Written 3/16/2020, published today A program that transforms the negative impacts of criminal punishment, the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), provides incarcerated individuals higher education opportunities that culminate into degrees from Bard College. As Max Kenner, the executive director of BPI, describes it, the crisis of mass incarceration is the central part of the story of…
Overcoming Challenges, One Employment Opportunity at a Time
Written 3/12/2020, published today While many agencies across the nation are working on initiatives to address addiction and support individuals affected by addiction, one organization is taking a unique approach. Advocates for Human Potential (AHP) is a consulting firm in Massachusetts that specializes in behavioral health in order to support vulnerable and disenfranchised populations. The…
Daily Table: An Innovative Approach to Accessing Healthy Food at the Grocery Store
In the years after his 2012 retirement, Doug Rauch began to formulate a plan for a grocery store with healthy food options sold at a reasonable price. Three years later, in 2015, the former president of Trader Joe’s opened Daily Table, a non-profit retail grocery store, in Dorchester. In 2018, a second location opened in…
Cambridge Nonprofit Coalition: Bringing communities together, one organization at a time
In the nonprofit ecosystem, many organizations feature equity and justice among their core goals, and in 2013, a few Cambridge-based non-profit organizations decided to come together to coordinate and increase support for each other’s work. The result of these meetings became the Cambridge Nonprofit Coalition (CNC), said Darrin Korte, chair of CNC’s Membership and Governance…
Addressing Poverty Through Policy Reform
Statewide Poverty Action Network (Poverty Action) understands that the root causes of issues such as homelessness are policies that only benefit a small and elite group of people that have put them in place. According to Adriana Lasso-Harrier, the communications manager of the organization, the goal of Poverty Action is to make policy changes that…
From the Street to the Finish Line
Photo by Margarita Dreyer. When a woman walked into homeless shelters in Philadelphia in 2007 and asked residents if they wanted to go for a run, she didn’t know that by 2019 her individual gesture would be a movement. Back on my Feet has grown from one woman to an organization with 13 chapters nationwide.…
Are you equipped to respond to an opioid overdose?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 1999 to 2017 more than 702,000 people died from a drug overdose. In 2017, more than 70,000 people died from drug overdoses, making it a leading cause of injury-related deaths in the United States. Of those deaths, almost 68 percent involved opioids. Communities are taking…
FANG Collective works to ‘shut down ICE’
Activists disrupt a meeting being held between ICE officials and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald in March 2019. Photo courtesy of FANG Collective As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweeps through immigrant communities, disrupting lives and breaking up families, some local law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts have solidified their desire to help ICE into…
A Case for Safe Injection Facilities: SIFMA NOW
There are plenty of risks that come with injecting drugs into one’s body, from communicable diseases and infections, to overdoses and death. As overdoses continue unabated, some concerned citizens are advocating for safe injection sites. Supervised Injection Facilities in Massachusetts NOW (SIFMA NOW) is a Boston-based coalition dedicated to bringing safe injection facilities, where those…
SPOT: An Innovative Approach to Reduce Deaths, Provide Treatment and Build Relationships
Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) has been providing care to over 12,000 homeless individuals since 1985. As one of the oldest programs in the city that serves the homeless, it is always building creative and accessible ways to serve vulnerable populations. In April 2016, BHCHP established SPOT, which stands for Supportive Place…
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