Understanding Boston:
Civic Engagement
The Boston Foundation is deeply committed to engaging civic leaders and community residents in a dynamic, ongoing dialogue about all of the major issues that affect the lives of those living in Greater Boston. In order to achieve this goal, the Foundation makes grants to support work in the areas of civil rights, increase voter participation, include disenfranchised members of our community in all dialogues about the issues that affect their lives, and foster collaboration among local and regional leaders in addressing key challenges and opportunities facing our community.
The Foundation pursues its interest in civic engagement through its grantmaking and through its Understanding Boston model for civic leadership, which includes commissioning fresh research, bringing people together in forums and other settings, creating task forces to address challenges and creating action plans for positive change. With several partners, the Foundation also helps to coordinate the John LaWare Leadership Forum, a dedicated group of business and civic leaders focused on responding to our region’s competitiveness challenges and opportunities.
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Civic Engagement Spotlight:
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The John LaWare Leadership Forum The John LaWare Leadership Forum is a series of conversations among business and civic leaders about Greater Boston’s key challenges and opportunities. |  |
Indicators-related research:
October
08, 2009
October
08, 2009
December
01, 2008 | | Selected grants:
June
24, 2010
June
24, 2010
June
24, 2010 |
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Recent Civic Engagement Reports:
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This report examines how the lack of fiscal autonomy for Massachusetts cities and towns limits their ability to manage in difficult times as well as in good times. It does so by exploring the financial impact on the Cities of Boston and Denver of hosting the 2007 Major League Playoffs games.
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The City of Boston today is so severely restrained by rules imposed by state government in earlier generations that it lacks the flexibility and authority it needs to compete effectively in the new global knowledge economy, and is not able to fully capitalize on the innovation that it is known for.
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Civic Engagement Forums:
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March
15, 2007
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Boston were represented by Lt. Governor Timothy Murray and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, respectively, for an important discussion about Home Rule at a spring Understanding Boston forum. The findings of a Boston Foundation report, titled Boston Bound, were presented by its authors, Harvard Law School professors Gerald E. Frug and David J. Barron.Visit the Boston Bound web special where you can view the entire report and download a PDF version of the executive summary.
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February
15, 2007
The City of Boston today is so severely restrained by rules imposed by state government that it lacks the flexibility and authority to compete sufficiently in the global knowledge economy. This is the primary conclusion of a major report released by the Boston Foundation on February 15th, titled Boston Bound: A Comparison of Boston’s Legal Powers with Those of Six Other Cities.
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October
19, 2004
Boston Foundation Board member Rick Burnes, Jr., who co-chairs the TBF Civic Leadership Fund, welcomed the Fund's contributors and other civic leaders to a fascinating breakfast dialogue with the authors of Boston Unbound: Creating a World Class Citistate, which was commissioned by the Boston Foundation and researched and written by Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson....
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