2003 Grants

Associated Grant Makers received a membership renewal at the $1,000 level. AGM provides a resource library and a Massachusetts Grantmakers’ Directory that is available on-line. The organization also offers numerous skill-building and issue related seminars for donors and nonprofit organizations. Through its “Giving New England” program, AGM is a leader in promoting philanthropy in New England.

The Boston Foundation received a $4,000 grant toward establishing a Massachusetts/Rhode Island Chapter of the Racial Justice Collaborative. Pooled fund of local and national dollars will support collaborations between lawyers and community activists as they address problems of structural exclusion and racism.

Boston Latin School Association received $4,500 for an Exam School Initiative, a program to increase representation at city exam schools from neighborhoods and feeder schools that traditionally are under-represented. This voluntary three-week summer program serves approximately 300 students who learn study skills and acquire academic tools in order to gain entrance to exam schools.  Students learn study skills and acquire academic tools while demystifying the exam school experience.

The Boston Ten Point Coalition, a minority-led coalition of Boston churches, was established in the early 1990’s in response to an epidemic of youth violence in the City. The Coalition, nationally recognized for its work with youth, parents, Boston police and public schools, received a $1,000 grant toward its 2002 Awards Ceremony.

Center for Independent Documentary Corporation received $4,500 to support filming of the first segment of Aimee Sands’ documentary “What Makes Me White?” The film examines the racial socialization of white people provoking thought and discussion of causes of racism. The first segment of the film will be used in diversity workshops and community outreach programs; the completed film will become a full-length documentary for PBS. The formation of white racial identity and white privilege will be explored through a series of interviews and readings.

Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp. received $4,500 to provide training for staff, volunteers, and youth leaders who run the agency’s youth programming. Youth Links serves a diverse neighborhood of African American, Cape Verdean, Caucasian, Latino, and Asian residents. Workshops and training for staff and volunteers are intended to increase cross-cultural understanding and create a more tolerant climate within the programs. It is hoped that this investment will lead to increased multicultural awareness and understanding within the larger Uphams Corner community.

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative was given a $5,000 grant to support the design and piloting of a module on race, racism, and power. DSNI is a neighborhood-based community revitalization organization serving one of the poorest areas in the city. The organization works as a neighborhood coalition conducting resident-led organizing and planning while collaborating with partner agencies that perform physical redevelopment and social service functions. The program is intended to tackle difficult issues in light of recent media coverage of crime and violence within the community. The project will be offered in three languages to a cross-section of community residents.

Four Corners Action Coalition received a $3,000 grant for the benefit of the Washington Street Corridor Coalition. This grant is to support an ongoing project to mobilize corridor residents to influence state transportation policy. The Coalition is organizing efforts to build support for a light rail replacement service. When the elevated Orange Line of the MBTA was closed in 1987, Roxbury lost all three of its train stations on the Washington Street Corridor. Many residents who depended on the train have been inadequately served by a bus service, which has proven to be a costly and more polluting alternative.

Harvard University Civil Rights Project received $25,000, the first installment of a two-year commitment to fund the Metro Boston Equity Initiative, a comprehensive study of race in the City of Boston. The study will produce a series of reports on racial change as inequities in housing, education, and employment, and will include an attitudinal survey of residents in the metropolitan area. It is hoped that these reports will provide the stimulus for broad discussion among community groups, local and state leaders, media, and civil rights organizations.

Judge Baker Children’s Center received $500 in support of their World of Children awards ceremony, an annual event that recognizes people who have made significant contributions to the welfare of children in the City of Boston. This year, Foundation Trustee Hubie Jones was among the honorees.

Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ received a $1,000 grant for the benefit of the Amistad to Boston Host Committee. The Amistad is an historic replication of the freedom schooner. The ship serves as a floating classroom and monument to the millions whose lives were broken or lost as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The grant supported a youth conversation on race, which took place while the ship made its visit to Boston in October of 2003.

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Inc. received a $4,500 grant to support the agency’s work on behalf of immigrant students in Boston.

University of Massachusetts Foundation f/b/o Institute for Asian American Studies received $5,000 in support of “The New Majority: Uniting Boston’s Communities of Color,” a conference held in October of 2003. The conference is an important step in the process of uniting communities of color, which now constitute the majority of the city’s population, to work together on a common agenda. This collaborative effort of the University’s Asian American, Gaston, and Trotter Institutes will engage elected officials, community leaders, and practitioners to develop a common agenda and strategies to reflect the changing demographics in the city.

The Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts received a $4,000 grant in support of City-Wide Dialogues on Boston’s Ethnic and Racial Diversity. This new initiative engages residents of all Boston neighborhoods in multi-session, facilitated discussions about race and ethnicity for the purpose of increasing understanding, decreasing stereotyping, and building relationships. Within a year, the project will have engaged 1,000 Boston residents, including youth groups and employers, at twenty neighborhood sites.

Women Express, publisher of the national magazine Teen Voices, works to further social and economic justice by empowering teenage and young adult women in Boston. The agency received a $2,500 grant for a diversity training initiative for its staff and board, to educate them on various issues of diversity. Diversity training will enhance the agency’s ability to lead the organization, foster a shared understanding among staff, board members, and youth participants, and will result in a diversified volunteer group that more closely reflects its constituency.