Community/Neighborhood Improvement

MyDotTour

Email: 

mydottour@gmail.com

Website: 

http://timenesia.org/neighborhood/fields-corner.

Mission: 

My Dot Tour is a project of the Fields Corner Collaborative (FCC). FCC is a group of non-profit organizations concerned with touting the history and architecture of Fields Corner for increased economic development and social capital, as well as with supporting and strengthening youth leadership skills. The organizations include: the Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition, Dorchester Historical Society, Fields Corner Main Street, Historic Boston Incorporated, and SCI Dorchester/Dotwell. The 2011 Tour coordinator is Kate Balug.

2010’s My Dot Tour established a walking tour route, map, and live walking tour created and presented by teen participants.

My Dot Tour 2011 is a new and improved version of the tour that will emphasize residents’ contributions and will feature expanded methods of disseminating tour content through cell phone technology and other media. FCC thanks the Boston Foundation for Architecture for contributing grant funding for the Tour.

What’s your Fields Corner story?

Key Partners: 

Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition, Dorchester Historical Society, Fields Corner Main Street, Historic Boston Incorporated, and SCI Dorchester/Dotwell

How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

To contribute to or inquire about the tour, please contact mydottour [at] gmail.com.

Created: 
04/25/2011

Healthy Futures

Mailing Address (if different than physical location): 

Healthy Futures Program
P.O. Box 265
Lowell, MA 01853 

Phone: 

(978) 458-6064

Email: 

rhea@healthy-futures.org

Website: 

http://www.healthy-futures.org

Mission: 

Healthy Futures is a state- and federally-funded health program that educates teens in the areas of sexuality, healthy relationships, and self-respect through medically-accurate information and interactive skits and demonstrations. Further, it empowers teens to avoid the social, psychological and health consequences of early sexual activity and provides the skills necessary to attain abstinence before marriage. It offers positive engaging curricula that will not only help your students understand the benefits of abstinence, but equip them with the skills to make and sustain that choice.

Healthy Futures uses medically accurate, developmentally appropriate information and activities to empower students to make healthy relationship choices

Key Programs Offered: 

Weed and Seed

Website: 

http://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/Weed%20and%20Seed-MPGProgramDetail-612.aspx

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

FAMILY, inc.

Phone: 

(617) 969-1454

Email: 

info@familysystem.net

Website: 

http://www.familysystem.net

Hours of operation (or meeting times & dates): 

 

Codman Square Health Council Meeting
  • Third Thursday of every month
  • Codman Square Health Center (637 Washington Street, Dorchester) Board Room
Mission: 

To create secure and nurturing environments of mutual support in which all children and families can thrive. A community organizing system, we create partnerships with individuals and institutions to connect educational, health care, economic, and other systems to collaboratively create healthy, safe, sustainable communities throughout the world.

Our values:
  • Every person is valued: from the youngest to the oldest, from the richest to the poorest
  • For healthy development, all children need to be nurtured through intergenerational relationships;
  • Harmonious support systems enhance the lives of children and families within the community;
  • Society’s systems should be in harmony with nature’s systems;
  • We must think globally and act locally – FAMILY starts at the local level and develops sustainably;
  • We are one family.

 

Location

80 Waban Hill Road
Newton, MA 02467
United States
See map: Google Maps
Key Partners: 

Community Agencies and Organizations:
Artists for Humanity
BOLD Teens
Boston Neighborhood Network
City Year
Codman Square Merchants Association
Codman Square Neighborhood Council
Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corp.
Dorchester Neighborhood Service Center
Roxbury Youth Works
STRIVE, Inc. 

 

Education Institutions:
 
City and State Departments: 
Mayor Menino
Boston Police Department 
Boston Public Health Commission
Department of Youth Services
 
Business Community
Valvoline, Inc.
Mount Washington Bank
Silverbrook Farm
Coutinho Farm
 
Partners in Haiti:
 
Community Agencies and Organizations 
Association of Schools and Teachers
City Of Verrettes
Caisse Populaire Solidarite Des Verrettes (Bank)
FATEM
ODKM (Desarmes)
MCC Desarmes
Faith in Action International
Societe D’exportation de Fruits et Legumes
The Haiti Connection
ODVA
 
Education Institutions:
DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Tuskegee University
University of Fondwa
Ecole Normale de Liancourt (Local Teachers College)
Ecole Providence
 
Government Agencies:
Bureau de District Scolaire des Verrettes
How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

The individuals and families who take part in FAMILY are invited to become members of FAMILY. They are not clients, but members. The benefits of membership will vary from one individual and family to another, depending on their needs, but the major benefit is the security of being part of a caring network of mutual support.

The mission of FAMILY is global, and our vision is for its concept to spread in very natural ways. We are eager to engage in dialogue about all aspects of FAMILY, including potential areas of collaboration with interested parties. We invite you to join us.

Key Programs Offered: 

FAMILY works at both the level of the individual and the organization, in both Codman Square, Dorchester, and in Haiti:

  • We connect individuals with existing resources in the community so that they are surrounded by a uniquely tailored network of mutual support. To do this, we place FAMILY Advocates into strategic locations within the community to work directly with children and their families.
  • We partner with organizations to enhance their capacity to provide effective support to children and families by eliminating redundancy, improving community responsiveness, and sharing resources. To do this, our Director of Community Organization convenes gatherings with partner organizations where effective strategizing can occur. 
Also (or Previously) Known As...: 

Fathers And Mothers Infants eLders and Youth

Created: 
03/17/2011

Dorchester FAMILY School Initiative

Mailing Address (if different than physical location): 

Website: 

http://mydorchester.org/about_DFSI

Hours of operation (or meeting times & dates): 

Mission: 

 

The Dorchester FAMILY School Initiative (DFSI) provides academic, enrichment, and wellness services to our partner schools: the Oliver W. Holmes, Lee Academy, and Joseph Lee Elementary Schools. Other DFSI partners include DotWell, SCI, and FAMILY, Inc.

Our mission is to remove barriers to learning; to improve children’s physical, social, and emotional wellness; and to connect students and families to their schools and community.

You can read about DFSI Partners and DFSI Programs and Services, or take a moment to learn about Full Service Community Schools.

Location

1452 Dorchester Avenue
Dorchester, MA 02122
United States
See map: Google Maps
Key Partners: 

 

The Oliver W. Holmes Elementary School is a K1-5 school of 282 students near Four Corners.

The Lee Academy is a K0-1 pilot school near Franklin Field.

The Joseph Lee Elementary School is a grade 2-6 school of 300 students near Franklin Field.

DotWell is the partnership of Codman Square Health Center and Dorchester House Multi-Service Center. DotWell is DFSI’s lead agency.

FAMILY, Inc. is a non-profit organization that works as a community organizing system. By creating partnerships with individuals and institutions, FAMILY, Inc. connects educational, health care, economic, and other systems to collaboratively create healthy, safe, sustainable communities throughout the world.

Social Capital Inc. strengthens communities by connecting diverse individuals and organizations through civic engagement initiatives.

How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

 

For more information, families may contact:

Key Programs Offered: 

Created: 
02/06/2013

Boston Tree Party

Mailing Address (if different than physical location): 

Email: 

info@bostontreeparty.org

Website: 

www.bostontreeparty.org

Hours of operation (or meeting times & dates): 

Mission: 

The Boston Tree Party is a collaborative campaign to plant 100 pairs of heirloom apple trees in publicly used spaces across Greater Boston. The tree plantings will take place in partnership with a diverse range of institutions, organizations, businesses, and communities. As an urban agriculture project, the campaign will create vital gathering places, build community connections, and improve community health. As a conceptual art project, the Boston Tree Party engages with metaphor and symbolism, and playfully reimagines patriotic and political language, imagery, and forms of association. Like the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Tree Party is a symbolic political act. The project takes a stand for universal access to fresh, healthy food; for greening our cities; cleaning our air and waterways; reducing our city’s carbon footprint; creating habitat for urban wildlife; and for protecting the biodiversity and heritage of our food. Collectively, the 200 apple trees will become a decentralized public urban orchard that crosses social, economic, political, and geographic boundaries.

Key Partners: 

Boston Collaborative for Food and Fitness Boston Natural Areas Network City Sprouts Groundwork Somerville Northeast Organic Farming Association/Mass YouthBuild Boston Endorsed By: Artists in Context The Boston University Center for Energy and Environmental Studies The Boston Youth Environmental Network Charles River Conservancy Chefs Collaborative Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition The Food Project The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School The RAFT Alliance (Restoring America's Food Traditions) Red Tomato Shape Up Somerville Sustainable Business Network of Boston Slow Food Boston The Tufts Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy Department The Urban Homesteaders' League

How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

Key Programs Offered: 

Make a stand for community and environmental health by planting a pair of heirloom apple trees at your school, business, place of worship, place of work, or community center! These trees will beautify your space, improve its air and soil quality, provide bushels of delicious apples, and create an engaging community gathering space. These trees will live a long time, and you will make a positive contribution to the next generation. By becoming a Tree Planting Delegation, you will join a diverse city-wide coalition that is organizing in support of Civic Fruit! We call for planting fruit trees in civic space, and we promote the fruits of civic engagement. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.bostontreeparty.org.

Created: 
02/24/2011

Washington Heights Tenants' Association

Phone: 

617-445-8731

Email: 

jalvira78@yahoo.com

Hours of operation (or meeting times & dates): 

Office hours: Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Computer classes: Monday and Wednesday 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Blood pressure clinic: every first Thursday of the month 9 a.m. - 10 p.m. Girls program (partnership with Girl Scouts): Fridays 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Location

Washington Heights Tenants Association
220 Harold St
Dorchester , MA 02121
United States
See map: Google Maps
Key Partners: 

Mass Impact

How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

Stop by or call Jessie Alvira for more information

Key Programs Offered: 

Free computer classes for MS Office and typing, drop-ins welcome. Registration required. NSTAR forgiveness program workshops one day a month ESL classes Blood pressure clinic Give turkeys and toys to residents during the holidays Girls group meets weekly for girls grades 6-12 Computer lab (can be rented for trainings) Tax assistance BYF jobs in summer for teens

Community Meeting Space Available: 

Yes

Created: 
01/12/2011

Sant Belvi

Hours of operation (or meeting times & dates): 

Sant Bel Vi opens Sunday to Friday 8am to 4pm.

Mission: 

Sant Bèl Vi is a Haitian adult day care center that offers a community setting for elderly patients whose medical conditions require a need for nursing supervision, and/or rehabilitative therapy. The goals of the program are to provide health, social, and nutritional intervention, to prevent premature institutionalization.

Location

6 Frontenac Street
Dorchester, MA 02124
United States
See map: Google Maps
Created: 
01/11/2011

Dorchester Bay EDC

Phone: 

617.825.4200

Fax: 

617.825.3522

Website: 

http://www.dbedc.org/index.html

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
See map: Google Maps
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

Fields Corner Children Thrive

Phone: 

(617) 624-8005

Email: 

info@thrivein5boston.org

Website: 

Field's Corner Children ThriveBoston Thrive in 5

Hours of operation (or meeting times & dates): 

Mon-Fri 9-5+ & scheduled events

Mission: 

Thrive in 5 works with all the people who support young children - their families, early care and education providers, health and human service providers, and their city - to ensure that every child in Boston has the nurturing early care and experiences that provide a solid foundation for success in school and in life. The Field’s Corner Children Thrive overall goals are to:

  • Empower and support parents and caregivers with new knowledge and skills to nurture children’s healthy development through reading, talking and playing.
  • Ensure collaboration among service providers, developing programs that prepare children to learn and meet parents and caregivers where they are and without prejudice.
  • Involve the entire Fields Corner community in creating, identifying, mapping and connecting resources that are accessible to all.

Thrive in 5 is active in five neighborhoods of Boston: for information about the overall program, please view the guide entry here or website here.

Key Partners: 

Dorchester House Multi-Service Center (Thrive in 5 "hub agency"); Codman Square Health Center, College Bound Dorchester, DotWell, Family Nurturing Center, Will W. Henderson Inclusion Elementary School and the Neighborhood House Charter School.

How to get involved/application guidelines and procedures: 

Contact Marika.Hewes@DorchesterHouse.org at (617)740-2572.

Key Programs Offered: 

School Readiness Roundtables: Parents, service providers and educators join together to connect children and families with resources and meet other community members. The Field’s Corner Children Thrive School Readiness Roundtable will be the decision-making body for what is included in an action plan to build a culture that supports early childhood education in Fields Corner. Parents, families, friends and neighbors are needed to make this an authentic plan for the Fields Corner area.

Created: 
12/29/2010
Syndicate content