Category: Social Justice
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Long-Running Lunch Program at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul
Robert Sondak Spare Change News The Monday Lunch Program at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in downtown Boston was founded 29 years ago. Since 1983, this program has been providing a hot lunch every Monday at noon to people who do not have a kitchen of their own. Membership has grown over the past…
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Transgender Equal Rights Law Shows Promising Start: New laws, while flawed, pave new ways for transgender rights
Noelle Swan Spare Change News Kim McMurray began her medical transition from male to female at 49 years old. “If I had done this in my early teens, there’s a good chance I’d have ended up in a psychiatric ward and shock therapy wasn’t uncommon then.” She waited half a century to live as her…
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“Pedagogy of the Oppressed”: Teaching, Learning and the Immigrant Experience Part III
Jacques Fleury Spare Change News “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” Paulo Freire In my previous articles, I explored the teaching techniques and ideologies in Paulo Freire’s book: “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” a text…
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Mass. GLBT Teens Still Face Disproportionate Risks in Public Schools
Noelle Swan Spare Change News Through tears, Roger Bourgeois described an evening when his high school-age son sat him and his wife down at the kitchen table to tell them why their life would be better if he were dead because he was broken. As they tried to assure him that things would get better…
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Letter: An encounter with decency on the street
I just finished reading Marc Goldfinger’s recent column on his history with Spare Change News. I’ve never read SC, actually. Not until today. I randomly bought a copy today through a random series of events. Actually I bought ten copies. Your vendor, Michael, over on Church Street, made a good sale. Half the time, I…
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Editorial: Empty gestures on homelessness
It’s easy to fault Rhode Island’s recently passed Homeless Bill of Rights as a gimmicky gesture. The bill, among other things, guarantees a person the right to use public sidewalks, parks and transportation as well as public buildings “without discrimination on the basis of his or her housing status.” It also guarantees a “reasonable expectation…
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IMMIGRANT ACTIVISTS DITCH HUNGER STRIKE, PLAN TO THANK PATRICK INSTEAD
By Michael Norton STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, JUNE 26, 2012. Encouraged by Gov. Deval Patrick’s statements Monday after they questioned his commitment to defeating “anti-immigrant” budget proposals, activists have called off a planned hunger strike and State House sit-in and instead will send thank-you delegations to Patrick’s office and hold a press…
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Homeless Veterans To Benefit From More Than $15 Million In Job Training Grants
by Mike Volpe US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHINGTON — Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today announced the award of 64 grants totaling more than $15 million that are aimed at providing approximately 8,600 homeless veterans nationwide with job training to help them succeed in civilian careers. The grants are being awarded under the U.S.…
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Harvard Square Business Association Trains Homeless Ambassadors
By Adam Sennott SPARE CHANGE NEWS For a few minutes, Denise Jillson was homeless, pregnant and HIV positive. However, when time was up, Jillson went back to being the executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association. On June 2, members of the Harvard Square Business Association gathered with homeless advocates at the Harvard-Epworth United…
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Editorial: Helping People Help Themselves for 20 Years
A handful of not-so-likely-to-succeed homeless people started a newspaper 20 years ago. They were staying at a homeless shelter in Harvard Square, and they had a dream. A big dream. It was a little crazy. They dreamed about rising above their plight, their misery, their station in life. Staying in homeless shelters, frankly, was a…