Author: Jessica Colarossi
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Climate activists and congress members push for a Green New Deal
Sunrise Movement held a protest on Capitol Hill. Photo: Ken Schles. “We’re gonna fix our climate, we’re gonna clean our air, and we’re gonna put people to work,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said to a crowd of protesters in front of the John F. Kennedy School of Government on Wednesday, December 5. She was joined by incoming…
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Ending Youth Homelessness: An Interview With the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Homeless Coalition
Kelly Turley (second from right), Associate Director of the Massachusetts Homeless Coalition, talks to Spare Change News about the challenge of ending youth homelessness in the Commonwealth. On any given night in Massachusetts, hundreds of unaccompanied young adults and youth are homeless for a variety of reasons. According to the 2017 Massachusetts Youth Count conducted by…
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At Rosie’s Place, a legal program helps vulnerable women navigate immigration, debt and everything in between
For over 40 years in Boston’s South End neighborhood, Rosie’s Place has opened its doors to homeless and impoverished women seeking assistance and safety. The bustling lobby rarely — if ever — slows down. A little past the front desk, the office of the legal assistance program has become increasingly in-demand and growing to meet…
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Boston Resists Trump’s Domestic Gag Rule
Boston City Hall Plaza was a sea of pink on Tuesday, May 24, where protesters gathered outside the regional office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to speak out against President Trump’s proposed domestic gag rule. The rule, submitted last week, takes direct aim at Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health organizations…
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Mayor Walsh Reaffirms Boston’s Immigrants and Refugee Community
Mayor Marty Walsh poses with children before the forum. All photos: Jessica Colarossi. On Friday, Feb. 24, Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center hosted an Immigrant and Refugee Community Forum designed to bring resources from the City of Boston to communities impacted by recent federal executive orders and to…
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Boston Shows Up For Equality
On January 21, 2017, women across the world made history. Over 125,000 Bostonians and New Englanders gathered in the Boston Common to march in solidarity with communities affected most by intolerance, hate and injustice. Symbolically, the event took place the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. “United…
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Helping Homeless Women Manage Their Periods Around the World
In two short years as of this December, 18-year-old Nadya Okamoto and her organization, Camions of Care, will have managed to provide feminine hygiene care for over 48,000 individual women’s menstrual cycles. That’s a lot of periods. As Okamoto has pointed out many times in her advocacy work, every women on the planet has their…
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Harvard Food Workers Strike, Ongoing
Photo: Jessica Colarossi For the first time in more than 30 years, Harvard food service employees are on strike. Protests began early morning Wednesday, October 5, with hundreds of workers and student gathering around dining halls and marching, drumming and chanting along Massachusetts Avenue. “Shame on you! Shame on you!” a group of protesters were…
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What Does Massachusetts’ Low Unemployment Rate Mean for the State’s Homeless?
This past August, the Massachusetts unemployment rate hit a substantial low, dropping from 4.1 percent in July to 3.9 percent—the lowest it has been in 15 years. With 5,900 jobs added last month, the last time the state’s jobless rate was this low was August 2001. The added jobs were primarily in leisure and hospitality,…
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Can We Completely End Veteran Homelessness?
Veteran homelessness has been a consistent problem in the United States dating as far back as World War II. While 17 percent of our entire homeless population is made up of veterans, just 8 percent of Americans claim veteran status, according to Green Doors, a homelessness organization in Central Texas. Earlier this year it was…