Retail District Improvement

Friends of Peabody Square

Mailing Address (if different than physical location): 

Greater Ashmont Main Street's office is at 1914 Dorchester Ave, Dorchester MA 02124

Phone: 

(617) 825-3846

Email: 

FoPSAshmont@gmail.com

Website: 

https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofPeabodySquare

Hours of operation (or meeting times & dates): 

(Please check the facebook page.)

Mission: 

The Friends of Peabody Square seeks to:

-Serve as local liaison between community businesses, residents and city and state authorities to ensure the present (2011) traffic infrastructure construction project is completed according to community's wishes 
-Develop a maintenance-savvy volunteer group to help manage ongoing basic cleanup and maintenance efforts
-Develop various creative programming to activate the three public spaces, and
-Help raise money to support the group's work.

Location

Peabody Square
Dorchester Avenue Ashmont Street
Dorchester 02124
United States
Key Partners: 

Greater Ashmont Main Street

How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

Check the facebook page.

Community Meeting Space Available: 

at Greater Ashmont Main Street office 1900 Dorchester Ave.

Created: 
12/02/2011

Neighborhood Response Team (NRT)

Phone: 

617-635-4500

Email: 

Flavio.Daveiga@cityofboston.gov (Bowdoin-Geneva); Walter.Applewhite@cityofboston.gov (Mattapan)

Mission: 

The Neighborhood Response Team (NRT), a cross-departmental group representing Public Works, Transportation, Inspectional Services, and the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, seeks to address the local and specific issues affecting Boston's neighborhoods. Meeting with residents, community organizations, and numerous municipal bodies, the Team will focus on basic city services and improvements such as street lighting and sidewalk repairs, prioritizing trash and debris removal, and cracking down on problem properties and health and safety violations.

As of Nov. 2011, there are three regular NRT meetings, to address Mattapan, Codman Square, and Four Corners; Dudley Square and Blue Hill Ave.; and the Bowdoin-Geneva areas. The meetings are co-chaired, with one chair representing an official body (such as the Office of Health and Human Services) and other representing area residents. 

The Mattapan/Codman Square/Four Corners meeting covers city services, with (as of Nov. 2011) a noted emphasis on foreclosure/absenteeism.

Likewise, the Dudley/Blue Hill Ave. meeting covers city services. Prostitution is seen to be particularly bad problem in the area and many interdepartmental actions have worked to address this issue (as of Nov. 2011).

The Bowdoin-Geneva meeting incorporates human services in addition to city services, with an emphasis on youth development and violence prevention -- specifically, the Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative. See a release on the formation of the Bowdoin-Geneva NRT here.

Key Partners: 

City Agencies:

Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Transportation Department, Boston Center for Youth and Families, Code Enforcement, Department of Neighborhood Development, Inspectional Services, Jobs and Community Services, Office of Human Services, Office of Neighborhood Services, Mayor's Office, Public Works Department, others?

 

Community Organizations and Collaborations:

Bowdoin Geneva Violence Intervention and Prevention, Upham's Corner Violence Intervention and Prevention,
United Neighbors Association (UNA), 4-Street Crime Watch, 

Bird Street Community Center, College Bound Dorchester, Family Nurturing Center, Roxbury Resource Center,

 

Faith-based: First Parish Church in Dorchester, St. Peter's Parish, 

 

Main Streets:

Bowdoin-Geneva Main Street
Four Corners Main Street
 

Healthcare:

Bowdoin Street Health Center
 

Partial list!

Key Programs Offered: 

Biweekly meetings; neighborhood walkthroughts; forum for cross-departmental, cross-sector collaboration and neighborhood improvement.

Created: 
11/21/2011

Greater Grove Hall Main Streets

Phone: 

617-427-2560

Mission: 

The Greater Grove Hall Main Streets is committed to supporting the Grove Hall area commercial district through marketing, technical assistance and organizing. GGHMS promotes Grove Hall's diverse business district while maintaining the neighborhood’s historical character. We encourage innovative and creative techniques for fostering economic development that enriches the lives of business owners, employees and residents of our community. 

Location

Greater Grove Hall Main Streets
320B Blue Hill Avenue
Dorchester, MA 02121
United States
Key Partners: 

Neighborhood Development Corporation of Grove Hall

Project Right Inc.

Quincy Geneva / New Vision

United Housing

Prince Hall Grand Lodge

Created: 
05/16/2011

Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition

Phone: 

617-696-2900

Mission: 

The Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition draws on the wonderful ethnic and cultural diversity of the Mattapan community to promote a healthy living environment, with a focus on access to healthy foods and the promotion of physical fitness for all ages.

Location

1613 Blue Hill Ave
Mattapan, MA 02126
United States
Key Partners: 

ABCD Head StartB-3 Community Services Unit of the Boston Police DepartmentBoston Organization of Nutritionists and Dietitians of Color, the Boston Public Health Commission,  Brookwood Community Farm, Church of the Holy Spirit, Christine’s Fitness Vibe, Citizen Schools, Mildred Avenue Middle SchoolCity Natives Nursery/Boston Natural Areas Network, Clark-Cooper Community Garden, Colorado Street Neighborhood Association, Community Economic Development Assistance CorporationThe Food Project, Harvard Prevention Research Center, Jubilee Christian Church,  Mattapan Civic Association, Mattapan Community Development Corporation, Mattapan Cultural Arts Council, Mattapan Community Health Center, Mattapan Family Services Center, Morton Street Board of Commerce, Nutrition and Fitness for Life Program, Boston Medical Center, Youth and Family Enrichment Services.

How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of every month at 7:00 p.m. at the Mildred Avenue Community Center, 5 Mildred Ave. in Mattapan. All meetings are open to the public.

If you would like more information about the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition, or to find out how you can get involved, please contact MFFC at info@mattapanfoodandfitness.org.

Key Programs Offered: 

The Mattapan Farmers Market: The MFFC sponsors a weekly farmers market in Mattapan Square on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. July through October. This year, the market will be held in the parking lot of the Church of the Holy Spirit, 525 River St. form July 10th through October 2. At the market you can find a wide variety of fresh, affordable, organic fruits and vegetables from local farms. Farmers at the market accept EBT/SNAP (Food Stamps), WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Coupons.

Mattapan Moving for Life: To promote the utilization of community resources for physical fitness, the Coalition is establishing an annual Mattapan Moving for Life fitness event.

Healthy on the Block: Join MFFC to help corner stores in Mattapan offer healthier options, including better quality fruits and vegetables at a reasonable price. The Strategic Alliance for Health Corner Store Initiative is working with community members and organizations to increase community access to healthy affordable food through community corner stores. Help MFFC to plan for this project and identify corner stores to participate in this community- supported effort. Contact the program coordinator, Cassandra Cato-Lois for more information about how to get involved.

Created: 
04/26/2011

Weed and Seed

Mission: 

Weed and Seed, a community-based strategy sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), is an innovative, comprehensive multiagency approach to law enforcement, crime prevention, and community revitalization. Weed and Seed is foremost a strategy—rather than a grant program—that aims to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang violence.

The strategy involves a two-pronged approach: law enforcement agencies and prosecutors cooperate in "weeding out" violent criminals and drug abusers and public agencies and community-based private organizations collaborate to "seed" much-needed human services, including prevention, intervention, treatment, and neighborhood restoration programs. A community-oriented policing component bridges the weeding and seeding elements. 

Key Partners: 

Dorchester's Weed and Seed Sites:

Grove Hall Safe Neighborhood Initiative (Project RIGHT, Mass Housing, Boston Police District B-2 & additional partners) to reduce crime, improve the quality of life, and to increase the efficiency of local criminal justice operations within the Grove Hall area. Meets 2nd Thursday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Grove Hall Community Center on Geneva Avenue. Contact Michael Kozu (617-541-5454, ext. 5 mkozu@projectright.org) for details. Grove Hall is a graduated Weed and Seed site.

Washington Corridor/Talbot Weed & Seed, Safe Neighborhood Initiative: Washington/Talbot Weed & Seed group meets the fourth Tuesday of each month from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. The location changes monthly. Boston Police District B-3 attends these meetings. W&S information is mostly communicated via email. To be added to the email list, contact Paul Malkemes (617-929-0925; paul@tbpm.org).

Created: 
04/12/2011

Dorchester Bay EDC

Phone: 

617.825.4200

Fax: 

617.825.3522

Mission: 

Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation acts to build a strong, thriving, and diverse community in Boston’s north Dorchester neighborhoods. Working closely with neighborhood residents and partners, we access resources to:
Develop and preserve affordable home ownership and rental housing,
Create and sustain commercial and economic development opportunities, and
Build community power through organizing and leadership development.

Location

594 Columbia Rd Ste 302
Dorchester, MA 02125
United States
Key Programs Offered: 

Homeowner Services provides home improvement and deleading loans for unbankable homeowners. The focus is keeping low to moderate income homeowners in their home; by decreasing maintenance costs, avoiding foreclosure, rehabbing uninhabitable units, educating the homeowner in financial literacy and increasing energy conservation. In our eleven year program we have lent more than $1.5 million and rehabbed 239 units of housing.

Youth Force Program is a youth leadership initiative that trains local teens to be community leaders and community organizers, who in turn train other local teens to be leaders and organizers in their own neighborhoods. The program is designed in a community organizing framework, and it focuses on building youth leaders, building youth relationships and building youth power. Youth Force members learn leadership and community organizing skills such as meeting facilitation, engaging in campaign work, relational meetings, power analysis and research actions. The program goal is to build youth power in Dorchester and beyond and to strengthen the local community by tackling specific, winnable issues. We grow leaders through engaging them in the issues that affect them directly.

Learning Is a Fun Experience (L.I.F.E.) is a new drop-in after school program with homework help, Internet research, public speaking, visual arts, ceramics, digital arts production, literacy and math computer games, sports, fun and enrichment activities.

Seniors Program supports approximately 90 elders living in and nearby Dorchester Bay rental units. Meeting three times weekly, they enhance their quality of life by offering community-based case management services and enrichment, prevention, education, and intervention programming. Rock and Roll Seniors pays stipends to seniors to use their expertise and energy to design their own program. They remain safe, connected and active.

TechnoBay Computer Training is an inter-genrational computer training course geared for families. Both parent and chilld learn about computer hardware and software. All courses are free of charge. For more information about the course contact Karen Cookie Sheers at 617-825-4200 x225

Created: 
01/03/2011

Upham's Corner Main Street

Phone: 

(617) 265-0363

Mission: 

Through a partnership of merchants, residents and civic leaders, our Main Street organization will make Upham’s Corner a thriving, multi-cultural, business and entertainment center that attracts people from all over Boston. UCMS was first created in 1996, when a group of passionate neighborhood residents, merchants, and civic leaders banded together to plan and manage the revitalization of the once vibrant Upham's Corner business and residential district. With a volunteer Board of Directors and a small but committed staff, UCMS set out to create new permanent jobs, an optimal mix of retail businesses, and shopping opportunities that fit the needs of residents.

Location

545 Columbia Road
Dorchester, MA 02125
United States
Key Programs Offered: 

The organization operates under the Four-Point Approach, created by The National Trust for Historic Preservation, to facilitate the revitalization of Upham’s Corner. UCMS mirrors the Four-Point Approach through the use of four committees: Design, Economic Restructuring, Organization, and Promotion.

As one of the 19 programs in the Boston Main Streets network, UCMS is an enterprising program that has a track record of innovative project planning and implementation that has raised the profile of the Upham’s Corner Commercial District. Upham’s Corner is becoming more competitive in the retail and entertainment arenas of Boston and is now a highly sought location for new businesses looking for a profitable location.

Created: 
04/28/2011

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI)

Phone: 

(617) 442-9670

Hours of operation (or meeting times & dates): 

Office Hours: 9 am to 5 pm

Mission: 

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) is a nonprofit community-based planning and organizing entity rooted in the Roxbury/North Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston. DSNI's approach to neighborhood revitalization is comprehensive including economic, human, physical, and environmental growth. It was formed in 1984 when residents of the Dudley Street area came together out of fear and anger to revive their neighborhood that was devastated by arson, disinvestment, neglect and redlining practices, and protect it from outside speculators. DSNI works to implement resident-driven plans partnering with nonprofit organizations, community development corporations (CDCs), businesses and religious institutions serving the neighborhood, as well as banks, government agencies, corporations and foundations. The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative has grown into a collaborative effort of over 3,000 residents, businesses, non-profits and religious institutions members committed to revitalizing this culturally diverse neighborhood of 24,000 people and maintaining its character and affordability. DSNI is the only community-based nonprofit in the country which has been granted eminent domain authority over abandoned and within its boundaries.

The Dudley area of Roxbury/North Dorchester is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Boston. This diverse community of African American and Cape Verdean (72%), Latino (24%), and White (4%) residents has a per capita income of $12,332. Approximately 27% of the area’s population falls below the federal poverty level of $17,029 for a family of four and 62% fall below the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency of $37,591. The unemployment rate for the neighborhood is around 13.6%. Just over a quarter of the housing is owner-occupied as compared to the city’s average of 32%. A third of the population is 19 years or under and about two-thirds of the population is 35 years and under. Families with children under 18 years represent almost half of Dudley neighborhood households, which is twice as large a share as in Boston citywide.

Located less than two miles from downtown Boston in Roxbury/North Dorchester, the DSNI neighborhood had a staggering amount of vacant land (21% or 1,300 parcels) in the 1980s -- vestiges of fires, discrimination and neglect of the '60's and '70's. Dudley Street is a trilingual neighborhood of 5,197 African-American, Latin American, Cape Verdean, and White families speaking English, Spanish and Cape Verdean Creole. It is a remarkable reservoir of multi-generational resident leadership, talent, spirit and determination.

Partly through its diverse, 34 seat Board of Directors including 16 residents from each of the 4 major ethnic groups (African-American, Latino, Cape Verdean, White) plus 2 additional Board-appointed residents, 3 youth, 7 nonprofit agencies, 2 churches, 2 businesses, and 2 CDCs, Dudley residents and its community partners develop strategies that will ensure that local residents are the primary beneficiaries of the community economic growth, and that human development and environmental issues are addressed.

DSNI's major accomplishment has been, and continues to be, organizing and empowering the residents of the Dudley Street neighborhood to create a shared vision of the neighborhood prioritizing development without displacement and bringing it to reality by creating strategic partnerships with individuals and organizations in the private, government, and nonprofit sectors. That shared vision first emerged from a community-wide process conducted initially in 1987 that resulted in a resident-developed, comprehensive revitalization plan.

The 1987 comprehensive plan was updated in our urban village visioning process in 1996, involving over 180 residents and organization representatives. Their ideas affirm many elements of the 1987 plan, add important refinements and renew their commitment to creating an "urban village" and declare their belief that "Anything Is Possible". From this process, a major commitment was made to enhance economic power in the Dudley neighborhood. Through DSNI’s community land trust, the Dudley neighborhood has the only permanent affordable housing in the city of Boston.

Residents continue to guide this plan which established community control over a critical mass of the 1,300 parcels of abandoned land that had come to characterize the neighborhood. Residents gained control by convincing the authorities in Boston’s city government to take the unprecedented step of granting the community the power of eminent domain over much of the vacant land combined with a partnership with the city on the publicly-owned vacant land. The Dudley neighborhood thus acquired valuable assets, established a community land trust, set a criteria for development and a "place at the table" for the planning and development of the community.

The eminent domain authority obtained by the community applies to the vacant land in a 60 acre area called the "Dudley Triangle" that is bounded on two sides by Dudley Street and Blue Hill Avenue – two corridors that link three commercial centers within the DSNI area: Dudley Square, Upham’s Corner and Grove Hall. That area is established as a community land trust known as Dudley Neighbors, Inc. (DNI) to ensure community land ownership, permanence and affordability.

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative is an innovative, high performing holistic community change effort that continues to thrive. Residents lead a community collaboration with the shared goal of creating a vibrant, high quality diverse urban village. Today, the dramatic rebuilding of human, social and physical infrastructure has signaled that this is a neighborhood on its way back. DSNI focuses on three strategic areas: community economic development, leadership development and collaboration, and youth opportunities and development. Talented young adults return to the community in large numbers to play their role in sustaining change. To date more than half of the 1,300 abandoned parcels have been permanently transformed into over 400 new high quality affordable houses, community centers, new schools, Dudley Town Common, community greenhouse, parks, playgrounds, gardens, an orchard and other public spaces. Dudley residents are proud of their neighborhood and committed to the continuation of the revitalization effort.

Location

504 Dudley Street
Roxbury, MA 02119
United States
Key Partners: 

GOTCHA (Get Off the Corner Hanging Around): DSNI is one of several organizations involved in the GOTCHA Youth Jobs effort.

Community Meeting Space Available: 

Yes

Created: 
11/18/2010

GreenDorchester

Mailing Address (if different than physical location): 

Phone: 

978-697-0361

Website: 
Hours of operation (or meeting times & dates): 

Call or email to get meeting dates & times.

Mission: 

GreenDorchester (formerly known as Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition) is a volunteer-run local organization working to make Dorchester a greener, healthier, more sustainable place to live, work, play and/or learn.

Location

450 Washington Street
Dorchester, MA 02124
United States
Key Partners: 

Some of GreenDorchester's partners: Annapolis Neighborhood Association ~ Codman Square Health Center ~ Dorchester Historical Society ~ Dorchester House ~ DotWell ~ Fields Corner Main Street ~ Four Corners Main Street ~ Franklin Park Coalition ~ Friends of Ronan Park ~ Boston Healthy Homes and Schools Collaborative ~ St Marks Area Main Street ~ Uphams Corner Westside Neighborhood Association ~ Viet-AID.

New partners always welcome!

How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

Join in! Call 617-474-1478 or email info[at]greendorchester.org

Key Programs Offered: 

Air Quality Improvement, Bicycling/Walking Advocacy, Community-based Planning, Community Gardens, Environment, Farmers' Markets, Greenspace Creation, Public Transit Advocacy, Youth Leadership Development

Community Meeting Space Available: 

Yes

Columbia Washington Street Neighborhood Association

Phone: 

(617) 989-8668

Email: 
Mission: 

Our mission is to promote social, economic, environmental justice, crime prevention, neighborhood development, and increase access to resources via transportion. We engage residents to be more active in their community in order to accomplish our mission.

Key Partners: 

Four Corners Action Coalition

How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

Attend the Monthly meetings

Community Meeting Space Available: 

No

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