Do you have a home in need of a fresh look?  Have
you fallen on hard times and are unable to make needed cosmetic changes
to your home?  The International Furniture and Design Association
(IFDA) is taking applications for families in need of assistance to
take part in a "Home Makeover" contest.  This contest is open to
members from any community in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. One
lucky winner will have a crew of approximately 25 professionals
providing cosmetic improvements to their home over the course of two
days (a Saturday & Sunday) in the month of October.

If you would like to be considered for this contest or
if you would like to nominate a home in need, please click here and
fill in your information.  The application deadline is September
11, 2008.  The winning home will be picked and notified by a
committee shortly thereafter.

On Sunday, July 27 our neighborhood will host a Music Concert in
Dorchester Park, featuring Boston's Landmarks Orchestra under the
direction of conductor Charles Ansbacher. The Boston Landmarks
Orchestra is one of only two professional orchestras in the country
whose mission is to perform all free concerts. Over 160,000 people have
attended more than 125 concerts during the past seven years.

The Landmarks Orchestra utilizes some of the finest musicians in
Boston to help create a vibrant cultural scene all summer long,
including summer-long Wednesday night concerts at the Hatch Shell on
the Charles River. Now that we have arranged to have our own local
performance in Dot Park, it surely will add to the seasons enjoyment
for scores of local residents.

For questions or comments, please call Ed at 617-834-7577 or Bill at 617-851-9630.

Civic groups are hoping to get all of the diverse, spread out neighborhoods in Dorchester together for a night of socializing, entertainment, and community building.

MyDorchester Night, going on Thursday at the Codman Square Tech Center on Washington Street from 6 to 9 p.m., is a free event designed to build social networking and create a sense of togetherness across the urban residential neighborhood.

"One of our main goals is to bring people together from all of Dorchester's neighborhoods," said Jennifer Gerber, 23, of Weston, an Americorps volunteer involved in the event. "Having worked in the community, I've heard a lot about how people sometimes don't like to go into neighborhoods they're not from. We want to get all of the nine neighborhoods together in one place and get to know each other, breaking down the stereotypes."

The event is being put on by SCI Dorchester, a partnership between Social Capital Inc., a statewide community building organization, and DotWell, a nonprofit group providing clinical services in the neighborhood.

Part of the evening will feature four networking rooms, each with a different theme - expand, connect, share, and enjoy - and with its own focus, such as signing up volunteers for area nonprofits, or pointing out services offered in the city like Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Ella J. Baker House for at-risk youths. There will be a coffeehouse in the "enjoy" room, featuring poetry, dance, spoken word, and jazz music.

It's all about building "social capital," organizers say.

"Social capital is the idea that the more people in a community each person knows, and the more connected they are to local resources, the better off the community is," Gerber said. "Economic capital is not the only capital that really matters to make a community sustainable, vital, and a safe place for everyone."

Original Article
JOHN GUILFOIL

SCI Dorchester has added a new feature to MyDorchester.org: Organic Groups. Here's a description of this feature from Drupal.org: 

Organic groups enables users with permissions to create and manage their own groups. Community members often need to self organize or spontaneously organize around a topic of interest. Organic Groups allows community members to organize. Organazing is important part of a healthy community.
Each group can have subscribers, and maintains a group home page where subscribers communicate amongst themselves. Group members can do so by posting different contents.
Groups may be selective or not. Selective groups require approval in order to become a member, or even invitation -only groups. There are lots of preferences to configure groups as you need to suit your needs to organize around a topic of interest. (http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/og)

CLICK HERE TO START A GROUP!

CLICK HERE TO SEE EXISTING GROUPS!