The Community Organizing & Leadership Development Department's mission is to build community power by sustaining broad-based community organizing and promoting leadership development; to get individuals (adults and youth) out of poverty by promoting life skills and emotional intelligence; to advance access to technology by neighborhood residents, raise educational levels, increase skill levels and develop job readiness. Our programs include: Resident
Actions - Five active resident associations & LUFA (umbrella organization)
Community Organizing 1995 DBEDC receives award for largest and most active group graduating from leadership training.
Re-Entry Program
Since January 2007,
Dorchester Bay EDC has been assisting members of the Uphams Corner
community who are returning from prison. The program is part of the
Boston Re-entry Initiative, a partnership with the Suffolk County
House of Correction, the Boston Police Department and other local
community organizations. Participants are identified as most at
risk for returning to crime and are selected for the program through
law enforcement agencies. A case manager from Dorchester Bay meets
regularly with the re-entry clients starting while they are serving
their sentences and continuing for at least a year after they are
released. Through the program, the clients have access to the
following services:
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Guidance with
educational and employment goals
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Weekly lunch meetings
with fellow ex-offenders, representatives from community
organizations, motivational speakers and potential employers
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Assistance with personal
needs such as state ID cards, driver’s licenses, support with
probation officer relationships and family communication
Parent/school Organizing nWe have been organizing parents and children in local schools. Worked with over 200 families within 4 schools (Winthrop, Russell, Everett, and the Dearborn Middle School) focusing on parental involvement and increasing the students academic performance and MCAS scores. Youth Programs Dorchester Bay’s summer camp attendance exceeded 105 children this year; and our teen expeditions took over 70 teens on monthly youth outings. Dorchester Bay’s own youth sports leagues in baseball, basketball, soccer, and flag football involve over 150 boys and girls per year in our housing units and in abutting neighborhoods.
click to view page Is an innovative year round organizing and leadership development program, is building youth leadership in the community. Youth Force develops youth leadership through service, civic leadership, and social entrepreneurship to build youth power. Youth Force led a petition drive to clean up the Uphams Corner area, it led to a meeting with city officials and the commissioner of public works, with immediate results and trash cans. Youth Force Accomplishments:
Getting new trash cans, a clean up day, and plans for street lighting. New issues include transit, jobs and re-entry. Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative recognized Youth Force’s effectiveness with a Green Action Award on November 4, 2004 at its 20th Anniversary Jamboree.
click here to see photos of Team expedition trips | 
TGH Youth 
Youth Force |
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Safe Neighborhood Initiative DBEDC is a founding and lead member of in the Upham’s/Dudley Safe Neighborhood Initiative. This ia a collaborative of community residents, merchants, neighborhood civic groups, the District Attorney’s office, and the police. We have installed cameras in Dorchester Bay housing and in the Uphams Corner business district. We hope to get more cameras for merchants. The current re-entry of recent incarcerated individuals back to the neighborhood is a reality .There are over 3,000 re-entry cases returning to Massachusetts neighborhoods every year. We hope to work on finding solutions to this emerging and growing issue with our partners. 1996 Cottage Brook Apartments Tenants (CBATO) received “Top 10 Crime Watch Award
Fairmount Line
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