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“The organizing method
relies on members identifying
the root causes of problems
and then working together
in activities that result in
systematic change.“
BWF Grantees 2008
The Boston Women’s Fund proudly supports the
exceptional work of the following organizations in
promoting social and economic justice for women
and girls.
Asian Women’s Social Justice Project
(AWSJP)
Boston $20,350
Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islanders are
the fastest growing ethnic/racial minority in
Massachusetts. Organizing women to work on their
own behalf is at the core of the Asian Women’s
Social Justice Project. They work to give Asian
women the tools they need to lift up their voices,
develop leadership skills, organize as a community
and create social change in their lives. There is
a need for HIV prevention among Asian women
using culturally and linguistically appropriate
interventions. The AWSJP Women’s Health Initiative
offers this by preparing women to work as health
advocates and educators in their own communities.
AWSJP develops and disseminates their Women’s
Health Initiative HIV prevention model to address
HIV/AIDS among under-served, at-risk Southeast
Asian women and girls. AWSJP is a project of MAP.
Avery Institute for Social Change
Jamaica Plain $10,225
The Avery Institute for Social Change is committed
to quality health care for all and to feeding
the policy discussion around health care with the
data, experience, opinions and skills of the most
underserved communities. The organization takes
a visionary approach to health care reform and
justice by joining the grassroots, academic and
public policy communities. “Hear Us Now! Raising
the Voices of Marginalized and Women of Color”
is a project designed to provide critical input to the
national debate on the availability of universal ac-
cess to health care. In addition it creates a pipeline
of community activists to push a policy agenda for
health care reform. The project will conduct small
group conversations with ethnically diverse women
about Massachusetts health care coverage and their
specific needs for health care reform.
Bosnian Community Center for
Resource Development (BCCRD)
Lynn $10,225
BCCRD works to establish and provide culturally
and linguistically appropriate services to refugees
from Bosnia and other parts of former Yugoslavia
who have resettled in the wider Metro Boston area.
The Boston Women’s Fund grant supports BCCRD’s
domestic violence initiative, which provides education
about domestic violence and victims’ rights
to women who are linguistically, culturally and
economically isolated and vulnerable. Ultimately,
refugee women become their own advocates, while
sharing information and their experiences with others
in their communities.
Brazilian Women’s Group (BWG)
Allston $20,350
Since the immigration raids in New Bedford in
March of ‘07, the Brazilian Women’s Group has seen
an increase in weekly walk-ins and phone calls on
issues regarding worker’s rights, domestic violence
and sexual abuse. The BWG mission is to promote
political and cultural awareness, and contribute to
the development and self-suffi ciency of the Brazilian
community, especially women and their children.
The group promotes discussion groups, seminars
and meetings around topics such as education, immigrants’
rights and women’s issues. They coordinate
events that promote Brazilian-American culture
and female leadership, while providing educational
services such as English as a Second Language.
BWG also organizes campaigns to encourage civic
engagement by their constituency. BWG is home
to a cooperative of Brazilian women housecleaners
who organize and advocate for the use of environmentally
friendly and safe cleaning products. A
Boston Women’s Fund grant assisted them in hiring
a full time staffer.
Center for New Words (CNW)
Cambridge $20,350
CNW uses the power and creativity of words and
ideas to strengthen the voices of progressive and
marginalized women in society. Boston Women’s
Fund supports CNW’s Taking Our Place in the Public
Conversation initiative, which offers creative and
skill-building workshops and facilitated book groups
to homeless women, women in transitional housing,
low-income women and women who have been
marginalized because of race, ethnicity, class,
immigration status, disability, age or sexual orientation.
CNW seeks to build the capacity of various
feminist movements, promote women’s voices and
ideas, expand educational/skill-building workshops
to marginalized women, feature writers from “the
margins,” and initiate discussions about issues and
concerns reflecting women’s real lives. Supported in
part by the Christina Callan Grant-Making Bequest
at BWF.
Chelsea Citywide Tenants Association
(CTA)
Chelsea $13,600
Chelsea Citywide Tenants Association mobilizes lowincome
women and other public housing residents
to fi ght for safe, sanitary, affordable housing. The
Boston Women’s Fund grant helped to support a fulltime
housing organizer, who reaches out to femaleheaded
households, which are among those with
the lowest incomes and least access to resources.
The organized women of CTA work to ensure that
public housing is sanitary, rodent and mold-free, and
safe for all tenants; preserve “expiring use” housing
developments in Chelsea; address problems caused
by predatory lending; and diversify the base of those
fi ghting for low-income and affordable housing in
Chelsea.
The City School
Dorchester $20,350
The City School develops and strengthens the
power of youth to build a just society. BWF’s grant
supports Rose from Concrete (RfC), a program that
builds leadership with court-involved, young women
in Greater Boston. Focused on healing, deepening
self-awareness and increasing self-efficacy,
RfC helps young women gain greater insight and
understanding of the political context and systems
that have contributed to their present circumstances.
Through learning activities and creative
and community service projects, RfC youth begin to
experience themselves as important and valuable
members of our community who are able to make
meaningful change.
Cooperative Economics for Women
Revere $20,350
State programs that provide cash assistance, food
stamps and ESOL classes were some of the supports
that were lost due to sweeping changes in
laws and policy since 9/11. These changes have severely
impacted women & children in marginalized
communities. Cooperative Economics for Women
(CEW) targets those who are most marginalized
by the US economic system: refugee & immigrant
women who do not have the language, support
systems or skills to move easily into the US labor
market. CEW organizes them to address the problems
they face as they struggle to meet their basic
needs. The organizing method relies on members
identifying the root causes of problems and then
working together in activities that result in systematic
change. The Food Security Program enables
members to participate in community supported
agriculture for organic and less expensive sources
of produce. The ESL Women in Action program
provides education, promotes an understanding of
the root causes of injustice, and encourages women
to use their knowledge and skills to create lasting
changes within their families and communities.
Encuentro Diaspora Afro
Roslindale $20,350
Encuentro Diaspora Afro is a grassroots organization,
which gives voice to the experiences
of Afro-Latinos, a huge but largely invisible and
marginalized group of people in Boston and across
the United States. It is dedicated to dismantling
racism, improving the lives of people of African descent,
and creating a just society for all. The Boston
Women’s Fund supports the Hermanas Exchanging
Roots, a young women’s leadership program, and
the Women’s Initiative, which builds awareness and
solidarity among various ethnic groups of women
of African descent. Both projects promote cross-cultural
dialogue and education, women’s leadership,
alliance-building and Afro Latino unity. Supported in
part by the Christina Callan Grant-Making Bequest
at BWF.
Matahari: Eye of the Day
Boston $16,975
Matahari: Eye of the Day creates community solutions
to prevent and end human traffi cking, genderbased
violence and migrant labor exploitation. The
Boston Women’s Fund supports Matahari’s organizing
in South Asian, Filipina and Haitian-Caribbean
communities. Women are organized to develop
solidarity groups and come together to help break
isolation, tap into leadership potential, develop
political commentary and establish networks for
employment, childcare, education, and affordable
housing. Each group engages in anti-violence and
anti-oppression education and dialogue.
Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N)
Worcester $20,350
Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) Massachusetts builds
power in low-income and working class communities
by bringing low-income people back into the
political process, developing local leadership, and
organizing a broad coalition of allies who hold poli-
ticians accountable to the needs of their constituents.
The grant from Boston Women’s Fund supports
Neighbor to Neighbor – Worcester’s project to develop
the leadership capacity of low-income women
activists in Worcester. Through door-to-door visits,
one-on-one mentoring, individual and group skill
development, issue education, and learning-by-doing
public advocacy training, N2N – Worcester prepares
low-income women to advocate for change
on the economic justice issues that affect their lives
and build voter power in their neighborhoods.
The Network/La Red
Boston $6,850
The Network/La Red addresses battering in lesbian,
bisexual women’s, and transgender communities.
The Boston Women’s Fund supports the Network/La
Red’s visibility campaign, which raises awareness
of and community responsibility for lesbian/transgender
domestic violence. Through a combination
of organizing, education, outreach, community
collaborations, and media activism, the Network/La
Red works to create a culture in which domination,
coercion, and control are no longer accepted and
operative, social norms.
Pleasant Street Neighborhood
Network Center
Worcester $10,225
Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center is
home to Women Together (WT), a group of mothers,
sisters, neighbors and residents of the Piedmont
Neighborhood in Worcester who came together in
response to youth violence in their neighborhood.
BWF funding supports their organizing of a diverse
membership, which will develop and work for a common
vision for their community. Supported in part by
the Christina Callan Grant-Making Bequest at BWF.
Project HIP-HOP
Roxbury $20,350
Project Hip-Hop is a youth-led organization that
uses hip-hop culture and the history of resistance to
injustice as tools for engaging and developing young
people as activists and organizers. Working in the
Dudley Square neighborhood, youth members and
their adult supporters create a new dynamic where
young people work together to uplift their community.
Boston Women’s Fund supports Project HIP-HOP’s
two-year initiative to explore sexism, misogyny,
and homophobia while also increasing support for
gender-specific programs for young women activists.
The young women of Project HIP-HOP increase their
ability and comfort in confronting gender oppression
through the Summer Leadership Institute, a collaborative
project about domestic violence with Casa
Myrna Vasquez, and Girlz Cypher, a spoken word
performance group for young women.
Project: Think Different
Boston $6,850
Youth often turn to the entertainment media and
popular culture for information. The dangerous
effects of mainstream media on the self-esteem,
empowerment, and the well-being of young women
is apparent in girls’ violence statistics, current
fashion trends, and rising rates of teen pregnancy.
Project: Think Different’s Youth Media Institute
cultivates leaders who believe in their power to
create change in the media. Education, employment
opportunities, job skills training in media arts,
youth co-facilitation of workshops for other youth,
and mentoring opportunities help girls to explore
the ways in which the media contribute to young
women’s perceptions of themselves as well as how
young people can utilize media to create positive
shifts in their community.
Reaching Out About Depression
(ROAD)
Somerville $13,600
Reaching Out About Depression (ROAD) is a grassroots
mental health and organizing program run
by and for low-income women with depression.
ROAD addresses not only the symptoms of women’s
depression, but also the social conditions and inequalities
that can cause, infl uence and exacerbate
mental health diffi culties. ROAD offers leadership
opportunities for women so they can become
peer supports for their fellow ROAD members and
change agents in their communities. Experienced
ROAD participants mentor new members, design
and deliver presentations for local service providers,
and participate in skill building workshops on
team-building, grant writing and public speaking.
The BWF grant supports ROAD’s ongoing work and
helps increase leadership opportunities for ROAD
members.
Sociedad Latina
Roxbury $6,850
Sociedad Latina’s Young Women Organizing Project
trains girls ages 14-18 on the elements of community
organizing, providing them with a voice in the
world and helping them to develop youth-led strategies
for media justice. This program provides girls
with leadership development skills that pertain to
researching issues, interviewing and educating their
peers and working with state and local decision
makers. This year the Young Women Community
Organizers focus their efforts on policy changes to
address the negative effect that storefront advertising
has on young women’s physical and mental
health. They also work with Area B2 police personnel
to devise and implement trainings on the issue
of girl-on-girl violence.
Teen Voices
Boston $13,600
Women Express cultivates the power of girls and
young adult women to create social change through
writing and art. Women Express creates opportunities
for low-income teen girls of color to develop
communications and journalism skills and to use
these skills to express their point-of-view on critical
issues. The young women involved produce a national
print and online magazine, Teen Voices, now
in its 17th year of publication and the only alternative
print magazine for girls in the United States.
BWF supports Teen Voices’ Boston Girls Writing
Project Community, an outreach and engagement
effort to involve and work with an additional 225
girls from the Boston area.
United Teen Equality Center
Lowell $20,350
United Teen Equality Center (UTEC) is a “by teens,
for teens” safe-haven for youth development
and grassroots organizing. The Young Women’s
Organizing (YWO) program is a social issues- focused
program, specifi cally for young women,
within UTEC’s Youth Development Center. YWO
develops young women leaders who in turn educate
their peers about issues signifi cant to women and
girls in their communities in Lowell. YWO promotes
young women’s agency in their own community so
that they become problem solvers focusing on the
specifi c needs of Lowell’s young women. YWO and
its young women leaders together create a system
of supported leadership training. Currently, YWO
participants focus on becoming experts on the issues
of domestic violence, abuse, and cyber-stalking
as they relate to young women in Lowell.
We Learn/Women Expanding Literacy
Education Action Resource Network
Boston $16,975
WE LEARN addresses the barriers and consequences
of gender-based differences on women’s learning
– differences, which affect women’s success and
ability to progress socially, economically and politically.
WE LEARN promotes women’s literacy as a
tool for personal growth and social change through
networking, education, action, and resource development.
BWF funds support WE LEARN’s collaboration
with Boston area adult literacy programs, which
provides Women Leading Through Reading (WLTR)
discussion circles for women with limited literacy
skills. The circles utilize women-centered literacy
materials, group reading, facilitated discussion, and
refl ective writing to provide unique opportunities to
address gender-based barriers to women’s learning.
Supported in part by the Christina Callan Grant-
Making Bequest at BWF.
We’re Educators A Touch of Class
(WEATOC)
Dorchester $10,225
Sister2Sister is a peer education program of
WEATOC that educates young women about their
bodies, informs them about critical issues, empowers
them to make healthy choices, and helps them
to improve their self-esteem. They are one of the
fi rst groups in Boston to use and establish the
peer modeling technique for educating youth on
issue affecting their lives. WEATOC uses drama,
education and counseling to teach young women
about abuse, themselves, and their relationships.
Sister2Sister empowers young women so that they
are likely to avoid victimization. Each member participates
in various levels of training to create curricula,
games and skits that educate their peers in
schools, health centers, youth centers and women’s
programs. Through their dynamic performances that
both educate and entertain, they are changing and
breaking the negative stereotypes of youth.
YWCA Boston
Boston $20,350
YWCA Boston’s Girls Get REAL is the only program
in Boston that focuses exclusively on the comprehensive
health and well-being of adolescent girls.
The program empowers at–risk girls to challenge
destructive messages of sexism and racism and
to develop healthy identities and individual voices
against violence. They work together to address how
poverty negatively impacts health and the reality of
health disparities in Boston. Twenty young women
of color receive training in leadership development
and health education during after-school sessions
and community workshops. They also participate in
a variety of hands-on health and wellness workshops,
fi eld trips. They also conduct health and
wellness surveys of their peers. These Peer Health
Leaders then host outreach events and an annual
Girls’ Health and Wellness Summit to advocate for
social change in their communities and promote
greater health awareness among their peers.
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