Category: Social Justice
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Special Court Seeks to Meet Needs of Homeless Offenders
by Abigail Collins BOSTON, Mass.—Once a month, a small room with welcoming light blue walls at the Pine Street Inn in Boston’s South End serves as a courtroom. The court rises as First Justice Kathleen Coffey enters to begin hearing cases from defendants who have come to Homeless Court. “It’s a non-intimidating environment,” said Elizabeth…
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Showly Nicholson Looks to a New Platform for Helping the Homeless
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Harvard Square is, in many ways, an excellent snapshot of the unique qualities that define the greater Boston area: the same street corners and T stations that are frequented by Harvard University’s most promising students, and homeless individuals who don’t know when they will get their next meal. These streets are also the breeding…
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Does It Really Matter?
So the elections have come and gone, and for the first time in eight years here in Mass. a Republican will be in the State House. I voted this past Tuesday, but like thousands who stayed home I wondered if it would make a difference. I mean, really, does it matter who is in the…
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Remembering Menino: The Former Mayor’s Legacy on Social Justice
The late Mayor Tom Menino’s impact on the city of Boston was easy to see after his death on the morning of Oct. 30. Thousands visited his casket in Fanuiel Hall on Saturday, Nov. 2, and thousands more lined the route of his funeral procession the next day. As the oft-repeated statistic claims, more than…
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New City Commission on Black Men and Boys Comes to a Vote
BOSTON, Mass.—The founder of the New Democracy Coalition, Kevin C. Peterson, recently wrote an opinion piece in the Boston Herald giving Boston’s officials a red flag. “The status of black and Latino men and boys must become one of the city’s priorities,” Peterson said. “If it doesn’t, we are just kicking the can further down…
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Culture’s Role on Latino Mental Health Patients
BOSTON, Mass.—When it comes to treating Latino patients with chronic mental health illnesses, social and cultural activities such as cooking and playing board games can be an important part of their recovery. The Connexions Day Treatment Program at the North Suffolk Mental Health Association is a short-term day and evening program offered in English, Spanish,…
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Cambridge Weekend Backpack Program Tackles Problem of Childhood Hunger
CAMBRIDGE, Mass—Alanna Mallon spends her Friday mornings sorting food into neat piles and packaging it up. She’s part of the Cambridge Weekend Backpack Program (CWBP) — a volunteer-run food distribution program that provides food backpacks for food-insecure children to take home over weekends and school holidays. Volunteers at each school package the food under the…
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A Pissing Contest
In the May 2 issue of Spare Change News carried a cover story called “Infrastructure Inequality” by Alex Ramirez about the Long Island Bridge, which connects Boston’s homeless to the city’s Long Island Shelter via a bus route through Quincy. The bridge is old and rickety and has been in decay for years. It is…