As members of the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance (MSGA), MACDC enthusiastically endorses the Great Neighborhoods campaign, led by MSGA, which is all about safeguarding and securing many of the things we all care about: better housing choices for families and seniors; more vibrant, walkable downtowns that promote healthy living and local businesses; and a development approach that preserves natural resources and protects us from climate change.

You may already know some of the following unfortunate facts:

· The median home sale price is now over $400,000 while the median rent in the state is $2600 per month. Nearly some quarter-million families in Massachusetts pay more than half their income on housing.

· At the same time, 13 acres of open space are lost to sprawling development in Massachusetts, and the average single-family lot in Metro Boston is now larger than a professional football field.

· At least 52% of Americans want to live in places where they do not have to use a car often.

You can learn more about the Campaign, sign the petition, and read the Call to Action here, which lists organizations that endorse these shared principles. Please contact Larry Field at the MA Smart Growth Alliance if your organization can endorse the Campaign. His email address is larry@ma-smartgrowth.org.

A broad range of organizations has joined the Great Neighborhoods campaign to promote its core principles and to call on state leaders to pass a strong bill this session that addresses the housing crisis and looks to create healthier, walkable places to live and thrive. We urge that your organization join the Great Neighborhoods campaign and that you individually sign the petition calling on state leaders to act!

Undoing Racism Workshop: Moving Forward

If you have ever attended an Undoing Racism Workshop and are left wondering what to do next, there is an opportunity coming up next month. The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and the Undoing Racism Workshop is at the forefront of anti-racist training and community organizer training. The Haymarket People’s Fund in partnership with the Boston College CHRIJ and LSOE, Simmons SSW, and the Mel King Institute, are happy to announce a regroup session open to anyone that has ever attended an Undoing Racism Workshop. This session revisits concepts from the workshop to discuss, reflect, and apply those themes to our lives and communities. This winter’s community regroup session will take place Friday November 3^rd from 4 pm to 6 pm at the Nate Smith House Conference Room, 155 Lamartine St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. 

Community organizers Ronald Chisom and Dr. Jim Dunn founded The People’s Institute in 1980 to support a “collective of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers, and educators dedicated to building an effective movement for social transformation.” They work with individuals, communities, organizations, and institutions to undo the causes of racism and to create a society where race is no longer a barrier preventing communities and individuals from building communities and “effective coalitions.”

The Undoing Racism Workshop is one of The People’s Institute’s main Anti-Racist Principles in their mission to achieve effective social transformation. Through an intensive two-and-half-day workshop The People’s Institute asked difficult questions in hopes of molding active community organizers. The workshop consisted of four distinct themes—listed below—addressing how participants contribute to outlined ecosystem and what an organizer’s role is.

• Why are people poor?
• Community power analysis
• What is gatekeeping?
• Deconstructing internalized racial oppression

The winter regroup session on Friday, November 3^rd from 4 pm to 6 pm at ---- is a chance for all those that have ever attended the Undoing Racism Workshop to remember key lessons and discover resources for moving forward. The People’s Institute created the workshop as a tool not to address the symptoms of racism, but undo the causes that have integrated into everyday life. Come out to the regroup session to find resources and forge connections with the aim of creating “a more just and equitable society.”

For more information, please reach out to Mahlet Moges at MahletM@macdc.org or Courtnye Lloyd at LLOYDCB@bc.edu