, continues to bring together transit riders from low income communities for first class service. Together with its partners in the On the Move coalition, the TRU distributed over 15,000 flyers since January 2009. As a result of this outreach more than 20 new people have begun attending TRU meetings and 11 new dues-paying TRU members. TRU also held numerous public education events and outreach days to raise awareness of the MBTA’s fiscal problems, and of looming fare increases and service cuts.
For 32 years the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) has been working for full equality and empowerment Greater Boston’s Chinese community. Last year 339 workers were provided assistance from the CPA through their drop-in services. From these initial visits and “coffee hour” sessions a stable core of consistent members emerged, who were invited to participate in the Workers Center Committee in order to play a bigger role in planning activities and organizing campaigns for the Workers Center.
Over 250 people learned how to request a copy of their Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI), how to read and understand it, how to determine whether or not their CORI could be sealed and how to seal it, thanks to a CORI Sealing Day event held by the Union of Minority Neighborhoods (UMN). UMN, based in Boston, is working to ensure that skilled, committed, grassroots leaders of color, effectively organize on issues of concern in their communities, regions and nation. Due to demand UMN now does CORI sealings two evenings a month; trains law students and lawyers in sealing records and works closely with Greater Boston Legal Services whose lawyers do the legal follow up.
By engaging the community in higher lever conversations about housing issues, the Waltham Alliance to Create Housing (WATCH), a community development corporation, is providing a deeper level of insight to the issue and instilling in Waltham residents an understanding of why this issues matters to them that they can apply to any specific housing issue. They have also hosted public meetings to discuss housing issues in Waltham at three local houses of worship, a drop in center for adults with mental illness, the Senior Center, and the community health center.
The Burgess Urban Fund is a program of Episcopal City Mission.
For more information contact:
Katie Campbell Simons at 617-482-4826 ext. 224 or kcsimons@diomass.org
Posted by Lucena Daley on Monday, October 26, 2009