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Franklin County CDC Racial Equity Pledge Profile

November 19th, 2024 by

By Kavi Neva:

It has been four years since the MACDC Racial Equity Pledge was launched, and we feel that now is a good time to reflect on it and the impact it has had on our partner CDCs across the state. To do this, we met with a few representatives from our partner CDCs to ask them how adopting the Pledge has affected their work.  

Franklin County CDC is based in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and has been serving the central and western regions of the state since 1979. Their main objectives include providing business development education, access to capital, and commercial office and manufacturing space.  

Executive Director John Waite recalls that FCCDC signed onto our pledge “a little over a year ago. We were not one of the first ones, although, I’ve talked to a lot of the CDCs. I go to a lot of the meetings. I think we’ve been working on racial equity, trying to integrate it into our programs, maybe longer than some other CDCs.” FCCDC eventually adopted the pledge to show their solidarity with the other signers. 

According to Traci Talbert, FCCDC’s Racial Justice and Community Engagement Leader, their main goal for racial equity work is 

to examine everything that we do and ask ourselves, “how are we embedding [racial justice] into our programs and making it a part of everything we do daily?” instead of [having] racial justice as a separate program that we offer as a CDC. We began to examine language. We've examined documents, job postings, [and] looked at what the disruption of white dominant culture actually means. We've been we have our racial justice meetings monthly, and we come together. We read together. We… even feel pain together. 

One of the programs being offered by FCCDC is the Racial Justice Reflective Journey. Traci describes it as a series of questions for participants to respond to, then to reflect on their responses. She elaborates by stating that the Journey is 

a space for you to just be with yourself and respond to these sessions and… questions in a way that is honest for you, so in the moment, you're able to reflect and say, “Man, I didn't realize that was who I was when I showed up at work,” or “I didn't realize that that's how I behaved,” or “I never thought there was another response to this.” 

As of August 2024, around 200 people have participated in in the Journey, and feedback from participants has been good, although some white participants have expressed feelings of discomfort during their self-reflection. 

Another program that FCCDC offers is a virtual monthly workshop called Linguistic Bias: What’s the Harm? These sessions focus on identifying and discussing commonly used words and phrases that perpetuate social inequity. However, FCCDC have not limited their focus on minimizing linguistic bias to their monthly workshops. Traci mentioned that FCCDC has also purchased “a software called Textio... We got it one year, and it just was this buzz of helping individuals upload their written documents into the software to help them create a more neutrally toned document.”  

John and Traci also said that FCCDC has made a significant adjustment to their hiring practices. Instead of seeking out applicants who would be a good fit to their culture, they are actively looking to add complementary members from all cultural backgrounds. Traci elaborates, “we don't do a ‘perfect fit.’ We're looking to add to our culture, and not looking for culturally fit people.”  

Looking ahead, Traci plans to develop a complementary session to FCCDC’s monthly linguistic bias workshop that focuses on “when we judge people based on how they say things. That's something I'm going to be developing because I remember… somebody said they were in a job [interview]… and because of the way they said, “Ask,” they ended up being disqualified from the pool of applicants. FCCDC aspires to continue integrating racial equity into their everyday work and focusing on people who haven't had opportunity to develop wealth as well as those who have been harmed in the past to ensure that they are equitably serving their target communities in Greenfield and western Massachusetts. 

Worcester Common Ground Racial Equity Pledge Profile

November 19th, 2024 by

By Kavi Neva:

It has been four years since MACDC launched the Racial Equity Pledge, and we feel that now is a good time to reflect on it and the impact it has had on our partner CDCs across the state. To do this, we met with a few representatives from our partner CDCs to ask them how adopting the pledge has affected their work.  

Worcester Common Ground is a community development corporation targeting Worcester’s Greater Piedmont Area. They are focused on providing affordable housing, maintaining urban green spaces, tenant advocacy, and economic development. They were originally established in 1988 in reaction to rising rents, displaced families, and vacant properties.  

Due to the nature of their work, WCG was already involved in racial equity work before MACDC’s Racial Equity Pledge. Annessia Jimenez, WCG’s Community Organizer, explained that even though they were doing the work beforehand, “the Pledge just helped to instigate continuation of that work… it was very, very important to our [Executive] Director,” Yvette Dyson. Since this was the case, signing onto it two and a half years ago was a great opportunity for WCG to show solidarity with our other partner CDCs. 

Annessia Jimenez, WCG’s community organizer, explained that some of WCG’s goals for racial equity work include making less biased decisions related to tenants, working with (minority owned) businesses that reflect WCG’s values, and increasing representation within their staff during a time of turnover and expansion. Right now, about half of WCG’s staff can speak Spanish, and therefore connect with more people in the community they serve. According to Annessia, WCG’s main challenge with racial equity work and upholding our Pledge: 

is being able to dedicate time to our goals and working towards them… we're a small team. Everybody's spread thin. So, it's balancing [between] being able to do our work and dedicating the time and ensuring that we're giving enough time to [commit to racial equity] work. 

Over the last few years, WCG has worked extensively with a DEI consultant to review and evaluate their goals as well as the progress that they have made toward their goals using a system of key performance indicators (KPIs). Some of these KPIs include  

  • watching TV shows in Spanish and practicing on Duolingo to communicate with Spanish-speaking tenants and community members 

  • taking the IAT test twice with a journaling and reflection period between both tests in order to reduce bias in decision making.  

  • creating a list of MWBEs for development projects, establishing actionable and achievable hiring percentages for various trades and services, attending at least one related event per month. 

They used this system to hold themselves accountable and establish a timeline for their goals. Looking forward, WCG plans to continue upholding the Pledge, because according to Annessia, it has “helped keep [WCG] accountable, and helped us move forward in that work, instead of… not really following through with it.” 

Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation R.E.P. Profile

November 19th, 2024 by

By Kavi Neva:

It has been four years since MACDC launched the Racial Equity Pledge, and we would like to reflect on the impact it has had on our partner CDCs across the state. To do this, we met with a few representatives from our partner CDCs to ask them how adopting the pledge has affected their work.  

Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation (CSNDC) is based in South Dorchester’s Codman Square. Since the early 1980s, their mission has been “to build a cohesive and resilient community in Codman Square and South Dorchester, develop affordable housing and commercial spaces that are safe and sustainable, and promote economic stability for low- and moderate-income residents of all ages.” 

CSNDC has started explicitly incorporating racial equity into their work since adding a section to their 2016 strategic plan. When we approached them with our Racial Equity Pledge a few years later, they were eager to sign onto it. CSNDC adopted the Pledge because “it was aligned with our racial equity work already” according to Executive Director Gail Latimore. She explains how CSNDC was  

pleased when [the Pledge] was first being discussed, since it [was] birthed out of the organizers of the CDCs putting their thoughts together. It was during the time of the George Floyd tragedy, and we really felt it was important to sign on for all those reasons. And we already were very steeped in racial equity… before that. 

CSNDC’s goals for racial equity work range from providing learning opportunities for staff and board, to making changes to their hiring practices and business relationships. One of their most prominent programs is their Anti-Racism/Equity Army Academy, which was launched in 2022. The Academy is a series of four two- and a-half-hour classes over about a month. According to Gail, about 100 participants have completed these courses and “graduated” from the Academy. 

Our Pledge has also inspired CSNDC to revise some of their hiring practices. They have started posting salaries for their open jobs and making degree requirements for some open positions “a little bit more flexible as a result of the MACDC racial equity pledge.” Not only that, but they have also raised salaries for their employees. Gail explains that “at this point in time, nobody in the agency earns under $63,000 or so a year, whereas before that we had some positions that were in the 40s and 50s.” Additionally, CSNDC is taking a step back and being more intentional about what kinds of companies they are doing business with and procuring products and services from for their projects. Gail said that she and her team have been focused on working with real estate, IT, and printing companies who reflect their target “community in terms of their racial equity [and] ethnic composition.” 

Looking forward, CSNDC plans to expand their Anti-Racism/Equity Army Academy in order to continue their racial equity work now that it is “truly starting to take form. We're trying to add more classes to this academy to [provide] different informational modules that people can take.” To begin this expansion, CSNDC recently offered “Coming to Terms With Race,” a fundamental introductory class offered by the Academy to their board. Gail partially credits CSNDC’s establishment of the Academy to our Pledge, “but also to just the work that we've been doing for a while, trying to develop a body of work… We're still learning.”  

Community Teamwork Racial Equity Pledge Profile

November 19th, 2024 by

By Kavi Neva:

It has been four years since the MACDC Racial Equity Pledge was launched, and we feel that now is a good time to reflect on it and the impact it has had on our partner CDCs across the state. To do this, we met with a few representatives from our partner CDCs to ask them how adopting the pledge has affected their work.  

Community Teamwork is a community development corporation, regional housing agency and community action agency based in Lowell, but they serve residents in 74 cities and towns throughout the Middlesex and Essex Counties. Their primary mission is to be a catalyst for change by mobilizing resources for low-income people, providing opportunities for them to achieve stability, self-sufficiency and have an active voice and participation in the decisions that affect their lives.  

“Racial equity work has always been an important part of Community Teamwork’s mission and its work, even before we developed our pledge.”, Saadia Ahmad, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, explains, “I think there was a lot of alignment between the Racial Equity Pledge and what we were already doing at Community Teamwork.” Since this was the case, Community Teamwork was eager to sign the pledge. Saadia elaborates, “For us, it is important to be doing the work internally, but also to make a public proclamation.   Signing on to the Racial Equity Pledge was something we wanted to sign to hold ourselves accountable, and also to be part of this larger community of other organizations that are also doing this work.” 

One of Community Teamwork’s main goals with racial equity work is to make sure that their staff members are informed and educated, to ensure that the work they do is also equitable. They have increased the number of trainings, conversations, and other DEI activities for their staff.  which have covered everything from identity, including sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion, family status, and neurodivergence. 

Voluntary staff conversations include “JEDI Talks”, (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) and staff-led employee resource groups which facilitate conversations about components of identity and create learning opportunities and activities for the agency as a whole. In addition, Community Teamwork established their own racial equity pledge and hosted several community screenings and facilitated conversations of Who We Are: A chronicle of racism in America, by lawyer, Jeffery Robinson, a documentary film about the anti-black racism in this country, beginning from the country's origins.  

Looking forward, Community Teamwork plans to continue their racial equity work to make sure that their 600 plus staff members feel safe and included in their place of work.  Saadia explains that, “People’s lived experiences, and their identities are very much part of who they are. At CTI, we want to create more spaces and opportunities where people can be present in who they are, and more importantly feel comfortable sharing themselves with colleagues to build more of those personal relationships and have more of those personal conversations.” 

 

IBA Racial Equity Pledge Profile

November 19th, 2024 by

By Kavi Neva:

It has been four years since MACDC launched the Racial Equity Pledge, and we feel that now is a good time to reflect on it and the impact it has had on our partner CDCs across the state. To do this, we met with a few representatives from our partner CDCs to ask them how adopting the pledge has affected their work. Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) is a community development corporation based in Boston’s South End. IBA’s history is rooted in Boston’s Puerto Rican community and in organizing to protest displacement from Parcel 19 in 1968. Today, their main goal is to empower “individuals and families to improve their lives and achieve socio-economic mobility through high-quality affordable housing, education, financial and resident empowerment and arts programs” (ibaboston.org).

IBA adopted the MACDC Racial Equity Pledge since they “wanted to be a much more educated organization” according to Xavier Chavarria, IBA’s Chief Human Resource Officer. He goes on to explain that they wanted their “staff to be fully aware of what we have committed to and also to reinforce the equity and inclusion in our organization.” To adopt the pledge, IBA added it to their Strategic Plan, a dynamic document that serves as pillars to help guide them in the direction that they want to go.

IBA’s main goal for racial equity work is making sure that their staff is educated and trained. During one meeting with IBA’s internal DEI Committee (which also serves as their implementation team for MACDC’s Racial Equity Pledge), Xavier suggested finding IBA’s staff’s baseline knowledge on racial equity topics. He explains, “We wanted to know if people have heard about [DEI]. So we did a survey, for all of our staff. What we found was that a lot of our staff, while they were informed, didn't necessarily know the tenants, or principals of DEI.”

To accomplish this, IBA recently invested in professional development platform Udemy for their staff. Alongside professional development courses, Udemy also offers courses on racial equity topics. IBA plans to make a selection of these racial equity courses mandatory for staff, and if there are any gaps that they find, they plan to have racial equity consultants work with their staff to discuss these certain topics. Xavier

states that IBA made this investment to cover “all the avenues to ensure that we have a well-informed workforce to promote a more inclusive, empathic, and equitable organization environment. This is something that is going to be an ongoing process, since it doesn't just end with one presentation or one course. We feel that this is going to help us a lot.”

Alongside making this investment into their staff’s education, IBA has also made it clear that they are an equal opportunity employer and has also started to post salary ranges for their open positions. Xavier explains that they have also “added DEI questions into our performance reviews to make sure that all staff are doing their trainings and implement what they’ve been learning in the workplace. and then also to make sure that they're able to work well with our residents, because we serve a very diverse, multicultural community here at IBA in the South End, so we want to make sure that all of our staff are able to work very well with our community.”

Looking forward, IBA plans to keep their commitment to racial equity by ensuring that their implementation plans have longevity. Xavier states that racial equity at IBA

“is not something that's going to end. It's something that's going to [continue] for years to come, because it's important and the world is changing. You know, there's stuff happening every day, and IBA is committed to this pledge, that serves as a beacon for the organization.”

Worcester Common Ground Reflects on the Racial Equity Pledge

September 17th, 2024 by

By Kavi Neva:

It has been four years since MACDC launched the Racial Equity Pledge, and we feel that now is a good time to reflect on it and the impact it has had on our partner CDCs across the state. To do this, we met with a few representatives from our partner CDCs to ask them how adopting the pledge has affected their work.  

Worcester Common Ground is a community development corporation targeting Worcester’s Greater Piedmont Area. They are focused on providing affordable housing, maintaining urban green spaces, tenant advocacy, and economic development. They were originally established in 1988 in reaction to rising rents, displaced families, and vacant properties.  

Due to the nature of their work, WCG was already involved in racial equity work before MACDC’s Racial Equity Pledge. Annessia Jimenez, WCG’s Community Organizer, explained that even though they were doing the work beforehand, “the Pledge just helped to instigate continuation of that work… it was very, very important to our [Executive] Director,” Yvette Dyson. Since this was the case, signing onto it two and a half years ago was a great opportunity for WCG to show solidarity with our other partner CDCs. 

Annessia Jimenez, WCG’s community organizer, explained that some of WCG’s goals for racial equity work include making less biased decisions related to tenants, working with (minority owned) businesses that reflect WCG’s values, and increasing representation within their staff during a time of turnover and expansion. Right now, about half of WCG’s staff can speak Spanish, and therefore connect with more people in the community they serve. According to Annessia, WCG’s main challenge with racial equity work and upholding our Pledge: 

is being able to dedicate time to our goals and working towards them… we're a small team. Everybody's spread thin. So, it's balancing [between] being able to do our work and dedicating the time and ensuring that we're giving enough time to [commit to racial equity] work. 

Over the last few years, WCG has worked extensively with a DEI consultant to review and evaluate their goals as well as the progress that they have made toward their goals using a system of key performance indicators (KPIs). They used KPIs to hold themselves accountable and establish a timeline for their goals. Looking forward, WCG plans to continue upholding the Pledge, because according to Annessia, it has “helped keep [WCG] accountable, and helped us move forward in that work, instead of… not really following through with it.” 

 

MACDC and three CDCs Receive awards from Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds

December 5th, 2022 by

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has announced the 2022 awards of the Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds (MA CHHA Funds or The Funds). As part of these awards, DPH, the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) and the implementing partner Health Resources in Action, Inc. (HRiA), will join with the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, the Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts (SEACMA), Community Teamwork, Community Development Partnership (CDP) and 20 other organizations across Massachusetts and more than 35 of their community partners, including non-profit community-based organizations, municipalities, and coalitions. All of these organizations have committed to leading efforts to address the root causes of health inequities by disrupting systemic barriers to health and tackling institutional and structural racism head-on. Due to the pandemic, the need to support such efforts is even more imperative.  

 

In total ~$15.6M in grants will support 24 lead organizations and 35 of their partner organizations implementing strategies, ultimately impacting 183 cities and towns across the state. CDP’s project will be focused on the Lower Cape community and Community Teamwork will be focused on Lowell residents. SEACMA’s project will impact health outcome throughout Central and Western Massachusetts and MACDC’s efforts will be geared towards Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities. 

 

“The trust that the MA CHHA Funds (or The Funds) has put in MACDC and our members is indicative of an understanding of the huge impact that people’s economic conditions have on their health outcomes. Community development has a key role in improving those economic conditions and thereby improving health equity,” says Elana Brochin, MACDC’s Program Director for Health Equity.  

 

The goal of The Funds is to work with community partners to disrupt barriers to health, increase awareness and address the impact of structural racism on population health, and to create long-term, meaningful changes in population health outcomes.  

 

The Funds invests in initiatives in three core areas of focus including those:  

  • Working on long-lasting, community-driven policy, systems, and environmental changes that will make it easier to lead healthy lives and which will reduce health inequities such as racial patterns of segregation in communities and a lack of affordable housing production; 

  • Organizing and coordinating Community Health Improvement Planning efforts which convene multi-sector partnerships to collectively set and address community health goals, and; 

  • Working to address policies and systems that increase opportunities for healthy aging. 

 

Recognizing the complex ways in which systems impact health, the investments will support a wide range of activities across the Commonwealth.  

 

The following are descriptions of the projects on which MACDC and our members will be embarking with support from the Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds: 

 

CDP’s Lower Cape Community Housing Partnership addresses housing insecurity in the Lower Cape region equipping residents, business owners, community leaders and local officials with the knowledge and skills needed to support the creation of more homes in the eight towns of the Lower Cape. With this funding CDP will use the community organizing component of the program to support systems change around land use policies in order to increase housing production.   

 

Community Teamwork will establish Advancing Housing Equity for Seniors project, in partnership with Age Friendly Lowell, Coalition for a Better Acre, REACH Lowell, and Community Teamwork’s AmeriCorps Senior Programs to address the root cause of housing instability among low-income seniors.   

 

SEACMA’s Health Aging-In-Place project is planning to address interconnected barriers to aging- in-place in a way that is secure and healthy. SEACMA will assess, plan, and implement culturally relevant service expansion for Southeast Asian elders in Central and Western Massachusetts; advocate for the implementation of culturally relevant services and programs with partner organizations; and engage and train elders and their caregivers for self-advocacy.   

 

MACDC’s Housing Quality and Health (HQH) Equity Initiative will tackle poor housing quality and associated housing instability, and address the corresponding racial health inequities, by improving existing housing stock in Gateway Cities.  

 

“Through partnership with Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds, MACDC and our members will have significant positive impact on health outcomes in our communities throughout the state,” says Brochin. 

 

The Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds were created in January 2017 when DPH completed a landmark revision of its Determination of Need (DoN) regulation, which authorized the creation of these Funds.  DPH provides overall guidance to the Funds and Health Resources in Action, Inc. acts as a fiduciary and implementing partner. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) partners with DPH to support the Healthy Aging Fund. 

 

More information about the Funds can be found at https://mahealthfunds.org/

In Memory of Thomas Ruffen

September 3rd, 2022 by

The Mel King Institute mourns the passing of Thomas Ruffen, who worked as a trainer at our Resident Leadership Academy. Thomas was an incredibly gifted organizer and community leader. His death is a senseless tragedy for the Mildred C. Hailey community and beyond. He will be missed by our staff, trainers, and the public housing residents he trained throughout Massachusetts.

In March the Mel King Institute recorded Thomas telling the story of how he, other residents, and GBIO secured $50 million in badly needed funding for Mildred C. Hailey. The story is available here.

Massachusetts CDCs invested more than $1.4B in local communities in 2021 – The MACDC GOALs Report

August 18th, 2022 by

The Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC), on Wednesday, August 10th, released its 2022 GOALs Report, which reflects data collected from calendar year 2021. The report shows that, in 2021, CDCs in Massachusetts collectively invested $1.453 Billion in local communities – the largest annual investment made by CDCs in their history.

The MACDC GOALs Report, first launched in 2002, is the most comprehensive tracking of CDC performance in the Commonwealth. It measures performance across six areas of community development: 1) resident leaders engaged; 2) homes built or preserved; 3) job opportunities created or preserved; 4) entrepreneurs supported; 5) families supported; and 6) funds invested in communities through CDCs.

In 2021, as communities continued to recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic, CDCs played an essential role in community resilience, and in efforts to redress and reduce- and make progress toward eliminating- unjust disparities in the pandemic’s impacts.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that these impacts are greater than in 2020. However, in comparing the collective impact of CDCs in 2021 to 2019, pre-COVID, CDC contributions to community resilience jump off the page!

  • 1,717 homes were created or preserved, 11% more than in 2019
  • 6,744 jobs were created or preserved, a 62% increase from 2019
  • 3,416 entrepreneurs were provided technical or financial assistance, almost 3 times the 1,256 entrepreneurs provided such assistance in 2019
  • 86,124 families were served, 23% more than in 2019
  • $1.45 billion was invested, a 58% increase from 2019.

MACDC would like to thank our member CDCs for participating in the GOALs Survey, and recognize them for the amazing work they continue to do in their communities year over year. We would also like to thank the Massachusetts Housing Partnership for supporting the MACDC GOALs Initiative.

Read the full report.

Legislative session concludes with some wins and some disappointments

August 17th, 2022 by

For MACDC and our members, we ended the legislative session feeling accomplished about numerous wins in the state operating budget including, level funding of $7M for Small Business Technical Assistance, over $30M in grants to small businesses, and $15M for the Community Empowerment and Reinvestment grant program. However, in a disappointing turn of events the session ended with the Legislature neglecting to finalize the Economic Development Bill. For MACDC, this meant leaving over $400M for affordable housing and over $75M to BIPOC small businesses unfinished. We hope that the legislature will address these critical issues during informal sessions this fall. 

Throughout the session MACDC also advocated and organized around numerous policy initiatives that would help to create healthier homes across the Commonwealth, increase dedicated funding for affordable housing and climate change, provide tenants an opportunity to purchase their homes, and decarbonize existing buildings. Although progress was made building support for these programs and educating leaders about their importance, in the end the following pieces of legislation did not pass this session:  

  • Massachusetts Healthy Homes Initiative (MHHI)  
  • Housing and Environment Revenue Opportunity (HERO) Act  
  • Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA)  
  • Zero Carbon Renovation Fund   

As we work on our planning this fall for the upcoming 2023/2024 legislative session, the continuation of these campaigns will remain top of mind.  

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