FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 5, 2021
Contact: Mary-Catherine Deibel marycatherine.deibel@ccae.org; 617-909-4860
CAMBRIDGE CENTER FOR ADULT EDUCATION DIVES INTO CAMBRIDGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION’S GROUNDBREAKING 10-YEAR STUDY OF CAMBRIDGE AND EQUITY CAMBRIDGE, MA — The Cambridge Center for Adult Education, in partnership with the Cambridge Community Foundation and with the support of First Republic Bank presents Inside Cambridge Community Foundation’s Innovation and Equity Cities Report: The Case of Cambridge, as part of its continuing series, Conversations on the Edge. This series addresses pressing issues through dynamic conversations with panelists who are experts and local activists, and encourages the declaration of diverse voices through robust audience participation. This time-sensitive learning experience aims to inform, motivate, and encourage. Most importantly, recognizing that contributing to a strong social fabric is a responsibility of educational institutions, the Cambridge Center aims to foster a continuing sense of community around these issues. This ground-breaking report opens: "Cambridge has changed." These days, no one disputes that. The City of Cambridge has evolved from an education mecca to an innovation hub, powered by universities, research centers, labs, talent, massive private investment, and a diverse environment conducive to innovation. Our city is a tale of ironies, an intertwining of success and challenges, wealth and poverty, dynamism and dispossession. Looking back at the last decade, we can see that innovation-driven growth and prosperity obscured cracks in our civic foundation that threaten the very things that made Cambridge special in the first place — its diversity of people, households, race, income, ideas, and businesses — as well as the sense of community that comes with being a place that is welcoming and accessible to all. This Equity & Innovation Cities report places Cambridge in the context of other innovation cities and provides data on the impact of its economic success on our community. The report looks at Cambridge in-depth, across five income segments, or quintiles, each with about 20,000 people, to understand the divergent lives of individuals within those segments. This Conversation will attempt to take a deep dive into the report and its findings, in order to start a dialogue that brings together sectors of the city to meet these challenges. To help us do that, the panel will consist of: Geeta Pradhan, President, Cambridge Community Foundation (Moderator) Geeta draws on her deep experience in philanthropy, urban planning, and economic development to address the needs of Cambridge through the Foundation’s work. She has transformed a local grantmaking organization into the local giving platform that supports our city’s shared prosperity, social equity, and cultural richness. The Foundation has been an effective and high-impact grantmaker for 103 years; today, it supports approximately 150 nonprofits annually. The organization has become an influential civic leader, serving as a neutral, civic voice on issues Cambridge faces, and a collaborative philanthropic partner, working with donors, businesses, nonprofits, universities, and engaged citizens to address residents’ needs. Helping Geeta will be Jessica Martin, Policy Research and Operations Specialist at CCF and the Data Gatherer for this report. Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Sidiqqui (Panelist) Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui is currently serving her second term on the Cambridge City Council, and first as Mayor of Cambridge. As Mayor, she continues to promote affordable housing and address the region’s broader affordability crisis. Since becoming Mayor, she has worked on preserving the City’s existing expiring-use affordable housing at the Fresh Pond Apartments, and has worked alongside the City Manager in leading the Cambridge community during the COVID-19 pandemic, including: Launching the Mayor's Disaster Relief Fund; Introducing the Tenant Rights and Resources Notification Act; Increasing internet access to low-income families to equitably participate in remote learning; Eliminating library fines that disproportionately affect low-income residents and families and families of color; and Collaborating with the Cambridge Health Alliance to expand free COVID testing to all Cambridge residents, including both asymptomatic and symptomatic residents. Rev. Irene Monroe (Panelist) Rev. Irene Monroe can be heard on the podcast and standing Boston Public Radio segment ALL REV’D UP on WGBH (89.7 FM). She is a nationally acclaimed activist, ordained minister, lesbian feminist public theologian, and religion columnist. Monroe is a Visiting Scholar in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology, and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail. As an activist Monroe has received numerous awards
including the 2020 the Dr. Susan M. Love Award, 2019 Boston’s 25 Most Influential LGBTQ+ People of Color Award and the 2017 Cambridge Mayor’s Luminary Award. Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s Research Library on the History of Women in America. Dr. Thomas Shapiro (Panelist) Dr. Thomas Shapiro is the David R. Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy at The Heller School for Social Policy at Brandeis University. Professor Shapiro's primary interest is in racial inequality and public policy. He is a leader in the wealth and race field with a particular focus on closing the racial wealth gap. With Dr. Melvin Oliver, he wrote the award-winning Black Wealth/White Wealth, which received the 1997 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award from the American Sociological Association. The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality, 2004, was widely reviewed. He co-authored a groundbreaking study, “The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide.” In 2011 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study the wealth gap in South Africa. Dr. Shapiro’s most recent book: Toxic Inequality: How America’s Wealth Gap Destroys Mobility, Deepens the Racial Divide, & Threatens Our Future was released in 2017. He has been interviewed by and his work discussed in major media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, CNN, ABC, BBC, MSNBC, NPR. He maintains an active social media presence.
Click here to register for this free event. About the Cambridge Center for Adult Education: Since 1870, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education has been dedicated to providing the widest range of high-quality, low-cost learning opportunities for the diverse adults of Greater Boston and Cambridge and surrounding areas. The Cambridge Center for Adult Education (CCAE) remains deeply committed to place-based, person-to-person, experiential learning across a wide range of topics. The Cambridge Community Foundation is releasing their report “Cambridge: Innovation, Growth, and Inequality in a Post-pandemic World” on Wednesday, April 7th at 8:30am EST and will discuss the findings of their report. Register for the April 7th discussion here.