BWF Grantees 2010

For 25 years, the Boston Women’s Fund has provided seed money, program support, and on-going funding for women-led, grassroots community groups. Through BWF’s multi-cultural, community-based, grant-making process, emerging groups are able to expand, and effective social change organizations which often are neglected by mainstream funding continue to contribute to the integral base for social justice. In FY10, BWF distributed $214,300 in grants to women and girl-led social justice organizations throughout the Greater Boston area. As always, BWF is deeply grateful for the work being done in our communities by our grantees, listed below. 

AFAB
GRANT AMOUNT: $8,000

AFAB’s empowers Haitian women by helping them develop their individual and collective capacity to improve social, economic and political status and thus be able to effect positive changes in their life and their families’ lives.

The Boston Women’s Fund has provided AFAB a grant for an organizer/volunteer coordinator to work on women and girls’ empowerment initiatives.  Community education and organizing will help our women overcome barriers to full participation in society.  The organizer will facilitate advocacy for self-empowerment and for the collective good.

BRAZILIAN WOMEN’S GROUP
GRANT AMOUNT: $13,000

The Brazilian Women’s Group promotes political and cultural awareness and contributes to the development of the Brazilian community. BWF provided general operating grant and supported a full time staff member to provide information and advocacy on issues such as immigrant rights, negotiating US systems, community organizing, and other critical issues in the Brazilian community.

 

CENTRO PRESENTE
GRANT AMOUNT: $13,150
Centro Presente is a member-driven, state-wide Latin American immigrant organization dedicated to the self-determination and self-sufficiency of the Latin American immigrant community of Massachusetts. Operated and led primarily by Central American immigrants, Centro Presente struggles for immigrant rights and for economic and social justice.
The Boston Women’s Fund has provided Centro Presente a grant to support their youth organizing program, Pintamos Nuestro Mundo/We Paint Our World (PNM), which promotes the empowerment of Latinas through Centro Presente’s Young Latinas Group.  This group offers a safe inclusive democratic space where young Latinas can learn how to use analytic tools to explore the structural causes of sexism, racism, and classism that oppress Latinas. Through a feminist popular education model, the group also enables young Latinas to learn strategic organizing and political advocacy for systemic social change.
CHELSEA CITYWIDE TENANTS ASSOCIATION
GRANT AMOUNT: $11,150
The Chelsea Citywide Tenants Association organizes low-income tenants, primarily female, who occupy public housing, and who are victims of predatory lending. CTA members work to maintain neighborhood stability, preserve community and empower low-income individuals and women in affordable and/or foreclosed housing.
The Boston Women’s Fund has provided Chelsea Citywide Tenants Association a grant to continue to expand and strengthen the work of the CTA by helping them fund a skilled, housing organizer who will facilitate the work of CTA.
GIRL TALK THEATRE
GRANT AMOUNT: $10,800

Girl Talk Theatre uses the art of theatre as a tool to empower homeless, poor and marginalized women by offering a safe, nurturing environment for telling their stories. Out of these stories, the women of Girl Talk Theatre create performance opportunities which honor their experiences, giving them tangible evidence that they are important for what they were, what they are now, and what they can be in the future. BWF funding was provided to continue the growth and development of the Girl Talk Theatre Alumni Class to build Girl Talk Theatre into a stronger and more visible entity in the community of homeless women and in the Boston community in general, giving voice to the voiceless. The Alumni Class serves the dual purpose of empowering actresses and enlightening the audience – creating a springboard for action and change.

HOMES FOR FAMILIES
GRANT AMOUNT: $13,000

Homes for Families is a grassroots organization committed to ending family homelessness through permanent and emergency solutions.  They are a collaborative of families who have experienced homelessness, service providers and advocates.  Together they educate, organize and advocate for improved public policies to address the root causes of family homelessness with holistic and community-based solutions.

The Boston Women’s Fund has provided Homes for Families a grant to support their Leadership Development Institute.  This program empowers, facilitates, and supports homeless mothers in their work to end family homelessness, to overcome poverty and to work for social justice.

 

MASSACHUSETTS ALLIANCE ON TEEN PREGNANCY
GRANT AMOUNT: $12,000

The Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy provides statewide leadership to prevent teenage pregnancy and meet the service needs of pregnant and parenting teens and their children through policy analysis, research, education, and advocacy. The Alliance works to ensure that Massachusetts’ youth have access to comprehensive pregnancy-prevention services and that pregnant and parenting teens and their children have the resources and support they need to thrive. For the Alliance, the means for achieving these outcomes are to educate, empower and support young people and the adults who work with them to become leaders on the issue of teen pregnancy prevention and the needs of young parents. BWF provided support to fund the Alliance’s Teen Parent Advisory Board.

MASSCOSH
GRANT AMOUNT: $10,000

MassCOSH brings together workers and allies to organize and advocate for safe, secure jobs and healthy communities throughout eastern Massachusetts. Through training, technical assistance and building community/labor alliances, they mobilize their members and develops leaders in the movement to end unsafe work conditions.

The Boston Women’s Fund has provided MassCOSH a grant to support their Teen Lead @ Work program.  This program will provide young women with the tools and support they need to become leaders in addressing the unique issues young women face in the workplace.  The program will further develop and incorporate a sexual harassment and violence curriculum into education programs for youth throughout Greater Boston.

MATAHARI: EYE OF THE DAY
GRANT AMOUNT: $8,000

MataHari organizes and works with individuals and communities impacted by family violence, sexual violence, migrant labor exploitation and human trafficking. The Mission is to create community solutions and mediate safe, respectful and empowering spaces for freedom, dignity and human rights. BWF funding for MataHari supports their progressive, equitable approach to outreach, as well as organizing and empowerment meetings, primarily in Southeast Asian communities.

MERRIMACK VALLEY PROJECT, INC.
GRANT AMOUNT: $8,000

The Merrimack Valley Project is a regional power organization organized in 1989 by 11 regional labor and religious sponsoring organizations to identify, recruit, and train local leaders to organize for change around the most urgent systemic social and economic justice issues in our region.  Funding from BWF helps support the leadership development of 25 current and emerging women leaders from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds through formal organizing training and active participation in MVP’s Fair Mortgages Campaign.

NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR
GRANT AMOUNT: $13,000
Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts builds power in low-income and working class communities around economic justice issues. By bringing low-income people back into the political process, developing local leadership, and organizing a broad coalition of allies, they hold politicians accountable to the needs of their constituents and are building a progressive majority in Massachusetts.
The Boston Women’s Fund has provided Neighbor to Neighbor a grant to develop the leadership of a group of 20 low-income women activists in Worcester through one-on-one support, and to recruit 10 new leaders to be a part of the group through a member-led outreach campaign.
NETWORK LA RED
GRANT AMOUNT: $13,000

The Network/La Red addresses domestic violence and battering in lesbian, bisexual women’s, and transgender communities. Through a community-based multi-cultural organization in which battered/formerly battered lesbians, bisexual women, and transgender folks hold leadership roles; community organizing, education, and support services; and coalition-building with other movements for social change and social justice, the Network/La Red seeks to create a culture in which domination, coercion, and control are no longer accepted and operative social norms. BWF funded the continuation of the organization’s Visibility Campaign, supporting outreach and education in the LBT community, as well as organizing to encourage community members and institutions to see DV as their issue, involve themselves both in raising awareness of battering, and in create safer/accountable communities.

BWF provided funding to support The Network/La Red’s Community Organizing Project to raise awareness of and community responsibility for lesbian/bi/transgender domestic violence.  Through a combination of education, outreach, solidarity events, community collaborations, and media activism, The Network/La Red will aim to create a climate based of intolerance for domestic violence.  

PLEASANT STREET NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK CENTER
GRANT AMOUNT: $5,000

The Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center brings people together in order to surface and prioritize issues that we can collectively take action on in order to make change.  Strategies that they employ to meet the purpose of the organization include building relationships, increasing and teaching civic participation, increasing neighborhood resources and opportunities, engaging young people, and always collaborating with other organizations, institutions and agencies to create a healthy and vibrant quality of life.

BWF funding helps support the Women Together/Mujeres Unidas organizer position, which will build the capacity of a project that aims to building leaders and strong relationships among women.

REACHING OUT ABOUT DEPRESSION
GRANT AMOUNT: $5,000

ROAD is a community-based program created by and for women who are suffering in low-income communities with depression and its related issues. All services are offered free-of-charge. By creating a network of support in the community, ROAD helps women experiencing stress or depression understand that they are not alone, while offering strategies and resources to promote their self-empowerment and improved quality of life. ROAD offers leadership opportunities for women who join the network so that they can become peer supports for their fellow ROAD members and change agents in their communities.As a community-based support system for low-income women, ROAD also actively educates, trains and influences the mental health and social service provider community about the complex needs of the women ROAD serves. BWF has offered on-going funding to support the ROAD workshop series and social action events.

REFLECT AND STRENGTHEN
GRANT AMOUNT: $13,000

Reflect and Strengthen (R&S) was organized to provide young women with a creative and nurturing environment for positive social change through social justice education, community building and creative expression. Through R&S, young women gain support from one another, identify the issues they are facing and learn about the systems that maintain oppressive structures. Funds from BWF help with general operating expenditures.

SOUTH BOSTON EN ACCION
GRANT AMOUNT: $13,000

South Boston en Acción is a neighborhood based, member driven organization that builds community and leadership among Latino Families by sharing common problems and creating solutions for change. South Boston en Acción builds community among the rapidly increasing Latino population of South Boston and promotes community leadership by these residents. They support new leaders by equipping them with information and skills and offer experiences that lead to new feelings of self-esteem and self-efficacy, an eagerness to speak out and a willingness to take action.  Their demographic reflects a culture that responds to the needs and interests of women, the large number of female-headed Latino households in South Boston’s housing developments, and their belief in women as powerful agents of social change.  BWF helps fund a Community Organizer position at South Boston en Accion such that the organization can continue with its community building.

TEEN VOICES
GRANT AMOUNT: $7,200

Teen Voices supports and educates teen girls to amplify their voices and create social change through media. The Boston Women’s Fund has provided Teen Voices a grant to support their Girls’ Media Activism Project.  This project combines writing, technology, and media literacy to promote organizing and media activism.  Involving two section of the magazine—Say What?! and Media Watch—teen editors working with college-age mentors continue to identify injustices articulated both in advertising (print and web) and in the media, provide analysis from a teen girl perspective, and finally, offer concrete action steps for teen girls to mobilize and implement change.

THE CITY SCHOOL
GRANT AMOUNT: $13,000
The City School is a vibrant and unique youth organization in Boston that brings together teenagers from Boston’s diverse neighborhoods and outlying communities in programs that combine creative education and critical thinking about social justice issues with hands-on leadership, learning, reflection and action.
The Boston Women’s fund has provided The City School a grant for their Rose from Concrete Project, which is a leadership development program that works with court-involved, high need/high risk youth in the Greater Boston area.  They aim to empower court-involved young women to identify their strengths, develop areas of challenge and carry their leadership and communication skills they learn through The City School’s programming into all other parts of their lives including their homes, schools and the court system.
WEATOC
GRANT AMOUNT: $5,000

WEATOC is the premiere multicultural peer education program in Boston, dedicated to empowering young people to make informed decisions about the difficult issues affecting them today.
WEATOC exists to empower young people to make informed decisions about the difficult issues affecting urban youth.  They also educate young people in order to prevent the damaging outcomes that result from short-sighted and self-destructive choices, such as violence, STDs, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and suicide.  WEATOC trains youth to be active, contributing members of their communities.

Funding from BWF will go towards WEATOC’s Sister2Sister peer education program that educates young women about their bodies, informs them about critical risks, empowers them to make healthy choices, and helps them to improve self-esteem.

WELLESLEY CENTERS FOR WOMEN
GRANT AMOUNT: $7,000

The Wellesley Centers for Women has been a driving force – both behind the scenes and in the spotlight – promoting positive change for women and men, girls and boys for more than 30 years. The groundbreaking work is dedicated to looking at the world through the eyes of women with the goal of shaping a better world for all. Since 1974, WCW has conducted interdisciplinary studies on gender equity in education, gender violence, sexual harassment in schools, child care, adolescent development, women’s leadership, and more. WCW maintains a special relationship with the Stone Center Counseling Services of Wellesley College where the work and theoretical focus of the Stone Center are incorporated into the clinical work and programs of this College service.  Support from BWF will help to fund studies of gender policy in US jurisprudence.

WOMEN’S INSTITUTE FOR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
GRANT AMOUNT: $13,000

WILD advocates for a labor movement that includes unions and all other organizations and people who fight for the rights of working people and for social justice. The group aims to strengthen women’s influence in the Massachusetts labor movement by increasing the number and diversity of women leaders, and providing them with tools to be effective organizers in their unions and organizations, as well as to increase democratic participation in the labor movement, particularly among women and people of color. BWF funding for WILD supports the 2010 Summer WILD Institute, which will develop the leadership of diverse working women in Boston.