PAST GRANTEE
PARTNERS

Asian Women for Health (AWFH) is a peer-led, community-based network dedicated to advancing Asian women’s health and wellness through education, advocacy, and support. AWFH envisions a world where Asian women are well-informed, have access to care that is culturally appropriate and high quality, and inspired to live happy, healthy lives.

AFAB was founded in order to help ease the severe difficulties that Haitian women face as they adjust to life in the United States. The organization’s primary goal is to provide Haitian women with the tools needed for self-empowerment and for enhancing their ability to improve the quality of their lives. AFAB’s economic empowerment project works with unemployed and low-income women to achieve success in addressing poor economic conditions with relevant education, through developing personal financial plans, and through collectively advocating with the City of Boston to address some of the root causes of poverty.

The Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition (BBCC) is a group of stakeholders and thought leaders from Boston who have formed a united effort to demand that decisions, policies, and actions taken and resources committed to its community of residents and businesses are effective. BBCC defines effective as successfully stemming the contraction and transmission of COVID-19, and leaving Black residents and Black businesses in a better place post-pandemic than before and during.

Blackyard is a transformative learning community for Black youth combating racism and homophobia. The organization was birthed from a desire to see Black youth treated with dignity and given a learning environment that sees and acknowledges them in the fullness of their humanity. Featuring after school programming, music and art activities, family support, and dialog about racial justice, the organization is an inclusive space for all Black youth, including queer youth, to lead, organize, and develop programming plans and bring them to life.

Founded in 2004 by young people, first time grantee Beantown Society wants to end the violence that they faced as youth in their own lives. She Rise Up is an initiative to more systematically support young women of color to lead youth programming and community projects.

MLC supports the endeavors of low-income girls and families living in the Mystic Public Housing Development. The MLC’s Books of Hope program serves predominantly Haitian, Latina and African American young women through training in creative writing, performance, public speaking, and entrepreneurship. It provides opportunities for them to tell their stories, expand critical thinking, speak out about issues that matter to them, receive support from female mentors, and develop leadership skills.

BTC commemorates its 4th year as a BWF grantee. They work with local, grassroots partners and public housing tenants and advocacy groups to train and develop the leadership skills of public housing leaders in Boston. Their goal is to develop greater Boston Housing Authority tenant leadership within public housing and in the tenant movement.

BIC commemorates its 4th year as a BWF grantee. Together with partners in the Massachusetts Coalition of Domestic Workers, BIC has been actively campaigning for over 3 years to advance labor rights for Massachusetts’ domestic workers and helped pass the Massachusetts Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, which was just signed into law in July.

Cambridge Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team (Cambridge HEART) is a community-led alternative safety program meeting public safety needs outside of policing systems. Grounded in transformative and disability justice principles, Cambridge HEART uses a peer-response model to respond to emergency calls prompted by the immediate needs of people in conflict or crisis, including those with mental illness and/or substance use disorders. Cambridge HEART also engages in conflict resolution processes, coordinates mutual aid to support material needs, and works to address the root causes of harm.

The Cambridge Women’s Center aims to provide a supportive community space for all womxn by offering opportunities for empowerment, learning, healing, trauma support, and understanding. The Cambridge Women’s Center does not confine womxn to their biggest traumas and instead fosters a community for all womxn based on autonomy, mutual respect, and personal initiative. Their four-story drop-in space is open six days a week, offering safe spaces for cooking, reading, crafting, using the internet, and connecting with others. They also hold free groups and workshops led by volunteers and offer direct support from trained volunteers in-person and over the phone.

The Brazilian Women’s Group works to promote political and cultural awareness by contributing to the development of the Brazilian community, providing information, supporting community organizing and advocacy on immigrant rights.

Fostering the empowerment of the Boston Latina population within their youth organizing program Pintamos Nuestro Mundo/We Paint Our World, Centro Presente offers a safe, inclusive and democratic space where young Latinas learn how to use analytic tools to explore the root causes of sexism, racism, and classism, and develops the skills necessary for Latina youth to become strong leaders in their community.

The Chelsea Collaborative’s City-wide Tenants Association (CTA) organizes, educates and advocates with low-income, affordable housing and public housing tenants, primarily female who are victims of predatory lending, and tenants in foreclosed properties. CTA members work to maintain neighborhood stability and to preserve the community. It encourages low-income, female heads of household, tenants and former homeowners to learn about their rights and advocate for themselves and their community.

The Chica Project works to close the opportunity gap for Latina and other women of color by empowering them with the skills, confidence, and the networks necessary to thrive personally and professionally. The Chica Project provides a safe community for participants to develop cultural pride and a confident personal identity; build self-esteem and self-love; decrease high school absenteeism and to increase college enrollment and graduation rates; improve the employment rate and quality of jobs for people of color; and to reduce the rates of teenage and unwanted pregnancy.

Close to Home (C2H) engages all community members—youth, family, friends, neighbors, merchants and leaders—in designing and implementing community-centric solutions to prevent and respond to domestic and sexual violence.

Seed funding for CTA supports their No More in My Neighborhood campaign to fight violence against women and girls. CTA plans to organize and build the leadership skills of women and girls so that they empower themselves to speak up and organize against violence in their lives.

The Dominican Development Center (DDC) provides grassroots organizing and leadership development for social and policy change to low-income immigrant women residing in Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Hyde Park, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury. DDC is a founding member organization of the Massachusetts Domestic Workers Coalition.

The Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective mobilizes folx at the grassroots level to rematriate our food and political systems. We prioritize the return of indigenous womxn, two-spirits, and youth to traditional territories and relationships with the earth. To heal and reconcile Greater Boston’s deep history of violent displacement and erasure of its indigenous peoples, we are building local food forests, small orchards, family garden beds and networks of support alliances with other marginalized and impacted folx in the food system.

The Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective (EWR) is a collective of Indigenous people restoring the spiritual foundation of our livelihoods through regenerative food systems. EWR mobilizes folx at the grassroots level to rematriate our food and political systems. They prioritize the return of indigenous womxn, two-spirits, and youth to traditional territories and relationships with the earth. To heal and reconcile Greater Boston’s deep history of violent displacement and erasure of its indigenous peoples, Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective is building local food forests, small orchards, family garden beds and networks of support alliances with other marginalized and impacted folx in the food system.

EPOCA began in 2004, with a handful of former prisoners and a community organizer analyzing the issues and problems people faced re-entering society after release from prison. EPOCA commemorates its second year of BWF funding for its Emma Tenayuca Community Organizer Apprenticeship Program for Women. It aims to develop the skills of female members to become professional organizers.

Families for Justice as Healing (FJAH) is a grassroots abolitionist organization whose mission is to end the incarceration of women and girls. Founded in 2010 by women inside federal prison who made a commitment to keep fighting for their sisters when they came home, FJAH is led by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and the daughters of incarcerated parents.

A multi-generational endeavor strengthening the cultural identity and knowledge of Native American youth and families of New England. Returning to traditionally Native American cultural values, Gedinka, Inc. cultivates the health and wellness of Native American women and children through community-based initiatives and regional alliance building.

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.

The Grimes King Foundation is committed to improving the lives of elderly African American/Black women living in or on the edge of poverty in Boston.

A grantee since 1999, HFF recruits, organizes, and fully involves the very people most affected by the injustice of family homelessness—women and their children. HFF’s Leadership Development Institute supports families facing homelessness to empower themselves in breaking down personal barriers to self-sufficiency and in strengthening the collective effort to end family homelessness.

I Have a Future builds the power of youth across the state through leadership development, direct public action, and policy change. IHAF’s leadership and constituents are both reflective of those most affected by the issues of youth unemployment and youth criminalization, and young women of color from Boston.

Justice for Housing (J4H) is a grassroots organization committed to ending housing discrimination and homelessness for formerly incarcerated women. J4H helps justice-involved individuals obtain stable housing. J4H Peer Leaders, formerly affected by housing discrimination themselves, use a J4H model to build pathways to homeownership for justice-involved people of color, divesting from inequitable, discriminatory systems, and returning not just resources but control over those resources to the individuals most affected by systemic racism.

Love Your Menses (LYM) is a nonprofit organization promoting menstrual equity by providing an educational, uplifting and supportive space for Black and Brown girls, women, and all people who menstruate to learn about the menstrual cycle and create innovative public health solutions. Love Your Menses provides general education and information about reproductive health and wellness, STEM youth programming, menstrual product distribution, and mentorship. Founded in Boston, ​​LYM also has program operations in Haiti, Nigeria, Liberia, Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, and Kenya.

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.

A grantee for 7 years, MassCOSH’s Teens Lead at Work builds the power of Boston’s young women to fight against unsafe, unhealthy, and illegal workplace abuse through youth organizing peer leadership. They plan and facilitate violence and harassment prevention workplace trainings, via a Leadership Academy, and Safe Jobs poster contest. They also support Child Labor Laws and fight against exploitative employers.

A grantee for 7 years, MassCOSH’s Teens Lead at Work builds the power of Boston’s young women to fight against unsafe, unhealthy, and illegal workplace abuse through youth organizing peer leadership. They plan and facilitate violence and harassment prevention workplace trainings, via a Leadership Academy, and Safe Jobs poster contest. They also support Child Labor Laws and fight against exploitative employers.

The Merrimack Valley Project fosters the leadership capacity of women by working with local women and men to act together in fighting foreclosures and post-foreclosure evictions in Lawrence, Lowell, and the surrounding areas. In 2014, they focused on the issues of immigration and jobs with justice.

MLMC is a groundbreaking, nationally recognized initiative designed to stem the tide of commercial sexual exploitation of adolescent girls. Through victim-centered mentoring, prevention education and advocacy, MLMC is educating and empowering girls to find a positive life path and working to eliminate the violence of sexual exploitation. MLMC offers a unique continuum of services spanning provider training, prevention groups for vulnerable adolescent girls, case consultation, and survivor mentoring to young victims of commercial sexual exploitation.

Neighborhood Birth Center is Boston’s first birth center and a community-grounded, Black-led, nonprofit that is part of a national movement to #ReclaimMidwifery and create a future in which quality health care is accessible to all. Their work is guided by the belief that the world we want to live in – from a healthy family to a healthy planet – requires the reimagination of healthcare and the equitable redistribution of capital. In 2022 Neighborhood Birth Center purchased property collectively with Resist, Movement Sustainability Commons, City Live Vida Urbana, and the Center for Economic Democracy and are designing the “Community Movement Commons”, a movement home for activists and organizers, with birth at the center.

Neighbor to Neighbor Worcester Chapter works to transform the current political system by building the political power of the low-income community. In the upcoming year, N2N will continue to develop the leadership of women activists in Worcester, as well as recruit new leaders, by supporting women in addressing the problems that affect their lives, resulting in self-empowerment.

First time grantee NUBE is a direct action organization that builds political power and holds public institutions accountable through grassroots organizing among people of color, immigrants, and low-income residents. They aspire to build an inclusive democratic process and just public policies that address the needs of their diverse neighborhood.

The Northeast Center for Tradeswomen’s Equity (NCTE) is a Massachusetts-based, not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping women find careers in the union building trades. NCTE’s work is more than a campaign; it is a movement with a big goal: to have 20% women in the building trades by 2020.

¿Oíste? addresses the lack of Latina political representation and civic participation in Massachusetts and aims to increase the political, economic and social standings of the Latino population. The Latinas Por El Cambio program advocates for Latinas’ empowerment within low-income communities to lead collaborative, local issue-based campaigns to solve community problems.

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.

A grantee since 2010, PHH trains young artists as cultural organizers to create performances that inform the community and inspire them to get involved within the movement social justice movement. PHH creates supportive opportunities for female artists to deepen their analysis about gender oppression and to build their confidence as performers and cultural organizers.

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.

R&S is a grassroots collective of young working class women from the urban neighborhoods of Boston who take a holistic approach to organizing in order to create personal and social transformation. Their programming focuses on political education, creative expression, community building, and campaign work to end racial disparities in the juvenile justice system.

RIAC offers a wide variety of services and programs whose mission is to promote self-sufficiency, foster support, and increase successful resettlement. Its Somali Leadership Initiative offers structured training, outreach, and support for young female participants who are organizing or participating in community activities and giving back to the community.

RSP was founded in 2012 with a focus on Black women and young adults from all socio-economic backgrounds with an organizational priority on women with the least access to resources. Seed money from BWF will support RSP’s work to address deeply rooted racial discrimination, oppressive gender norms, environmental/food injustice, and other social determinants of health that perpetuate silence and inaction surrounding diseases of the reproductive system that disproportionately affect women of African descent.

A grantee since 2012, SJE is devoted to developing the leadership of girls and young women from oppressed communities in and around Boston. Girls and young women learn how to gather themselves in self-identified concerted organizing projects to address the pressing needs of their peoples, particularly those facing girls and women.

Founded homeless individuals and run by staff with experiences of poverty and/or homelessness, Solutions at Work is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty and homelessness by providing individuals and families with resources and opportunities to strengthen their self-confidence and to achieve self-sufficiency.

A grantee since 2010, SBEA is a neighborhood-based, member-driven organization empowering Latino families to create social change that will lead to personal and community advancement. SBEA promotes Latina residents’ access to information and other resources in order to achieve their individual goals and to continue their development of leadership skills and collective power by achieving community improvement within South Boston’s public housing developments.

Survivors, Inc. engages in outreach, advocacy, and educational work around welfare issues in their communities. They work for access to education for low-income women, advocate for affordable tuition and childcare, and to expand the type and amount of education and training that can be counted as work hours for welfare recipients.

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.

TCS’ Rose from Concrete is a leadership development program working with young women. These women learn to address societal issues they are directly affected by, support one another, and develop the skills and training to become Boston’s future community educators, organizers, and organizational leaders.

A grantee since 2011, the Genki Spark is a multi-generational, pan-Asian women’s initiative that embraces the concept of “arts activism” as a strategy for personal transformation and social change. They utilize Japanese taiko drumming, storytelling, and creativity as powerful organizing vehicles to bring people together and emphasize the importance of personal, cultural, and community pride.

A grantee for over 20 years, TNLR’s Community Organizing Project aims to create a climate of intolerance for domestic violence among lesbian, transgender and bisexual women and assist in making the connections between partner abuse and other social justice issues and movements. TNLR does this through a combination of community education/outreach/organizing, solidarity work, community collaborations, and leadership development of survivors.

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.

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 Encouraging Empowerment Inc. (WEE) works to educate, advocate, protect and advance the rights of immigrants, refugees, and low-income women and their families through organizing, leadership development, and service delivery.

WILD is a multi-racial, multi-cultural women’s organization that supports women’s empowerment as they become more effective leaders and organizers in their workplaces, communities, and the Massachusetts labor movement.

Youth Leadership Sets is a leadership training program organizing over 150 youth and their families from three different Boston public schools. They conduct peer counseling training, work on emotional literacy, and build community in circles during the school day and in their afterschool program.