Spare Change News

Category: Social Justice

Inmate Spends Ten Days in solitary Confinement to Protest Lack of Clean Water

Wayland Coleman, an inmate at MCI-Norfolk — a prison that has been under scrutiny for inaction regarding its dirty and potentially harmful water — spent ten days in solitary confinement late March for attempting to distribute bottled water he had purchased to fellow prisoners. Coleman, who has been working alongside prisoner advocates to help quell…

May 9, 2018
On Good Friday, a Family Fights for Their Home

“Wells Fargo, you can’t hide. We can see your greedy side,” chanted the crowd standing in front of the Mason family’s home on Elmont Street in Dorchester. About 30 people protested for the Mason family against Wells Fargo on the evening of Good Friday. The family has been trying to buy their house back for…

April 26, 2018
Q&A with Tray Johns, Advocate for Incarcerated Women

Tray Johns is head of Fedfam4life, a sisterhood to restore incarcerated women and former prisoners, focusing on women of color and LGBT women. Her knowledge of the law, her ability to stand up for her rights and for those of her sisters and brothers is astounding. It’s fitting, since as a child Johns dreamed of…

April 26, 2018
Children’s March Urges Gov. Baker to Strengthen Legal Protections for Immigrant Families

On Thursday, April 19, 2018, the Essex County Community Organization (ECCO) lead the Children’s March at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. The march was organized to protest federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policies that target immigrant families. Marchers gathered at the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial in the Boston Common, with children directly affected…

April 25, 2018
Poor People’s Campaign Plans 40 Days of Non-Violent Protest

More than 450 people met in Quincy for the Mass. Meeting of the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign on Friday, April 6. Savina Martin, a long time activist who is one of three co-chairs of the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign, opened up the meeting, calling on people to raise their voices “to say enough is enough…

April 24, 2018
Nonprofit Sector Needs to Recruit and Promote Leaders of Color, Report Finds

From left to right_ Michael James of Old Colony YMCA, Imari Paris Jeffries of Parenting Journey, Cassie Scarano of Commongood Careers (ceo and co-founder), Celina Miranda executive director of the Hyde Square Task Force and Jocelyn Sarg\Nonprofit leaders were asked to take an inward look at their sector to analyze why its leadership is not…

April 23, 2018
Mass. Bill Pushes Back Against Implementation of Video Only Prison Visits

Maintaining contact with family is important to the wellbeing of people who are incarcerated, and a bill in Massachusetts’ state legislature would ensure that in-person visits are protected. The visitation provision is part of a much larger criminal justice reform bill. According to Lucius Couloute, policy analyst with the Prison Policy Initiative, some sheriffs’ departments…

April 23, 2018
Mass. Advocates for Children: Fighting for the Rights of Young Students

Readers, imagine yourself waiting for the most opulent being in your life: your child. As the yellow bus approaches, you feel calm, ready to hear your child’s stories of the day. The bus stops, you see your child. As your little one runs to your arms, you ask the same question you have asked a…

April 16, 2018
Salvadoran Deportations: U.S. Rejects Refugees From Country it Helped Destabilize

Carrying a red plastic bag containing an old pair of shoes and a few other belongings, David Antonio Pérez arrives in El Salvador, deported from the United States. David Antonio, 42, is a divorced father of two who has lived in the U.S. for a total of 12 years. He has spent five years in…

April 13, 2018
Housing Justice Activists Rally to Support Jim Brooks Act and Keep Tenants From Eviction

Over 150 people took to the streets of Roxbury on Saturday, March 17 to stand in solidarity with tenants facing eviction in the area, and to urge a state house vote on the Jim Brooks Act which would potentially curb housing displacement in Boston. Despite the rally’s large attendance and political support, the Massachusetts General…

April 9, 2018