Category: Social Justice
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College Representatives Meet with Mayor Walsh to Discuss Student Housing Conditions
BOSTON, Mass.—On June 3, Mayor Marty Walsh met with representatives from all 22 of Boston’s colleges to discuss the safety of students living off campus. Students in Allston and Brighton, as well as other neighborhoods, often live in old, dilapidated buildings. Landlords skimp on renovations while keeping rent prices high, leaving students in pest-infested and…
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Nowhere to Go: Youth Aging Out of Foster Care Struggle to Find Stability
Esohe Omo rolled the stroller holding her 18-month-old daughter, Sindy, through the doorstep of the Young Adult Resource Network (YARN) building in Dorchester. She visits YARN every week to meet up with some friends and fellow foster youth to eat some dinner or ask the life coaches for help finding a place to stay. “I…
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Youth Aging Out: An Interview with CFCS Executive Director Maria Mossaides
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Every year, hundreds of young adults become ineligible to continue receiving care from the Commonwealth’s Department of Children and Families due to age restrictions. Maria Mossaides, executive director of Cambridge Family and Children’s Service and co-chair of the Massachusetts Task Force on Youth Aging Out of Foster Care, works to help many of these…
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Forty Years Later, Busing Crisis Stirs Controversy
BOSTON, Mass.—Three Boston city councilors stirred up controversy recently by voting “present” when Councilor Charles Yancey proposed a resolution to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. While 10 of the 13 councilors voted in favor,…
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To Protect and Serve? Police Militarization from "Urban Shield" Has Boston Residents Worried
Faneuil Hall was full of tourists, the smell of food and the sound of a street performer drumming on buckets. A circus tent was set up just outside City Hall Plaza, the sounds of the announcer and the cheering audience filling the typically empty plaza. No one – not the tourists, not the street performers,…
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Somerville Reforms Immigration by Withdrawing from Secure Communities Program
SOMERVILLE, Mass.—Mayor Joe Curtatone took historic steps toward the protection of undocumented immigrants on when he signed an executive order to withdraw the city from Secure Communities, a program enacted by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) two years ago to remove undocumented immigrants who pose a threat to public safety. “[The program] is a…
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Forum to Come Up with Solutions for Working Families
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. —The White House, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Center for American Progress held a forum in Cambridge last week about solutions to help working families. It is part of a series of regional meetings leading up to the Working Families Summit in Washington D.C. on June 23. The forum kicked off…
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Cambridge Panel Looks at Homelessness and Mental Illness
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Cambridge/Middlesex County (NAMI Cambridge-Middlesex) sponsored a panel called “Homelessness and Mental Illness” on May 6. The program featured authors, activists and professionals in the field working to assist those who find themselves both homeless and managing a psychiatric disorder. The panelists included Ana Miranda, author of the…
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Assault: The Beating of a Homeless Man in Allston is Part of a Nationwide Trend
ALLSTON, Mass.— On January 26 at 2 a.m., two men – C. J. Parsons and Anthony Varrichione – allegedly assaulted a homeless man named Michael Hudson in front of a house on Allston St., where the two men were at a party. According to witnesses, Hudson had been asking for money After telling him to…
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An Interview with the AIDS Action Committee’s New Executive Director, Carl Sciortino
BOSTON, Mass.—After nine years representing the 34th Middlesex District as a state representative, Carl Sciortino of Medford left the legislature last month to join the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts as its executive director. He formally announced his resignation in March, effective as of April 7. In the legislature, Sciortino served on the Joint Committee…