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| Above: Members of the Success Boston Student Leadership Council; Jean Dolin is second from right. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Success Boston a Decade Later
“Some of the youth out there struggle to find a path. Some struggle to discover if there even is a path out there to follow their dreams—and some don’t even know they are allowed to dream.” These were the powerful words of a young college graduate named Jean Dolin at the 2017 graduation celebration for Success Boston—our city’s college completion initiative. Dolin, who was born in Haiti, explained that he had struggled with immigration and money issues, but with the help of his Success Boston coach he had prevailed. Now he believes passionately that “we can only hope for a better future if we invest in our young people,” and plans to dedicate his life to doing everything he can to make that hope a reality. Supporting, motivating and mentoring students as they follow their dreams is at the heart of Success Boston’s coaching model. |
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The Transportation Dividend
The situation was not acceptable,” Governor Charlie Baker said in late February when a Red Line derailment that stranded thousands of passengers seemed to put the cherry on top of a season of signal problems, disabled cars and aggravating delays on Greater Boston’s public transit system. Unacceptable as the current state may be, our region is in a better position than most regarding public transportation. At a February forum at the Boston Foundation, a report by A Better City on the state and future of our public transit systems was presented and discussed by a panel of stakeholders and influencers. |
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Closing the “Capacity Gap” on the Ground in Haiti
Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the Boston Foundation and its donors responded swiftly by establishing The Haiti Fund, a five-year effort to support human rights and reconstruction efforts in Haiti. The Fund made 140 grants totaling more than $2 million in Haiti and Greater Boston—home to the country’s third-largest Haitian community—and supported advocacy work for and in Haiti. After five years, so many lessons had been learned about the power of working with locals in Haiti that a permanent organization, the Haiti Development Institute (HDI), was formed as a special initiative of the Boston Foundation to expand and deepen the work. Today, HDI is at an important crossroads, reports Executive Director Pierre-Andre Noel, just back from a month in Haiti. |
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“The time is always right to do right.” |
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MLK Boston Between 1980 and 2000, Boston native Paul English would have watched Liz Walker delivering the news on WBZ-TV; now the two of them are making news together as co-chairs of MLK Boston, a nonprofit housed at the Boston Foundation. MLK Boston is dedicated to creating a major Boston memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King to honor and perpetuate their work and ideals in the city where they met. English, founder of travel companies Kayak and Lola as well as other ventures, and Reverend Walker, now senior pastor of Roxbury Presbyterian Church, were introduced by Boston Mayor Martin Walsh. All three understood how fitting a King memorial would be for Boston, and in fact, how essential. |
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60 x 60 Success
Diana Akelman usually goes at things at 110 percent. But recently she’s found something appealing about 1 percent. Pledge 1% Boston, that is. Akelman was part of a wave of new members to the movement during Pledge 1% Boston’s ambitious “60 x 60” campaign at the end of 2017: to double its membership from 30 to 60 in 60 days. Pledge 1% Boston is the regional arm of the global Pledge 1% movement, which rallies founders and companies—especially, but not exclusively, new or young ones—to pledge early in their organization’s life to give 1% of equity and other resources for social change. |
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Welcoming Vanessa Calderón-Rosado
The newest member of the Boston Foundation’s Board of Directors, Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, has led Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) for 15 years. A 50-year-old nonprofit community development corporation, IBA grew out of a grassroots effort by the Puerto Rican community in Boston’s South End to fight the displacement of low-income families through “urban development.” The Boston Foundation was “there at the beginning” with early funding for IBA. Today IBA aims to empower individuals to improve their lives through housing, education and arts programs. It also controls a portfolio of 521 affordable housing units in its South End Villa Victoria development, as well as in Roxbury and Mattapan. IBA is the largest Latino-led nonprofit in Greater Boston, but things weren’t always so rosy. Early on, Calderón-Rosado was the interim executive director, having inherited an organization that was more than struggling. “IBA was in a very distressed financial and programmatic position,” she recalls, thinking back to her first interaction with the Boston Foundation. “The Foundation asked the right—and very tough—questions of us, but supported us through our challenges and transition. So my first interaction was both difficult and great!” Calderón-Rosado was born in Puerto Rico, where she spent her early years, graduating from University High School in San Juan. |
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| From left: Ellise Patterson, photo by Kyle Davi; Abilities Kecosa Collective, photo by Madalena Kozolg and Madhvi Venkatesh, photo by Alex Aguilar. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Live Arts Boston As part of the Boston Foundation’s efforts to support the performing arts—a vital component of the vibrant cultural scene in our city—the Boston Foundation and Barr Foundation have just announced the second cycle of grants made through Live Arts Boston (LAB). The first round of grants in March of 2017 totaled $750,000; this year’s total is even higher at $785,501. The program supports individuals and small performing arts groups—a first in Boston. The results of the 2016 grants cycle show the remarkable reach of the funding. |
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THERE AT THE BEGINNING New England Center for Arts and Technology Social Finance connects private capital, nonprofits, foundations, governments and financial institutions to structure and manage innovative financing for local programs to improve the lives of people in need. This includes Pay for Success, which brings nonprofit and investment funds to projects with promising outcomes. When those outcomes yield measurable, positive results, government entities take on the funding and investors (and society) gain a return. |
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