On Thursday, August 12, Codman Square Health Center hosted a press conference to celebrate the launch of its pilot “Fruit and Veggie Prescription Program.” Fruit & Veggie Rx is the first-ever health initiative where physicians can prescribe vouchers for local farmers markets and then monitor the impact of the increased fruit and vegetable consumption on patients’ health. Mayor Menino joined Bill Walzack, Gus Schumacher, Chairman of Wholesome Wave, and Makael Constance, a young recipient of the program in welcoming more fruits and veggies into the community.
To read the article in the New York Times, click here.
To read the article in the Boston Globe, click here.
Over 20 percent of students in the U.S. are bullied with some frequency, with the same number reporting that they bully others.* Bullying – both face-to-face and through electronic media – is associated with depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. To draw attention to these challenges, SCI Dorchester @ DotWell joined with SCI Milford to create events during AmeriCorps Week, May 8-15, to increase awareness of the seriousness of bullying and address how we as a community can provide youth with healthy alternatives to negative behavior.
SCI Dorchester @ DotWell and SCI Milford recently received a grant from the Massachusetts Service Alliance to design AmeriCorps Week activities to highlight AmeriCorps service programs. SCI’s AmeriCorps Week focused on bullying, kicking off with My Dorchester Night on May 10, 2010 at 3:30pm. MyDorchester Night, in collaboration with the Safe City Unity Basketball League, consisted of a free evening of basketball games, anti-bullying PSAs, promotion of AmeriCorps programs, and introduction to the MyDorchester.org website. Through the generosity of D'Benny's Subs and More, Healthworks @ Codman and DotWell Director of Community Programs Marisa Luse, SCI Dorchester @ DotWell raffled off gift certificates to Dorchester businesses between games. >>Read More
Eat Green, Save Green is designed to teach you how to save money, while still cooking healthy meals with fresh ingredients. Classes focus on nutrition, how to choose healthy foods while following a budget, and how to create healthy meals. The group spent one class at the grocery store, assessing prices and learning how to choose fresh ingredients carefully. The current Eat Green Save Green class runs through April 15, 2010.
See below for comments from graduating members of the March 9th class:
“I definitely have increased eating veggies. I have also learned to use recipes daily that include all three food groups. I lost 1 lb a week, a total of 6 lbs! Yeah!”
-- Thomasine, Codman Square, Winter 2010 >>Read More
It has just passed the 6 month marker since the new team has taken over MyDorchester.org, and we are proud to announce that March brought 3,337 unique visitors to our website! Our numbers have continued to grow, month after month, and we have no one to thank but you! We are still in the process of gathering feedback on all the changes here at MyDorchester, but we are hoping that you find it to be easy to navigate and full of useful information.
As our visibility rises and more visitors come to the site, more up-to-date content will be able to be added, and the more useful it will be for organizations to post information as it will reach a greater population. Our eBlast also now reaches over 1400 inboxes each week, and many are finding that the best way to stay updated on Dorchester events and programs. >>Read More
Wednesday, March 17th, a traveling performance arts group called “Kids who Care” from Fort Worth, Texas came to the DotWell Teen Center to learn to Krump. 37 youth took part in a Krumping lesson from I AMM Krump instructor Eddie Brimage. They learned some basic moves as well as how to use the word “buck” as a positive adjective.
After the lesson they performed excerpts from their own play and shared their commitment to make art that helps to make the world a better place. The performance impressed the Krumpers and teen center members who were in attendance; they sang, dance, and rapped about brotherhood and unity. Following their presentation everyone, kids and adults, Northerners and Southerners, Krumpers and singers, held hands in a large closing circle. Eddie and the Krumpers did a final series of battles to uproarious applause and giggles from the Texans, and then everyone happily went their separate ways. >>Read More
6th Annual Dorchester FAMILY School Initiative (DFSI) Community Night Resource Fair
“What are you doing this summer?” For many students and families in Dorchester, this is a difficult question to answer. According to the National Summer Learning Association, lack of access to summer learning programs is responsible for more than half of the achievement gap between high- and low-income students.
To bridge this gap, the Dorchester FAMILY School Initiative (DFSI) and the Dorchester-Franklin Field Community Learning Initiative (CLI) held the sixth annual DFSI Community Night resource fair on Wednesday, March 3 from 5:30-7:30PM. Nearly 300 people gathered in the Lee Complex cafeteria, including 197 students and family members from the Fifield, Holmes, Lee Academy, and Lee Elementary Schools and 95 other individuals including event organizers, program representatives, and city officials. Those in attendance enjoyed student performances; guest speakers, including Mayor Menino; a free dinner; and information on summer programs in and around Dorchester. >>Read More
The Dorchester Youth Council, in collaboration with Social Capital Inc. (SCI), hosted the seventh annual Safe Love Dance this past Friday, February 19th at the Dorchester House gymnasium. The Safe Love Dance combined a safe place to dance and party with an informative health fair featuring 19 local health organizations, among them Close to Home, Start Strong Boston, MAP for Health, and La Alianza Hispana.
In order to enter the dance, teens were required to interact with at least four of the attending organizations and receive information on healthy teen relationships, safe sex, abstinence, STD/HIV/AIDS awareness, self confidence, nutritional health and violence prevention. By the end of the dance, over 160 Dorchester teens engaged with the attending organizations and improved their relationship skills through role playing skits.
DJ Rolling Rick provided the tunes and beats, while volunteers from SCI and the Dorchester community welcomed and engaged the teens. Eddie Brimage and the Powerhouse Krumpers from the Dorchester Youth Collaborative captivated with a spectacular krumping performance, getting the crowd hyped up for the dance. >>Read More
On February 4th, artwork by the Drawing Club was on display at the Massachusetts State House as part of an After School Advocacy Day program. Speakers at the event stressed the importance of funding after school programs, and displaying artwork created at after school programs helped to stress this point. Works by Trea Crayton, Jose Mendes, Shelton Sterling, and Anslem Edegbe were featured. Photos from the event and their work are shown below. Click on the images to see larger versions.
Free tax clinics began Saturday, January 16, 2010 at the Codman Square Tech Center and the Dorchester House Multi-Service Center, but the state-wide kick off yesterday, February 1, encouraged the Commonwealth to continue to put money back in tax payers hands.
DotWell, in partnership with the Boston EITC Coalition, will professionally prepare your taxes for FREE if you worked and earned less than $49,000 this year.
For more information on our EITC Tax Sites click here.
The Codman Square Health Center was successful in providing 424 gifts to 189 families this past Saturday, December 12, at its Annual Holiday Gift Party in the Great Hall. The Codman Square Health Center, working in partnership with SCI Dorchester at DotWell, as well as receiving support from the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, Boston Cares, the Blue Crew, and the John D. O’Bryant School, collectively donated over a hundred hours of volunteer service to make the event so successful. Santa greeted families as they collected their gifts, while volunteers distributed flyers to inform families of the free H1N1 Flu Clinic happening next door at the Health Center.
In addition to these 424 gifts given out at the event, 70 gifts were also provided to Mothers With Courage and 40 gifts were provided to students at DFSI schools (a DotWell Program). In total, the Codman Square Health Center and SCI Dorchester provided over 500 gifts directly to the Dorchester Community.
SCI Dorchester would like to thank the generosity of Toys for Tots and the Notre Dame Academy for providing the gifts this year and all the volunteers who gave time to make this event possible.
On Thursday, August 12, Codman Square Health Center hosted a press conference to celebrate the launch of its pilot “Fruit and Veggie Prescription Program.” Fruit & Veggie Rx is the first-ever health initiative where physicians can prescribe vouchers for local farmers markets and then monitor the impact of the increased fruit and vegetable consumption on patients’ health. Mayor Menino joined Bill Walzack, Gus Schumacher, Chairman of Wholesome Wave, and Makael Constance, a young recipient of the program in welcoming more fruits and veggies into the community. 
Over 20 percent of students in the U.S. are bullied with some frequency, with the same number reporting that they bully others.* Bullying – both face-to-face and through electronic media – is associated with depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. To draw attention to these challenges, SCI Dorchester @ DotWell joined with SCI Milford to create events during AmeriCorps Week, May 8-15, to increase awareness of the seriousness of bullying and address how we as a community can provide youth with healthy alternatives to negative behavior. 
Eat Green, Save Green is designed to teach you how to save money, while still cooking healthy meals with fresh ingredients. Classes focus on nutrition, how to choose healthy foods while following a budget, and how to create healthy meals. The group spent one class at the grocery store, assessing prices and learning how to choose fresh ingredients carefully. The current Eat Green Save Green class runs through April 15, 2010. 
It has just passed the 6 month marker since the new team has taken over MyDorchester.org, and we are proud to announce that March brought 3,337 unique visitors to our website! Our numbers have continued to grow, month after month, and we have no one to thank but you! We are still in the process of gathering feedback on all the changes here at MyDorchester, but we are hoping that you find it to be easy to navigate and full of useful information.
Wednesday, March 17th, a traveling performance arts group called “
6th Annual Dorchester FAMILY School Initiative (DFSI) Community Night Resource Fair
The Dorchester Youth Council, in collaboration with Social Capital Inc. (SCI), hosted the seventh annual Safe Love Dance this past Friday, February 19th at the Dorchester House gymnasium. The Safe Love Dance combined a safe place to dance and party with an informative health fair featuring 19 local health organizations, among them Close to Home, Start Strong Boston, MAP for Health, and La Alianza Hispana. 
Free tax clinics began Saturday, January 16, 2010 at the Codman Square Tech Center and the Dorchester House Multi-Service Center, but the state-wide kick off yesterday, February 1, encouraged the Commonwealth to continue to put money back in tax payers hands.
The 
hundred hours of volunteer service to make the event so successful. Santa greeted families as they collected their gifts, while volunteers distributed flyers to inform families of the free H1N1 Flu Clinic happening next door at the Health Center.