Our programs and people are changing the political landscape of Boston and Massachusetts.
What we’ve won
• Organized a statewide campaign changing state laws and policies by ending hiring discrimination against individuals with criminal records.
• Brought 5,000 people to the state house demanding legislators stop the cuts for a humane state budget, restoring over $1 billion to needed social welfare programs.
• Coordinated a campaign that saved affirmative action from then Governor Romney’s chopping block.
• Held the first ever Black Advocacy Day at the statehouse, drawing black people from all corners of the state – 90% of whom had never visited legislators before.
• Received national and international recognition for the truth process on the Boston school desegregation crisis of the 1970’s. Boston Public School is including this history in the school curriculum using our materials.
• Received national recognition for the work it is doing to support Black men and violence, including articles in Jet and Ebony and a call from the Obama White House.
• Trained over 3,500 people of color since 2002.
• Formed and coordinated the Many Voices One Message Coalition of 60 organizations of color and organizations serving people of color that fought and restored critical state budget funding for people of color.
• Wrote, organized for, and successfully passed over 11 city council resolutions and orders for hearings on issues ranging from increased funding for non-profits to affirmative action to increased accountability from private institutions to reform of the Patriot Act.
• Designed and coordinated the organizing strategy for faculty, parents and students that kept open the Ben Franklin Institute, a 110-year old technical college whose student body is 80% minority.
• Organized a series of tours for Boston city councilors and community leaders on housing, and education garnering major press attention and resulted in:
$500,000 emergency funding to replace a sorely needed new roof at the Dearborn School in Roxbury,
$4 million in repairs to English High School,
Funding to hire 8 new Inspectional Services housing inspectors.
Holding a Boston city council hearing on substandard living conditions at Whittier Street Development where Boston Housing Authority and Inspectional Services officials were held accountable for issues like improper garbage disposal, unacceptable rodent and insect populations, inadequate security.
• Held the first ever Black Advocacy Day at the Massachusetts State House– over 360 Blacks from around the state, attended, 90% of whom had never talked to elected officials before.