Category: Uncategorized
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Building a Bridge: Spare Change News featured in State House exhibit
Photo: Sam Amore Spare Change News vendors stood alongside Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr and Senator Patrick O’Connor this Monday at the unveiling of a new exhibit at the State House. The exhibit, entitled “Building a Bridge: Spare Change News Past, Present and Future,” displayed the work the paper has done in its career of…
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HUD awards Local Homeless and Service Programs $7.8 Million
Dozens of local Homeless housing and service programs received a boost from the Department of Housing and Urban Development recently as the agency continues to work towards President Barack Obama’s goals to prevent and end homelessness. HUD announced in a press release that 39 homeless housing and service programs in Massachusetts received $7.8 million in…
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Life in the Survivor’s Camp: Stories of Yazidi Trials and Tribulations
Photo credit: Taylor Smith On the fringe of Khanke Refugee Camp, lives a small settlement of escaped Yazidi women from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Coming from Solak, a village 5km from Sinjar, theirs is a journey of never ending heartbreak. “50 members of my family are in the hands of ISIS.…
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Spare Change News and HSBA partners announce The Empathy Project
Harvard Square Business Association just announced the Empathy Project, a collaboration between Spare Change News, Homeless Empowerment Project, and our fellow Harvard Square Business Association member, the Community Charter School of Cambridge. The project is organized by SCN interns and CCSC seniors Yusef Ferhani and Christy Felix. On May 7th, the, National Day of Service, high…
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Vending from Coast to Coast: An Interview with Marlon Crump
My name is Mike, and I’ve been a Spare Change News vendor at Whole Foods Market on Prospect Street in Central Square, Cambridge for over six years. This past October, I visited a friend in Portland, Oregon. One day, while in downtown Portland, I came out of a 7 Eleven Store and saw a blue-suited…
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The Fireman by Joe Hill: A Book Review
“Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” Once the fire starts it’s nothing but trouble. You can spell trouble D-E-A-T-H! It really does take a Fireman to put out a fire. It also takes a nurse, one with true compassion, not faked; the children see right through faked compassion, to ease them when they’re sick. Harper…
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The Power of Unity and Awareness: Reflections from the National Alliance to End Homelessness Conference 2016
When looking for a solution to a problem as big as youth and family homelessness, it’s obvious that we cannot think small. As an advocate, I don’t often see youth and family homelessness addressed at the same event. However, it’s important that they are. Think about it for a moment: the only difference between a…
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Boston Housing Authority receives over $17 million for capital improvements
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the Boston Housing Authority more than $17 million in its annual capital investments campaign this year, HUD announced on Feb. 11. According to the BHA, it is the largest public housing authority in New England and the sixth largest in the nation. “Our capital funding has…
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At Anime Boston, fans give back
Photo: Kotarou Kagamine Thousands of anime fans, cosplayers, and self-identified geeks will flock to the Hynes Convention Center this weekend for Anime Boston for events like autograph signings, cosplay contests, and special screenings, among others. To outsiders, the annual convention is probably best associated with its costumed participants who flood the Prudential Center, and many…
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Dear Albania: Eliza Dushku discusses Immigration, Bernie Sanders, and Homelessness
Photo Credit: Zengzheng Wang Watertown native and Buffy The Vampire Slayer actress Eliza Dushku didn’t have dreams of being an actress. She didn’t really have much interest in it at all, until she followed her brother to a casting call in Boston when they were kids. But even with her serendipitous trip to that casting…