inside this week
Streets named for MLK illustrate persistent inequality pg 2
A&E
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PLAYWRIGHT KIRSTEN GREENIDGE RETURNS TO HUNTINGTON THEATRE WITH ‘MILK LIKE SUGAR’ pg 15
Firm uses weight lifting to build employment skills pg 10
plus ‘Yosemite’ explores dark side of childhood pg 15 ‘Violet’ at Boston Center for the Arts pg 16 Thursday, January 21, 2016 • FREE • GREATER BOSTON’S URBAN NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1965 • CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
BPS budget fears spur call to action
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MLK day demonstration
Parents, activists gather for emergency meeting By JULE PATTISON-GORDON
Parents, grandparents, students, educators, administrators and education activists filled Madison Park High School’s Cardinal Hall last Thursday, with dozens standing when the seats ran out. Their purpose: an emergency town hall meeting to address, “What is the Future for Public Schools in Boston?” Government officials were there as well, including city Councilors Tito Jackson, Ayanna Pressley and Timothy McCarthy, along with representatives from state Senators Sonia Chang-Diaz and Linda Dorcena Forry and Councilor Andrea Campbell. The Boston Education Justice Alliance convened the meeting. Activists outlined the trials facing Boston Public Schools, high among them the estimated $50 million budget debt, drainage of money to charters, over-testing and policies regarded as being forced on families and communities instead of inspired by their needs. The year brings decisive deadlines with the School Committee reviewing the budget February-March, the unified enrollment
system for vote in June and the possible November ballot question regarding the charter cap lift— if charter advocates do not succeed in pushing the state Senate to act before then. Marléna Rose, BEJA campaign coordinator, presented Boston’s movement as part of a nationwide fight for to secure equal and sufficient funding for public schools. “Across the nation schools and students are being faced with unsustainable budget cuts,” Rose said. Presenters called for actions ranging from appealing to elected officials and testifying at public hearings to walk-outs.
Budget strains and charter ballots
Heshan Berents-Weeramuni, cochair of the Citywide Parent Council and BPS parent, outlined likely impacts of the budget shortfall, including losses of librarians, science teachers and accreditation at some schools and reduced services for students with autism and emotional impairments. Several activists said the potential lift of the charter cap would only
See BPS, page 19
PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER BRANDAO
Demonstrators marched Monday from Carson Beach to Grove Hall to protest police violence against blacks, anti-Muslim violence and to voice support for a $15 hourly wage. Earlier in the day, six activists were arrested at Logan Airport, demonstrating for higher wages for airport workers.
Wu announces council committee assignments Choices raise hopes for body cameras, education By JULE PATTISON-GORDON
Last week, City Council President Michelle Wu unveiled the new council committee assignments and structures, decisions that will strongly impact what gets championed and passed this year. Wu also introduced several new committees, along with restructurings and dissolutions of others. Before making final decisions, she met with councilors to discuss their goals and requested
they rank preferences. Diversity, body cameras and quality public education loomed large on their agendas.
Diversity causes
The Post Audit and Oversight Committee, long-chaired by former Councilor Charles Yancey, was dissolved. Post Audit and Oversight paid special interest to the level of diversity in the city’s hiring. Recent committee revealed a failure of the fire and police departments to hire
enough people of color. Continued attention on bringing and maintaining diversity in law enforcement and firefighting is of great importance, especially as many officers of color retire and diversity wanes, said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice. “There should be continued oversight over the hiring, including and promoting process of fire
See COMMITTEES, page 20
U.S. atty. general visits South Bay Reviews local reentry programs By YAWU MILLER
PHOTO: DAVID HILL/COURTESY SUFFOLK COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch meet in the Library of the Suffolk County House of Correction.
Last year, President Barack Obama made criminal justice reform a priority for his administration, underscoring his commitment with a visit to a prison – a first for a U.S. president. Last week Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch, visited the Suffolk County House of Correction for a discussion of criminal justice reform, reentry programs
and efforts to reduce recidivism. Speaking in a meeting room full of nonprofit and government workers who provide services to inmates and newly-released ex-convicts, Lynch told the gathering that she understands the importance of their work. “The work you are doing is indeed important to real people,” she said. “It makes change in real lives. I want to thank you for believing in people who society wants to write off.”
Much of the work that sheriffs, police and probation officers, nonprofits and clergy do to help former inmates learn skills and find housing and work after their release is funded in part by the Second Chance Act of 2007, a federal program which has given out $400 million in grants over the last eight years – and $53 million last year. One critical reform the administration is pushing this year is to lift restrictions on Pell Grants that bar people with drug convictions
See LYNCH, page 14
2 • Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER
Streets named for MLK Jr. illustrate persistent inequality By CAITLIN YOSHIKO KANDIL
As the country celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day this week, many of the monuments to his legacy — the nearly 900 streets across the country that bear his name — are plagued by
the same racial and socioeconomic injustices that he once fought against. For Daniel D’Oca, a design critic in urban planning at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, this contradiction became a way to teach students about race, space and power — and to inspire
solutions for restoring Dr. King’s vision on these streets. So D’Oca, inspired by Beloved Streets of America, a St. Louis-based initiative that restores streets named after Dr. King across America, designed a studio course at Harvard that had students investigate
Martin Luther King Day march
CHRISTOPHER BRANDAO PHOTO
Activists with Mass Action Against Police Brutality lead a Martin Luther King Day march on Columbia Road. About 200 activists from labor and civil rights organizations braved the cold on the three-hour-long march and demonstration, which ended at the Grove Hall Mecca Mall.
King Streets and develop projects, using urban planning and design, architecture and landscape architecture, to help revitalize them. “What we see is the product of design — these streets aren’t a mistake,” said D’Oca. “There were racist policies employed throughout the 20th century that you can look at to explain why these streets look the way they do.”
Street symbolism
D’Oca pointed out that the stereotype of Martin Luther King Jr. Streets — that they’re all filled with poverty and violence — hides their real-life diversity. “There’s a famous Chris Rock joke that if you ever find yourself on an MLK Street — run,” D’Oca said, paraphrasing the comedian. “The guy stood for non-violence, and now the streets are violent. I think that’s the popular perception. And there’s certainly some truth to that — a lot of these streets do run through neighborhoods that have seen divestment over the years — but it’s not entirely true.” “They come in all shapes and sizes,” he went on. “Some are really big and go through suburban strip malls, some of them are really commercial, some are more residential, and some go through government areas.” So the first assignment D’Oca gave his students was to create an atlas of King Streets in major cities across the country by collecting demographic and economic data, as well as identifying what is unique to each street. What these streets have in common is that the problems they face are no accident.
Design equity
THROUGH THE LENS OF HISTORY:
“Most of them are in black communities and through the structural racism that pervades the built in environment in the United States, these neighborhoods and streets were created to fail in a lot of ways,” D’Oca said of policies such as redlining, racially restrictive covenants and urban renewal. “There’s no lack of evidence that there were human-made tools and decisions that led to the kind of outcomes that we see today.” The course’s main assignment tasked students with focusing on one of two King Streets — either in Washington, DC or St. Louis — and developing a project that would address the local needs of that neighborhood. To understand what those local needs were D’Oca took the students on field trips to both
cities so they could meet with community members and government officials. They found that while the primary concern in Washington, DC, was gentrification, the big problem in St. Louis was empty lots, crumbling infrastructure and businesses fleeing. Some of the final projects included building plans for a vocational school and community center, creating an urban forest on empty lots, and transforming all of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Washington, DC, into a monument, so that walking along the street would tell the life story of the Civil Rights hero. Dana McKinney, an architecture and urban planning graduate student at Harvard and the teaching assistant for the course, said the projects taught students about equity in design. “Everyone should be eligible to have a strong aesthetic,” she said. “You don’t need to be a billionaire, the top one percent, to have beautiful places. Teaching students that this is something that everyone should have access to was a powerful lesson.” But, McKinney explained, this topic isn’t commonly taught at the school—or in the field. “There haven’t been many design studios, at least not during my time, that talk about these issues of equity and bringing justice and legacy,” she said. “And in the context of designers in general, it’s something that a lot of people disregard. So this studio was a huge statement. The students were being invited to present their work to this committee and that committee, and a lot of people were taken aback by the necessity and urgency, and the fact that the school and profession as a whole have neglected this.” D’Oca and McKinney hope that residents and officials in St. Louis and Washington, DC will implement eventually some of the student projects. But D’Oca said that the problems many King Streets are witness to will require a much bigger effort to solve, from better fair housing policy to the creation of good jobs nearby. “There’s not much that a neighborhood that a Martin Luther King Jr. Street runs through can do on its own,” said D’Oca. “These are regional problems and require regional solutions. We have to address the fact that a lot of urban policy traps poor black people inside of failing cities, so we need to open up the borders in a way that leads to a more level playing field and spreads opportunities around.”
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BOSTON PREP September 17, 2015 – February 27, 2016 Grand Circle Gallery honors the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, through the photography of James H. Barker. Free Admission Wed & Fri: 12–6, Thurs: 12–7, Sat: 10–5 gct.com/grandcirclegallery @GC_Gallery Sponsored by The Lewis Family Foundation Handicap Accessible
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Looking for a middle or high school? Applications for 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades found online at www.bostonprep.org. Information Sessions on Tuesday, January 12 at 5:30-6:30 p.m. and Saturday, January 23 at 1-2 p.m. 1286 Hyde Park Avenue, Hyde Park
Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER • 3
Dudley’s new market rate: boon to some; others: displacement By JULE PATTISON-GORDON
As rents rise across the city, Dudley Square seems to be drawing real estate developers who aim to attract tenants seeking the more moderate side of market rate housing. For Roxbury residents who have long clamored for greater diversity of housing and business in the area, this may signal the hopedfor change. Their aspirations are largely reflected in the new tenants of the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, with its cafés, boutiques and optometrist/art gallery. Real estate developers like the Mayo Group apparently are banking on the district’s improved curb appeal as they usher in more market rate units. Brokers and real estate agents also said they expect many tenants to flock in from other neighborhoods as rents elsewhere in the city continue to rise. But for Roxbury residents living in deeply affordable housing, the picture is bleaker. While rents on market rate apartments are currently near or below city average, they are climbing past the reach of the Section 8 tenants who have long inhabited the Dudley Square area; as a result, many of these tenants are likely to be displaced. Such tension was visible last Friday, as City Life/Vida Urbana held a rally to protest the removal of long-term tenants, all on Section 8 housing vouchers, from 9-13-15 Ruggles Street. Mayo Group owns the building. The management company, Advanced Property Management, has negotiated for the final five families to move out of the buildings, at which time the company will renovate and offer the units at market price.
Growth of Roxbury’s market rate housing
Terrance Moreau, real estate agent with the Mandrel Company, said that based on conversations with developers, it seems that many potential market rate renters are young professionals and students turning to Roxbury with the expectation of lower prices than in other neighborhoods. “Roxbury is still considered one of the most affordable places in Boston to live,” he said. “There has not been a significant amount of opportunity for market rate units in Dudley Square.” Market rate housing currently is cropping up in district with the renovation of 9-13-15 Ruggles Street and the creation of a fivestory, 11-unit rental building at 10 Roxbury Street.
BANNER PHOTO
Marshall Cooper leads anti-displacement activists in a chant in front of row houses on Dudley Street, where Section 8 tenants say they are being pushed out, during a rally organized by City Life/Vida Urbana. A Postlet listing for 13 Ruggles Street Apt 2 puts the three-bedroom unit at $2,700 a month; a Zillow listing for a three-bedroom unit at 10 Roxbury Street is $2,300 a month. Depending on location and amenities, one-bedrooms are more likely to fetch $1,400-$1,600 in Roxbury this year, Moreau said, and predicted that would increase next year. These Roxbur y numbers remain below city averages. In comparison, Darnell Johnson, regional coordinator of Right to the City Boston, said last fall that average rent for a one-bedroom unit in Boston was $2,400 a month. Rent Jungle puts the average two-bedroom rent at $2,745. But market rate prices and offerings are likely to increase. “There’s great potential for market rate housing in Dudley at this time. From what you see going on now, demand is there,” said Sharif Abdal-Khallaq, a Roxbury-based real estate broker. He said Banker & Tradesman found that rental rates are rising faster in Roxbury than any other Boston neighborhood. Moreau predicted a growth of market rate housing, noting that 10 Roxbury Street was an early driver of that trend. “I think in the future, given the developer and investor interest in Roxbury, that we will see more market rate rentals and renters come into the area,” he said. “I do
see, over time, there being more market tenants infiltrating Dudley Square, but for now we’re seeing 10 Roxbury Street being an initiator.” Moreau said that the demand for deeply-affordable housing was about equal to demand for market rate in Roxbury.
Decline of Section 8
Finding housing affordable on a Section 8 voucher is extremely difficult, according to Steve
Meacham, organizing coordinator with City Life. He said the system is at risk of becoming ineffective as fewer and fewer places fall within its price level. Under Section 8, families in Boston select housing and pay 30 percent of their income in rent. The Boston Housing Authority will use funds provided by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to cover the rest of the rent — up to a certain
Yawu Miller contributed to this article
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rent level. The BHA will either pay what is regarded as the average rent needed for moderately-priced unit in the local market — the “payment standard” — minus the family’s contribution or will pay the gross rent, minus the family contribution, whichever is less. If the landlord charges more than the payment standard, any extra cost is shouldered by the family. Until recently, landlords preferred Section 8 tenants because the landlords could get more money from pricing rents at payment standards, Meacham said. Now that has changed. The payment standard for a three-bedroom unit is $2,047 per month, not including utilities, according to Meacham. This falls below the 13 Ruggles Street price by nearly $650. For a one-bedroom, the payment standard is $1,315 for a one-bedroom, not including utilities, he said. Felicha Young, long-time resident at the Ruggles Street site, was scheduled to move out on Dec. 31. She won an extension until the end of February but still struggles to find anywhere with Section-8 level affordability. “I don’t know how long it will take me to find an apartment,” she said. And if she cannot find one before February, “[We] will end up most likely in a shelter.” Meacham predicted a displacement out of Roxbury’s low-income tenants.
4 • Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER
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Established 1965
Putting a best foot forward People all over the world acclaim Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as the primary leader of America’s Civil Rights Movement. The quiet wisdom of his eloquent statements that are often repeated sustain his memory. As is the case with many leaders, MLK seemed to emerge when circumstances created a pressing need. MLK had demonstrated no great ambition for prominence before he stepped forward. Nonetheless, MLK grew up at a time when it was culturally expedient to induce youth to mature quickly. MLK was born on Jan. 15, 1929, the same year that the Great Depression began. This period of economic decay continued until 1941, and it created a sense of urgency about survival among Americans, especially blacks. The life expectancy for an African American born in 1930 was only 48.1 years. With such a short anticipated life span, blacks had great incentive to grow up fast, become ready for work and commit to the responsibility of a family. Those who spent time on higher education were expected to work hard at their studies. MLK’s father did not permit him to join a fraternity when he was an undergraduate at Morehouse. His father thought that fraternity life was too frivolous. It was not until he came to Boston University for his Ph.D. that MLK joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Upon the completion of his studies at Boston University, MLK went south to become a foot soldier in the struggle for civil rights. His leadership qualities were recognized early on and he was chosen to be the spokesman for the Montgomery Bus Boycott which began on Dec. 1, 1955. MLK
was then only 26 years old. As might be expected, some older men found it difficult over the years to be passed over for a much younger leader. However, the success of the bus boycott, which ran for more than a year, established MLK’s leadership credentials. During the era of the 1950s, and to some extent earlier, there seemed to be a great focus in the black community on encouraging the early maturity of black men. A common biblical citation in churches was from I Corinthians (13:11): “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Two other prominent black spokesmen who emerged during this time were Malcolm X, who was four years older than MLK, and Minister Farrakhan who was four years younger. Tragically and ironically, both MLK and Malcolm X were killed at the age of 39. Times have changed. The mortality rate for blacks is about 75.5 years, 27.4 years more than in 1930. Blacks now seem to feel more comfortable about being part of the nation’s youth-oriented culture. Many have joined the state of perennial adolescence, with adults dressing like teenagers and ridiculing those who appear to accept the sartorial standards of maturity. In a brief lifetime of 39 years, Martin Luther King was able, with the association of others, to improve the legal status of blacks in America. A major renewed commitment to maturity, discipline and organized effort is necessary for blacks to attain a reasonable level of economic growth.
“Looks like those brothers aren’t ready for prime time.” USPS 045-780 Melvin B. Miller Sandra L. Casagrand John E. Miller Yawu Miller
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Mass lawmakers ‘get’ community health centers
Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan and Frederica Williams provided a welcome reminder of Boston’s path-blazing leadership in what became known as the community health center movement (“Roxbury health centers help make history,” Jan. 14). When the first two centers demonstrated such exciting promise in 1965 for keeping local populations healthy, a young senator who would become one of Massachusetts’ greatest legislators went to bat for this
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new model of health care delivery. As Congressman Steve Lynch said to his House colleagues on November 16, 2015, “In 1966, the esteemed late Senator Edward M. Kennedy visited the Columbia Point Health Center and immediately understood its mission and its value. He became the greatest champion health centers have ever known. Over the next 50 years, with his leadership and support, the Community Health Center program expanded tremendously.” Today, institutions like The Dimock Center and Whittier Street
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Health Center remain the backbone of preventive care, disease management and wellness promotion for many urban and rural communities across the country. We are fortunate that our state’s current delegation of senators and congressmen fully understands the wisdom of sustaining our investments in a forward-thinking national system that had its roots right here in Massachusetts.
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Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER • 5
OPINION THE BANNER WELCOMES YOUR OPINION: EMAIL OP-ED SUBMISSIONS TO YAWU@BANNERPUB.COM • Letters must be signed. Names may be withheld upon request.
OPINION
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White anger is the new black
What do you think is the most pressing civil rights issue today?
By LEE A. DANIELS Have you heard? Apparently large numbers of American adults are “angry” about their own circumstances and about where they think the country is headed. For months numerous politicians, pollsters and pundits have touted this anger as an important factor in the line-up of who’s supporting who in both the Republican and Democratic presidential primary campaigns. So, you could say that anger is all the rage (pardon the pun) now in considering the state of American society. Or, to put it in fashion — and political — terms, that anger is the new black. But, to be more precise: it’s really white Americans’ anger that’s the new black. A survey of 3,000 Americans released this month by NBC News “...[W]hites’ and Esquire Magazine found that expressed anger about 54 percent of whites say they’ve grown more outraged during the these things is the past year. That compares with 43 ‘anger of perceived percent of Latinos and 33 percent of disenfranchisement black Americans who say so. Nearly — a sense that the three-quarters of whites say they majority has become get angry upon hearing or reading a persecuted minority, something at least once a day, compared to 66 percent of Latinos and the bitterness of a 56 percent of African Americans. promise that didn’t pan Further, while 45 percent of blacks out — rather than actual say the American dream is alive, just hardship.’” 35 and 34 percent of Latinos and whites, respectively, agree. The survey, appropriately titled “American Rage,” explores what these and other findings mean in limited but nonetheless fascinating detail. Its opening passage declares that from “their views on the state of the American dream (dead) and America’s role in the world (not what it used to be) to how their life is working out for them (not quite what they’d had in mind), a plurality of whites tend to view life through a veil of disappointment.” But, the survey bluntly states, whites’ expressed anger about these things is the “anger of perceived disenfranchisement — a sense that the majority has become a persecuted minority, the bitterness of a promise that didn’t pan out — rather than actual hardship.” It notes parenthetically that “If anger were tied to hardship, we’d expect to see nonwhite Americans — who report having a harder time making ends meet than whites — reporting higher levels of anger. This is not the case.” In that regard, the passage concludes: “Indeed, despite having what many would consider a more legitimate case for feeling angry, black Americans are generally less angry than whites. Though they take great issue with the way they are treated by both society in general and the police in particular, blacks are also more likely than whites to believe that the American dream is still alive; that America is still the most powerful country in the world; that race relations have improved over the past eight years; and, most important in the context of expectations, that their financial situation is better than they thought it would be when they were younger. Their optimism in the face of adversity suggests that hope, whatever its other virtues, remains a potent antidote to anger.” The NBC News-Esquire survey, in effect, reaffirms the findings of numerous polls over the years of a prevalence of “optimism” and “hope” among black Americans. Given the serious problems bedeviling blacks as a group, some researchers have found this mystifying. But the “mystery” solves itself if one substitutes, as I did in another column several years ago, for “optimism” and “hope,” the word “equanimity.” “Poise. Aplomb. Equilibrium. Balance. Levelheadness. Presence of mind. Self-assurance. Self-command. These are some of the synonyms for equanimity,” I wrote then. “They are rarely, if ever, used in the public discourse to describe the behavior of any group of black Americans. Yet black Americans have always displayed extraordinary poise in their struggle” to overcome the discrimination and injustice they faced in the past and continue to face in the present. It’s not that they’re not “angry,” as the NBC News-Esquire survey points out. But the black freedom struggle was built and still rests on anger that is governed by hope, compassion for others, a rejection of violence — and, above all, a commitment to democracy. That standard makes me wish those conducting this very important survey had asked one additional question of those whites who now view life “through a veil of disappointment. “Where is your patience, your discipline, your poise, your optimism; where is your faith in America?
“
Lee A. Daniels’ collection of columns, “Race Forward: Facing America’s Racial Divide in 2014,” is available at www.amazon.com.
Racism. There can be no progress without unity. And there will be no unity without a multi-class movement fighting racism.
Stevan Kirschbaum Bus Driver Roslindale
White supremacy. You can’t have white supremacy and civil rights.
Phillipe Copeland Professor Roslindale
Our freedom has to be the number one right. Cops should not be able to kill us and the criminal justice system should not be locking up so many brilliant black people.
Khalida Smalls
District Coordinator Jamaica Plain
Mass incarceration. The economic impact it has on our communities is huge.
Maddie Conway Organizer Jamaica Plain
The fight for a living wage and taking away personhood from corporations. We have simultaneous erosion for rights for people of color and increased rights for corporations.
Noah McKenna Landscaper Jamaica Plain
Police violence on our children. Children are getting killed by cops with no justice.
Camille Williams Apparel Coordinator Canton
IN THE NEWS
CHILEDUM AHAGHOTU Carney Hospital last week announced the appointment of Chiledum Ahaghotu, M.D., M.B.A., M.H.L., F.A.C.S., as the hospital’s vice president of Medical Affairs. Dr. Ahaghotu joins Carney Hospital from Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he served as the Dr. R. Frank Jones Professor & Chair of Urology. Ahaghotu also served as the associate dean for Clinical Affairs in the College of Medicine and Chief of Urological Services at Howard University Hospital. “I am very pleased to have Dr. Ahaghotu join Carney Hospital’s senior leadership team,” said hospital president Walter Ramos. “A nationally recognized clinician and physician leader, Dr. Ahaghotu brings a wealth of valuable experience as both a provider and administrator to Carney.” “PHEN has worked closely with Dr. Ahaghotu over a number of years on prostate cancer issues, facing African Americans. “We
are excited that he is bringing his tremendous leadership and experience within this area of expertise to Boston,” said Thomas A. Farrington, president and founder of the Prostate Health Education Network. During his professional career, Ahaghotu has held several leadership roles, including President of the Howard University Hospital Medical and Dental Staff, Chairman of the Howard University Faculty Practice Plan Physician Advisory Council, President of the Washington Urologic Society, Chair of the Urology Section of the National Medical Association and President of the R. Frank Jones Urologic Society. He is an invited participant in the Institute of Medicine Best Practices Innovation Collaborative and served two terms on CMS’s Practicing Physicians’ Advisory Council. As Carney Hospital’s Vice President of Medical Affairs, Dr. Ahaghotu will serve as the senior administration’s point of contact with the hospital’s medical staff. His
responsibilities will also include the supervision and direction of Carney Hospital’s quality, safety and regulatory functions. Ahaghotu received his medical degree at the University of Nigeria and completed his urological residency at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. He also completed an American Cancer Society fellowship in Urologic Oncology while in Iowa. He holds a master of business administration from Howard University and a master of Health Care Leadership from Brown University.
6 • Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER
Cruz breaks ground on final phase of Harvard Commons By YAWU MILLER
State officials and local residents turned out last week to mark the beginning of the final phase of construction in Harvard Commons, a 99-unit housing development built on the site of the former Mattapan State Hospital.
Construction crews officially broke ground on a project to extend roads, water service, sewer and electrical service, thanks to a $1.9 million MassWorks grant from the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. The new road and utilities will literally pave the way for the construction of the last 28 units in Harvard Commons.
“We thank Housing and Economic Development for its support in this project, which has allowed the complete transformation of this Dorchester neighborhood,” said John B. Cruz III, president of Cruz Companies, the developer of the Harvard Commons site. “This beautiful subdivision will provide suburban-quality housing to the city, while also
strengthening the neighborhood’s multicultural identity.” The completion of the Harvard Commons development on the long-vacant land will help revitalize a corner of Dorchester and Mattapan that has for decades been dominated by the vast expanse of vacant lots and the decaying buildings of Boston State Hospital, which closed in 1979. In the 1990s, a citizens advisory council worked with the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and the Boston Redevelopment Authority on plans to the develop the parcel. Cruz Construction was designated developer of Harvard Commons, occupying the largest portion of the site. The Harvard Commons development sits between Harvard Street and Cummings Highway, bisected by Morton Street and abutting the Mass Audubon Boston Nature Center and Wildlife Sanctuary. The 66 units already completed are in one- and two-family woodframe homes with gabled roofs, off-street parking and large front and back yards. The traditional New England housing design blends in with the existing single and multifamily buildings in the Dorchester and Mattapan neighborhoods, as does the income mix. “Not only does it have some components of affordable housing, but it also has market-rate housing,” said state Rep. Russel Holmes. “This really starts to lift the surrounding neighborhood.”
“This is exactly what we should be replicating not just in every neighborhood of Boston, but in every community in the Commonwealth,” said Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash. In addition to 45 units of affordable housing, the development will include a total of 54 units of market-rate housing and a full-featured community center, gym and child-care facility for residents when it’s finished. One of the new homeowners, Suparna Datta, led state officials and Cruz on a tour of her unit, showing off its open floor plan, 9-foot ceilings with recessed lighting, stainless steel appliances and Jacuzzi tubs. “This is high-quality housing,” said the Rev. Bill Loesch, who sits on the project’s community advisory committee. Loesch also pointed out that the Cruz Company has created opportunities for local businesses and workers. “The diversity of the workforce here is way ahead of anything we’ve seen anywhere else in the city,” he noted. Cruz Companies Senior Vice President Daniel Cruz said prospective buyers are on a waiting list for the 28 units to be constructed in the last phase of the development. “We think this phase is going to go quickly,” he said. “There’s been a lot of interest.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF ARCHIPELAGO STRATEGIES GROUP
Cruz Companies officials hold a ceremonial groundbreaking with state officials and contractors working on the final phase of Harvard Commons, a 99-unit development under construction in Dorchester and Mattapan.
BANNER PHOTO
Harvard Commons homeowner Suparna Datta shows her new home to (left-right) EOHCD Secretary Jay Ash, Cruz Companies Vice President Daniel Cruz and state Rep. Russell Holmes.
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Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER • 7
Annual Public Charter School Enrollment Showcase!
Come Enroll Your Children in the Highest Performing Public Schools in Boston!
Meet School Leaders and Teachers!
Saturday, January 23, 2016 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM Watson Auditorium
at Wentworth Institute of Technology
550 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
WHAT TO BRING TO THE SHOWCASE For each school application, you may be required to submit up to two proofs of address (utility bills or rental lease) and a copy of the student’s birth certificate. Please bring several copies of each, as there is not a photocopier on site! HOW TO GET THERE
Find Out for Yourself About Public Charter Schools! Charter Schools Are PUBLIC Schools • Charter schools are tuition-free PUBLIC schools, open to ALL students, regardless of ability and income • There are no admission tests or other requirements — a random lottery held in March determines enrollment
Charter Schools Serve All Children • Charters welcome and successfully educate children with special needs and English language learners Academic Performance – Closing the Achievement Gap • We are the highest performing public schools in the city, thanks to longer school days and years, high academic standards, one-on-one tutoring, college preparatory programs, and social and emotional support services • We encourage active parent engagement with teachers
Public transportation: The closest T Stations are the MFA stop on the Green Line E, or the Ruggles Station stop on the Orange Line. Parking: There is a parking lot at the corner of Parker and Helleck. For additional information on the 2016 Boston Area Charter School Showcase, please visit: www.masscharterschools.org. Translators who speak Cape Verdean, Chinese, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese will be available.
8 • Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER
Mass incarceration: remedies within reach By MARCY MURNINGHAN
Part Two of this two-part series summarizes financial sector tools and innovative reform approaches that seek to weaken the private prison business model, lower recidivism, generate jobs for ex-offenders and confront institutional racism. Part One provided a brief overview of changes among various political and nonprofit actors and the creative partnerships that have emerged. “It is an ethical embarrassment and a clear disregard for black and immigrant lives for [the University of California] to be investing tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in private prisons and their financiers. In the age of mass incarceration and Black Lives Matter, the UC should be leading the fight for social justice and ethical investing as opposed to bankrolling the inhuman mass incarceration regime that has gripped America.” Those are the words of Yoel Haile, a 2013 graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara and political director of a student activist group called the Afrikan Black Coalition that, along with black student unions from throughout California, put pressure on the University of California to divest its holdings in private prison companies — and the
financial firms that support the prison industrial complex. Haile’s statements appeared in an ABC press release issued on November 30, which revealed that UC had investments totaling $25 million in both the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, as well as $425 million in Wells Fargo, one of the largest financiers of private prisons. According to ThinkProgress, both CCA and GEO are wellknown to activists for corruption and human rights violations such as feeding inmates spoiled, rat-eaten food, housing them in moldy cells, forcing them to defecate in plastic bags, profiting from free prison labor and denying them adequate medical treatment. In addition, the companies’ political contributions grease the wheels for securing prison contracts, and their highly-compensated executives are closely tied to national lobby groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has promoted legislation leading to higher rates of detention and incarceration — and profitability. The ABC efforts, part of a national movement led by the National Private Prison Divestment Campaign, were successful: On December 18, the $98.5 billion UC endowment began selling off its stakes in CCA and The GEO Group, which it completed by the end of 2015. The
UC system has no plans to divest its Wells Fargo holdings, a UC spokeswoman told Reuters. UC’s prison stock dump makes it the nation’s second university to do so; in late June, Columbia University’s board of trustees voted to pull its $10 million invested in CCA. Meanwhile, prison divestment campaigns continue at the City University of New York (CUNY), Brown, Cornell, Florida Atlantic and Central Florida University, among others.
“Punishment profiteering”
These victories show the growing revulsion over incarcerating people for profit. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, for-profit companies house roughly 16 percent of federal prisoners and six percent of state prisoners, as well as inmates in local jails in Texas, Louisiana and a handful of other states. Combined, CCA and GEO generated $3 billion in revenue in 2014. That may not seem like a lot, but when other companies doing business with the mass incarceration ecosystem are added to the list — for example, telephone companies charging high rates for collect calls from inmates; banks and municipalities funding prison construction; companies using prison labor to lower operational costs; transportation companies; food service, vending and
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Remedies within reach
To combat punishment profiteering, a number of alternative strategies have emerged in recent years that use the power of capital markets to make change. Socially responsible investors are using the same tools and tactics honed in previous boycotts, divestment and targeted investing campaigns such as those fighting apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s and ‘80s and climate change and our dependency on fossil fuels in current times. Only now investors are seeking to disrupt the private prison industry, delegitimize its business model and use impact investing or “pay for success” models that help generate economic opportunities for ex-offenders and others vulnerable to incarceration.
Divestment
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clothing companies; prison video communications services; surveillance and supervision equipment companies; pharmaceutical firms such as Pfizer that manufacture execution drugs; and private probation companies, to name a few — untold billions more are added to the profits. Some progress already has occurred as a result of government action. Building on reforms begun in 2013, last October the Federal Communications Commission took another big step toward reducing excessive rates and fees for inmate phone calls, which they discovered could run as much as $14 a minute. Among the new measures: a lower cap on all interstate and intrastate inmate calling rates, no more flat rate calls and a cap or ban on unnecessary fees. Meanwhile, half of the federal government’s immigrant detention centers are privately operated. And many of the estimated 7 million people who are on probation or parole pay monthly fees to private vendors in addition to their original fines. According to the American Friends Service Committee, municipal courts in at least ten states, mostly in the Southeastern U.S., contract with private, for-profit probation companies. Add to that the growing niche market in privately-run halfway houses and the growing number of private, for-profit juvenile facilities. More than half of the nation’s 1,300 juvenile facilities are privately operated.
The multiracial National Private Prison Divestment Campaign — comprising 150 advocacy groups, community organizations and unions — was launched in 2011 to target investors in Corrections Corporation of America and The GEO Group. It was convened by Enlace, a Portland, Oregon-based “strategic alliance of low-wage worker centers, unions and community organizations in Mexico and the U.S.” seeking to advance racial and economic justice. In addition to the University of California and Columbia, the National Prison Divestment Campaign has persuaded Allianz Asset Management, Systematic Financial Management, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Gates Foundation, General Electric and Pershing Square Capital Management to divest their holdings in CCA and GEO. Meanwhile, a group consisting of Enlace, the Responsible Endowments Coalition (REC), California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance (CIYJA), Immigrant
Youth Coalition (IYC) and the Afrikan Black Coalition (AFC) have held annual youth gatherings to build the movement. Last August, they organized a Prison Divestment Youth Retreat in Los Angeles. The retreat drew young people from throughout the nation to “confront the private interests supporting racist, anti-immigrant and pro-incarceration policies,” according to Enlace’s website, and equip them with organizing tools to develop prison divestment campaigns on their campuses and in their communities. In December, the group published “Private Prison Divestment: A Toolkit for Campus Organizers.” As for company-specific research, the American Friends Service Committee recently added to the arsenal. Its new “INVESTIGATE” website, launched November 2, is a digital investment screening mechanism that enables users to research companies engaged in violations of human rights and international law. Two focal points — prisons and Israel/ Palestine — are covered in depth. Among its features are the following, according to Dalit Baum, AFSC Director of Economic Activism: n A map of the U.S. for-profit prison industry, highlighting the main companies involved in anything from facility management to food and commissary services, private probation and video visitation. n In-depth profiles of 13 of these companies, which the AFSC call “the dirty 13” that includes a summary of divestment and boycott highlights to date. n A series of new divestment recommendation, including criteria and list of companies, which will be reevaluated in six months. n A tool for scanning investments, enabling users to upload or type in any list of holdings, however long, in any format. The tool will scan and produce a report highlighting the issues of concern.
“Pay for success”
Another strategy attracting lots of attention: the so-called “pay for success” model of public-private partnerships. Sometimes called a “social impact bond,” it involves pledges of government money to private contractors offering entrepreneurial solutions to persistent policy challenges such as homelessness, workforce development, early childhood education, child welfare and recidivism. Initial funds are provided by philanthropic and commercial investors. The hitch: Payment of public monies is linked to positive outcomes that have been measured and evaluated. According to America Forward, a nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative launched in 2012 by Cambridge-based New Profit to link social entrepreneurs to national policymakers, the first Pay for Success project had an inauspicious start. Launched in August 2012, its purpose was to reduce adolescent recidivism among adolescents at Rikers Island. Historically, more than half of 16- to 18year olds previously incarcerated in Rikers Island returned to jail within one year. To prevent this from happening, the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience used a targeted, evidence-based intervention aimed at improving personal responsibility and decision making, but first year results
See INCARCERATION, page 9
Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER • 9
NEWSBRIEFS VISIT US ONLINE FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS: WWW.BAYSTATEBANNER.COM Property tax abatement deadline is February 1 Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin reminds property owners in most communities that the deadline to apply for a property tax abatement is Monday, February 1. “Assessments have risen in most communities, resulting in higher tax bills,” Galvin said. “But if you believe your assessment is too high, you might want to explore the abatement process. You can challenge a tax bill if you believe that the assessed value is too high in relation to similar properties in the neighborhood, or that the classification is improper.” February 1 is the deadline for property tax payments in twothirds of the cities and towns in Massachusetts, and it is also the last day to file for an abatement in those communities. Tips for those considering an abatement are contained in a brochure available from the Citizen Information Service, a division of the Secretary’s Office. The brochure is on line at www. sec.state.ma.us/cis or can be obtained by calling this toll-free number, 1-800-392-6090. Abatement application forms are available at all municipal assessor offices. Applications for property tax exemptions are available there as well. Exemptions are available for certain elderly homeowners, the blind, disabled veterans, minor children of a deceased parent, or minor
children of police or firefighters killed in the line of duty. A negative ruling by a local assessor on an abatement or exemption application can be appealed to the State Appellate Tax Board.
Boston Elections Department announces results of comprehensive review of ward and precinct assignments The Boston Elections Department today announced that it has concluded its six month, comprehensive review of the ward and precinct assignments and precinct lines across the entire City of Boston. As a result an additional 370 addresses, representing 850 registered voters, need to be corrected. The corrections were accepted by the Board of Election Commissioners during a meeting this morning, Tuesday, January 12 at 10 a.m. in City Hall. The addresses that are impacted are in the neighborhoods of Allston, Brighton, Dorchester, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale, Roxbury and South End. “These corrections are not only necessary, but they bring our ward and precinct assignments up to speed with our modernizing City,” said Dion Irish, Commissioner of the Election Department and Chair of the Board of Election Commissioners. “We believe that many of these re-assignments will make voting more convenient for our constituents,
but most importantly their addresses are now correctly assigned. I thank the staff of the Election Department, the Law Department and the Department of Innovation and Technology for their hard work on this months long process that will benefit our city and voters for years to come.” This comprehensive review began in August 2015, when errors made in the 1960s caused the incorrect assignment of five addresses in the Lower Mill Section of Dorchester. Following the discovery of these errors the Department and the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Office agreed that a comprehensive review of all address should be conducted to ensure that voters were able to correctly exercise their voting rights. Prior to the municipal election on November 3, 2015, all address assignments were reviewed and corrected for geographical consistency with city council districts. Following the election the review continued with a focus on all of the other aspects of our electoral boundaries. In conducting the review the Elections Department found that is was necessary to make changes to the legal descriptions and lines of certain precincts to conform to the changing physical condition of the City of Boston. Unlike other cities and towns, the City of Boston is not subject to state laws that require wards and precincts to be divided every ten years. As a result, many of the City’s precinct descriptions became outdated.
incarceration continued from page 8
showed no impact on reincarceration rates. Consequently, according to America Forward, the project was terminated and “New York City Department of Corrections did not pay the private sector investors for the services provided to date.” Nevertheless, the experiments continue. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has the nation’s largest Pay for Success project, with its pledge to Roca, Inc., a Chelsea-based nonprofit with centers in Springfield and Boston that seeks to reduce recidivism. Launched in February 2014, the Roca project is a $23.5 million, seven-year initiative involving 929 young men in the probation or juvenile justice system. Its funding comes from philanthropic and commercial investors via Third Sector Capital Partners. The Commonwealth will pay the investors back only in the event the program succeeds in achieving its pre-defined positive social outcomes. That is a determination based on evidence and evaluation. If the intervention succeeds, it will be extended to another 391 young men. As stated on its website, Roca’s four-year model aims “to disrupt the cycle of incarceration and poverty by helping young people transform their lives.” More recently, Roca opened
a construction trades laboratory behind its Springfield headquarters. According to MassLive, the 1,200-square foot former garage will be converted into a facility that teaches roofing, plumbing, heating, ventilating, air conditioning, basic electrical basic plumbing and framing with wood or steel. Roca — which means “rock” in Spanish — was founded in Chelsea more than 25 years ago by Molly Baldwin to help young people between the ages of 17 and 24 avoid getting caught up in the cycle of incarceration and poverty. It expanded to Springfield in 2010 and to Boston in 2014. Its tagline: “Less jail, more future.” “The price of admission to Roca is a felony,” Roca director Christine Judd told MassLive last week. “Either a felony arrest or a felony conviction.” Thus far its results have been promising.
Black Power
Reflecting on the University of California divestment victory, ABC’s Yoel Haile was ebullient. “This victory is historic and momentous. Divesting $25 million is a good step towards shutting down private prisons by starving them of capital,” he said. “This is a clear example of Black Power and what we can achieve when we work in unity. This victory belongs to the masses of our people languishing behind America’s mass incarceration regime.”
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5 ways to make your first impression a lasting one Within the first few seconds of meeting someone, an opinion is immediately formed that can last forever. This encounter often sets the tone for the relationship that follows. So how can you make your first impression a positive one? Here are some tips to help you knock your first meeting out of the park: n Take pride in your presence: Physical appearance is the first thing people observe before an introduction. Always dress appropriately for the occasion, whether it’s a casual lunch or a formal business meeting. A go-to suggestion is to maintain a clean and crisp appearance for most events because you can’t go wrong – think business casual. This look can be trendy and professional and will position you in a positive light. Being mindful of your appearance will give you more confidence to help make a great first impression. n Share your best smile: A warm, genuine smile is a great tool in making a first impression unforgettable. “A self-assured and convincing smile starts with regular oral care practices to keep your teeth clean and your breath smelling fresh,” said dentist Dr. Christopher Ramsey. An easy way to do this is by adding a mouthwash, like Crest Pro-Health Advanced Mouthwash with Extra Deep Clean to your daily routine. “These advanced mouthwash formulas strengthen teeth, kill germs and freshen breath, so you are guaranteed to have and maintain an impressive smile,” said dentist Dr. Todd Snyder. n Showcase your positive attitude: For people who get nervous when interacting with others, it is essential to sustain a calm attitude and optimistic outlook. Go into the meeting with an open mind and learn something new. Contribute to the conversation and maintain engagement. Showing attentiveness is often contagious, as the person you meet catches on and reciprocates. n Be conscious of your body language: Body language is a crucial element in daily human interaction. From the way you walk to a meeting, to the hand gestures used while you speak — body language is just as important as the words you say. Start by standing tall, making appropriate eye contact and giving a firm handshake. Demonstrate open body postures by keeping your head up and relaxing your shoulders. Crossed arms and legs make you appear closed off and unapproachable, so be mindful of how you might appear to others. n Be yourself: Being true to yourself is the best way to be presentable to others. Be comfortable with your personality. If nervousness kicks in, take a few deep breaths and remember to be calm and confident. A composed demeanor will put anyone at ease, sealing the deal on an excellent relationship as you move forward. Making an everlasting first impression is simply about being at peace with who you are and being ready to meet others. Try some of these above tips at your next meeting, networking event or job interview. — Brandpoint
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PHOTO: MARTIN DESMARAIS
InnerCity Weightlifting student trainer R. Sandy trains at the Dorchester location. Sandy is studying to receive his Personal Trainer Certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
Strength in human capital Firm uses weight lifting to build employment skills By MARTIN DESMARAIS
Many students graduate from business school hoping to start their own companies, with dreams of flowing revenue and impressive bottom lines. Jon Feinman, founder of Dorchester’s InnerCity Weightlifting, is a bit different. With his business he measures success in the number of people it is providing careers to or keeping them off the street and out of jail. At the base level, InnerCity’s provides its “students” — typical age ranging from 17 to late 20s — with a safe haven at its Dorchester gym, a place to come and work out or hang out, but importantly off the streets. Ultimately, the goal is to excite the students enough about the potential of a career in personal fitness training that they take part in InnerCity’s own certification program, which allows them to start working and earning money as a personal trainer and then potentially move on to professional fitness training certification and more job opportunities. Started in 2010, with a Dorchester gym opening in 2012, the business offers training services to individuals and companies, with the training done in Dorchester, at a Kendall Square gym that was opened in May 2015 or at company sites. InnerCity’s staff coaches certify its student trainers and oversee the training sessions with clients. The services come at a much cheaper
rate than the $100-$150 most private gyms charge — personal training is $25 an hour, with training packages running from $125 for a startup introductory package to $650 for 18 sessions. Corporate sessions start at $220. InnerCity’s student trainers earn $20 an hour typically, and can make up to $60 an hour for training groups. The business has worked with over 300 clients and has corporate clients that include Microsoft, InsightSquared, VMware, Education First and Babson College. For the students beginning careers in personal training, InnerCity offers them good consistent pay at $20 an hour, with some making as much as $30,000 a year.
Growth ahead
InnerCity keeps its business going through a combination of individual and corporate sponsorship and revenues from the fitness training services it provides. Feinman raised $75,000 to open the Dorchester gym and get InnerCity off the ground. Now, it brings in about $1.2 million a year from corporate support and training services. The vision is to have an increased network of locations to bring in more students, train more clients and generate profits to keep things running. “The quality of training we are able to offer is as good as anyone, plus clients get the benefit of
See INNERCITY, page 11
PHOTOS: MARTIN DESMARAIS
Above, InnerCity Weightlifting General Manager Reggie Talbert and founder Jon Feinman. Below, An InnerCity Weightlifting employee trains at the Dorchester gym.
Thursday, December 3, 2015 • BAY STATE BANNER • 21 Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER • 11
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InnerCity continued from page 10
contributing to a social cause at the same time. So they get to change lives while changing their own,” said Feinman, who is in his early 30s and got the idea to start InnerCity Weightlifting by combining the business acumen he learned receiving his M.B.A. at Babson with the need he saw while working with AmeriCorps in Boston. Feinman talks about the violence statistics in Boston with the knowledge of someone who has really delved into the problem and has the belief he can make a difference. He points out that only about 1 percent of the population accounts for 70 percent of the gun violence in the city. He says police data shows that there are about 400 individuals that are viewed as being at the heart of the gun violence in the city. For Feinman, that is a number he believes InnerCity Weightlifting can put a dent in. Currently, there are just over 160 students that take part in what InnerCity’s offers, but there are 90 on the waitlist to join. InnerCity staff screens all candidates to join with the intent to work with those that are most at risk for contributing to gun violence. All told, InnerCity has 11 fulltime staff running the organization and working with its students. Feinman said he hopes to double that number in 2016 to be able to
add all the students that want in and with several hundred taking part have more of an impact as an option off the streets and a potential career track. “There is a system driving what it going on and there is an opportunity we have, as an organization, and our training clients have to disrupt that system to impact our students’ lives and also the lives of their families and the communities around them,” he said.
Local roots
But Feinman is the first to admit that what really drives InnerCity Weightlifting are the students and especially the staff members who grew up in Boston. A native of Amherst, Feinman attended Bryant College in Rhode Island and graduated with a degree in business in 2005. He does not claim to have first-hand knowledge of what most of the program’s students go through beyond his AmeriCorps experience and what he has learned since starting InnerCity. This is why he says the students play a large role in driving the organization and helping make the programs for students appealing to those they are hoping to reach the most. Staff members like Reggie Talbert, InnerCity’s general manager, are critical as an example of the positive impact it can have. Talbert spent almost three decades in and out of prison and on Boston’s streets, before getting involved
with InnerCity as a volunteer and putting his final prison sentence behind him. He eventually joined the staff and is now ever-present at the Dorchester gym. Talbert says he knows what the students are going through so he tries to relate and show them another way. “It is a passion. Honestly, I have been jacked all my life, myself. I am no different than them. I am just older than them and I learned,” Talbert said. “Now, I am trying to get these kids to where I am.” He said he absolutely sees a change in the students that are involved. While there is a money-making aspect to it for them, he believes it is not just about the money. He knows the students enjoy the haven from the streets, the space to work out and a break from what life may normally be like. These are some of the same things that drew him to InnerCity Weightlifting. “This organization it saves us and it saves the kids,” Talbert said. The numbers look good so far. According to Feinman, the average arrests per student before joining the program is 12, with the average after joining only one arrest; 82 percent of the students were arrested for weapon possession before and only 4 percent have been arrested after; lastly, 70 percent of the students are currently on their longest time period out of prison. Currently, 12 students work
as personal trainers. One such trainer, R. Sandy, a 23-year-old from Roxbury, said the personal training career track has given him something he can focus on for the future and he is thrilled to finally have something. “This is it. This is my career,” he said. “I am really working hard on it and I am going to keep working hard on it.” In addition to working as a personal trainer through InnerCity, Sandy is also planning for the next level in the training industry — Personal Trainer Certification from the National Academy of
Sports Medicine. This would allow him to work as a personal trainer and get jobs at any gym. While Feinman loves having successful examples like Sandy involved with InnerCity, he said nothing would please him more if such students could also find more personal training work elsewhere and start earning the higher hourly wages more typical of the industry or, even better yet, start their own personal training businesses. “Our job is to create that network that can help them get where they want to go, whether that is training or not,” he said.
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Lynch
continued from page 1 from qualifying for educational aid. Lynch said the administration is working on a pilot program to allow some students with drug convictions to receive the grants. Officials at the meeting said Massachusetts is making considerable progress turning around a criminal justice system that has long emphasized punishment over rehabilitation. “Criminal justice reform is a top priority for us,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who recently testified in favor of legislation that would end automatic driver’s license suspensions for people convicted of drug crimes. The Massachusetts House voted in support of that legislation earlier this month. Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins said the president’s support for criminal justice reform, along with the support of Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin Walsh, bodes well for reentry programs that help people find work upon release from jail. “I think now you’ll see the support you need to stem the tide of mass incarceration,” he said. “There seems to be more willingness to help folks before they find themselves in trouble. We’ll see a further decline in incarceration and we’ll see more people getting help.”
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Boston Reentry Initiative Director True See Allah addresses U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch during a meeting at the Suffolk County House of Corrections. to career counseling. “We can’t do training alone without offering a job and a real career path,” Trinh Nguyen, director of the city’s Office of Workforce Development, told the Banner. “If we get someone a job
Public officials in Boston have been working since the 1990s on programs to help re-integrate people being released from prison. The programmatic approaches to reentry have evolved over the years from job placement
with Dunkin’ Donuts, we have to keep working with them to get them on a real career path.” In her remarks, Lynch stressed that people being released from prison are helpful to the economy. “When you look at the number
of people wo are released from an institution ever year — 600,000 — the human capital that represents, what you see is that the individuals who are coming out are a resource,” she said. “We cannot afford to throw away a resource.” She highlighted the efforts of one contractor who has hired ex-offenders from the Suffolk County House of Correction for jobs as laborers, carpenters and foremen. Lynch praised Sheriff Tompkins and others for their efforts to help ex-offenders find work. “This is, in fact, the issue of the day,” Lynch said. “And the effort here in Boston and in Suffolk County is tremendous.” Before meeting with government officials and nonprofit workers, Lynch met with Suffolk County inmates who are participating in job training program participants. She stressed the importance of the networks of support the inmates have. “What I was struck by was how graciously they shared their stories and their pasts and how their paths were really very similar,” she said. “They’ve found people here who believe in them and have helped them to build a foundation, people with whom they’ve essentially formed a family here inside this institution. They’ve helped them to move back home, move back with families, move back with communities and move back into life.”
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stronger local food economy through financing and backing of local food businesses. The Office of Food Initiatives was launched under former Mayor Thomas Menino, but Mayor Marty Walsh has embraced the office’s efforts and, if anything, has turned up the heat | 25 on what was |started. ER.COM/BANNERBIZ 2015 BAYSTATEBANN MARCH city has launched multiple initiatives to The grow the local food industry, including advancing new legislation to support local agriculture and facilitating the establishment of more farmers markets within city limits. »
JULY 2015 | BAYSTATEBANNER.COM/BANNERBIZ | 23
SEPTEMBER 2015
TO REVITALIZE THE PAPER CITY
all their efforts business are focusing oud based tools. developing entirely-cl when the cloud The time is coming option. may be the only this might be For some small businesses day there the end of the concerning, but at
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Warren, 66, pubEarlier this year, Chance,” an account lished “A Fighting a struggling Oklaof her journey from of to the marble halls homa childhood big money buys Washington, where access. She also easy and favors big as an academichronicles her efforts to change how the cian and senator ruling financial system benefits the working families. class over ordinary she’s championed Among the issues g policies impactin over the decades, have ranked at the working women s Tackling question top of her agenda. important to about federal issues e, Warren outwomen in the workforc e initiatives legislativ lines some of the at leveling the in Washington aimed rly for particula field, gender playing me jobs. » women in low-inco
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to localized growing and production of food, but in Boston, the term can also be applied to what most believe is the future of the city’s food industry — local small businesses. Major players, including many in city government, are working to bring about this future. The City of Boston established the Office of Food Initiatives in 2010 with hopes to do a betBOSTON UNIVERSITY ter jobOFof connecting the city departments and COURTESY OF IBM; COURTESY COURTESY OF BACKUPIFY; PHOTOS: (FROM LEFT) resources in growing the local food economy. This office ties in advocacy — supporting access to healthy and affordable food — with economic strategies, such as expanding the city’s capacity
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Malia Lazu are the core ingredients in a new recipe to cook up more local-grown small businesses. Future Boston Alliance’s new restaurant accelerator program is just one of the efforts to add to the growing selection of food startups simmering around the city all suppliers. to food from restaurantsSchoe ttle trucks to foodMarsh Derek Alystnlocale food. and consume to produce, distributeVan Rob May Local grown is a common term referring Additionally, the office has a directive to build a MANAGER
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Satara Wilson (standing) pitches a business plan during the Center for Women in Enterprise “Community Classroom Business Planning: Creative Economy” class held at the Dorchester Arts Collaborative.
PROGRAMS HELP WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS AND ENTREPRENEURS EXPAND THEIR NETWORKS AND THEIR COMPANIES
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2016 MAGAZINE SCHEDULE March, May, July, September and November Contact Sandra Casagrand at Sandra@bannerpub.com for advertising opportunities
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF CENTER FOR WOMEN IN ENTERPRISE
omen-owned businesses are on the rise — most accounts find they make up about 30 percent of all privately held firms in the U.S. — but there is concern that many of these business top out early. Helping women entrepreneurs grow their businesses to the next level has become a big emphasis and, in the Boston region, there are a number of organizations that are working on innovative solutions to move women-owned businesses to the next level.
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FILM REVIEW
Comingof-age flick explores the dark side of childhood By KAM WILLIAMS
Playwright Kirsten Greenidge returns to Huntington Theatre with
Shazi Raja, Jasmine Carmichael, and Carolina Sanchez star in “Milk Like Sugar.” PHOTO: NILE SCOTT SHOTS/ NILE HAWVER
‘Milk Like Sugar’ I
By COLETTE GREENSTEIN
t was on a school field trip to the Huntington Theatre to see August Wilson’s ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ that 12-year old Kirsten Greenidge knew she wanted to be a playwright.
“For the first time in my life I saw black people on stage who were there to tell stories. Complicated stories. Rhythmical stories. Stories that were at once proud, true, painful, and funny,” wrote Greenidge for the Huntington’s blog — about her first experience at the theater when her play “Luck of the Irish” premiered there in 2012. Greenidge, who had been exposed to Broadway shows like “Annie” and “The Wiz” at a very young age by her mother, recalls how she was “always a little bit dramatic” and how her and her sisters were “always putting on plays with the kids in their neighborhood,” says the Arlington, Mass., native by phone recently. Now, some 20-odd years later, her imagination and flair for the dramatic has paid off handsomely. Kirsten is A Village Voice/Obie Award winner, a recent PEN/America Laura Pels Award recipient, and currently a Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellow. She’s also working with the La Jolla Playhouse, the professional theatre-in-residence on the campus of the University of California at San Diego, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and The Kennedy Center on commissioned projects, while serving as an assistant professor of Theater at Boston University’s Center for Fine Art. In her Obie Award-winning play “Milk
Like Sugar,” set to premiere on January 29 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, Kirsten once again touches upon the intersection of race and class through three teenage girls — Annie (Jasmine Carmichael), Talisha (Shazi Raja) and Margie (Carolina Sanchez) — who enter into a “pregnancy pact.” The play was partly inspired by the 2008 event that rocked the small town of Gloucester, Mass., in which 18 teenage girls mostly under the age of 16 entered what many townspeople believed to be a pregnancy pact. Greenidge became interested in what was happening in the North Shore town. “I think I’ve always been interested in teenage pregnancy and making that choice,” she says. “As a young girl, teenage pregnancy is something we’re often scared about; like ‘don’t do that. It’s a bad thing. You want to be the good girl,’ and that young girls would choose that, seems to be opposite of what we’re told you’d want to do, you’d want to be.” Written in 2008, “Milk Like Sugar” explores the idea of choices, “the idea of feeling trapped, the absence of choice,” as well as isolation and loneliness. “We’re pretty much attached to our phone and ostensibly you are connected to an entire universe with your phone, and yet many people feel very alone, even with all that
access,” explains Greenidge. “And, so that’s something I’m interested in with this play.” Greenidge has come a long way since the drama was initially written and produced. On thinking back about how she’s changed since that time, Greenidge recalls that her daughter hadn’t even turned a year old. “I don’t think I realized know how large and expansive theater could be. I would work on one or two projects at a time and I got easily overwhelmed by them, and easily overwhelmed by the writing process. I think I spent a lot of time being like a wilting flower, like, ‘I can’t, I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ ” says the playwright. She goes on to add, “This process came along and I’ve been fortunate enough to get a lot of commissions after Milk Like Sugar’ and during ‘Milk Like Sugar.’ I had another child and my capacity to be able to toggle back and forth between writing and teaching and parenting and generating work has expanded in ways in that I did not know were possible, which is good, because I need that to be a working artist. When I began this process, I don’t know if I would be a working playwright if I had not had La Jolla Playhouse and Theater Masters call me up eight years ago and say ‘we have this project, would you like to do it?’ For that, I am eternally grateful.”
IF YOU GO The Huntington Theatre Company presents “Milk Like Sugar” Friday, January 29 through February 27 at the
Roberts Studio Theatre in the South End/Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. Single tickets starting at $25 and FlexPasses are on sale online at huntingtontheatre.org; by phone at 617.266.0800; or in person at the BU Theatre Box Office, 264 Huntington Ave., and the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA Box Office, located at 527 Tremont Street in the South End.
Inspired by a couple of short stories by James Franco, “Yosemite” is an eerie bildungsroman exploring some decidedly dark and dangerous sides of childhood. The drama features a trio of discrete tales which ultimately merge in fairly effective fashion. The action unfolds in Palo Alto in 1985, which is where we find a trio of 5th graders facing different emotional issues. Ten-year-old Chris (Everett Meckler) and his younger brother, Alex (Troy Tinnirello) are driving to Yosemite National Park with their father (Franco) who’s recently separated from their mom. Their plans for quality time are affected, en route, by their dad’s admission that he’s a recovering alcoholic. Upon their arrival, the vacation is all but ruined when the three get lost hiking, followed by Chris’ finding the charred remains of what looks like a human skeleton.
Comic books and cats
The second chapter of this coming-of-age adventure revolves around the predicament of Joe (Alec Mansky), a product of divorce in dire need of a father figure. Unfortunately, to fill a void, he naively settles on Henry (Henry Hopper), a creepy-looking loner sharing a love of comic books. Against the boy’s better judgment, he even accepts an invitation back to the possible pedophile’s humble abode. The last segment is about Ted (Calum John), a kid whose beloved cat, Charlie, has gone missing. Trouble is, there’s been a sighting of a mountain lion roaming around town. And since his father (Steven Wiig) ostensibly is too consumed with Silicon’s Valley burgeoning Computer Revolution to care about the predator, Ted enlists the assistance of pals Chris and Joe to embark on a big game hunt in the hills just beyond suburbia. “Yosemite” was both directed and adapted to the screen by Gabrielle Demeestere (“The Color of Time”) who employed an admirably understated approach to Franco’s source material. This critic might have more appreciated this earnest examination of the loss of innocence if the subject-matter hadn’t be so relentlessly dark and disturbing.
16 • Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER
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‘Violet’ on stage at Boston Center for the Arts By SUSAN SACCOCCIA
A gem of a show is on stage at the Boston Center for the Arts through February 6: The SpeakEasy Stage Company production of the musical “Violet.” Composed by Jeanine Tesori with lyrics and book by Brian Crawley, “Violet” is inspired by the short story “The Ugliest Pilgrim,” by North Carolina author Doris Betts (1932-2012). First mounted in 1997 as an Off-Broadway production, “Violet” takes place in September 1964. Violet, age 23, travels by bus almost 1,000 miles from her home in the mountain town of Spruce Pine, NC, to Tulsa, OK. Her goal is to seek out a televangelist who she believes will heal her disfigured face, which was scarred when her father’s ax blade accidently broke loose and struck her. Although she is strong, Violet has had more than her share of sorrow. Her mother died when she was a child and her father died three years ago. She longs for a new life. Accustomed to other kids calling her “Axe-head” and “Freakface,” Violet wants to be scar-free and also covets the full lips and flawless skin of movie stars she admires in magazines. As fellow passengers and bus drivers meet Violet, they react to her disfigured face with a variety of exclamations such as “oooh,” “oh!” and “wow.” “I’m a long way from pretty,” she acknowledges, but adds that in a few days, she will return a new woman. In the SpeakEasy production, the audience does not see Violet’s scar, only the unmarked, unremarkable, and pleasant face of the actress who plays her — Boston University graduate Alison McCartan, who embodies her character’s grit, pain and compassion. Viewers see Violet as she is, not as she sees herself. At stops along the way — in Kingsport, Nashville and Memphis and then in the Oklahoma towns of Fort Smith and Tulsa — Violet gradually comes to see herself in a new way.
PHOTOS: GLENN PERRY PHOTOGRAPHY
Above, Alison McCartan, Kathy St. George and ensemble in the SpeakEasy Stage Company production of “Violet.” Left, Dan Belnavis, Alison McCartan, and Nile Scott Hawver. performance by a full gospel choir. Charles Schoonmaker’s expressive costumes evoke the era as well as individuals, with ladylike outfits from hats to heels for female passengers except Violet, who wears a more rustic ensemble. Clothing also conjures a magical musical apparition as a trio of Radio Singers, in matching cowboy garb from hats to boots, croon in unison—a scene of visual and aural harmony. Karen Perlow designed the sensitive lighting, which turns the set from a bus station into a dance hall and then a church; in close-up scenes, a character’s doubt, discovery, wariness or tenderness are illuminated.
Ensemble excellence
Travelers in time
Violet’s bus companions have burdens of their own. The chatty, kind Old Lady is moving into the house of her son, whose rambunctious children are “like squirrels.” Among the passengers she befriends are two young soldiers, the manly but introverted Flick, an African American; and Monty, who is white and a self-styled ladies man. At each stop, Violet’s relationships with the men deepen and she comes to a healing give-andtake of a different kind than she sought. Without striking a single false or saccharine note, the production illuminates its true subject: the halting fits and starts with which human love can grow and heal people. SpeakEasy Artistic Director Paul Daigneault directs the production, which over a fast-moving hour and a half without intermission draws the audience into Violet’s world, and does so from the start. Eric Levenson designed the sleek, slightly surreal art deco set, with its looming Greyhound Bus
icon. Transforming the everyday scene of a bus waiting room, the versatile, evocative set lets the audience fill in the details and suits a story that toggles between Violet’s present and her flashbacks to a dead father and a younger self. Right away introducing the dual pulls of the present and past is Young Violet, in a wondrous performance by 12-year old actress Audree Hedequist. A skinny girl wearing a simple little dress, her Young Violet is tough and plain, and her stride and set face convey fierce will. Her flat, sweet voice evokes the Appalachian folk music tradition as she
belts a song that mingles lyrical and everyday language. Ever faithful to their characters and situations, the actors make astonishingly natural shifts between speech and song, a credit to Tesori and Crawley as well as the cast and the musicians. Matthew Stern is music director and also the pianist in the show’s seven-member ensemble. Performing on stage, the musicians are partly visible behind a panel. The music at each stop revels in each town’s distinctive musical style: from a country and western song to Memphis R&B and, in Tulsa, a
Each member of the show’s fabulous cast performs with heart and conviction. As Violet’s father, Michael Mendiola is subtle, tender and restrained — entirely credible as a man who raises a strong and smart daughter on his own. Nile Scott Hawver as Monty conveys his character’s bravado and growing tenderness. Daniel Belnavis as Flick is earnest, convincing as he ventures beyond his privacy to seek her trust. Kathy St. George is a petite scene-stealer as the Old Lady and later as the Hotel Hooker. Carolyn Saxon is commanding as Lula, a gospel singer. John F. King is amazing as the dapper, smoothtalking but basically sincere Preacher who is ablaze during his service but after the show, droops — just another guy exhausted by a hard day’s work. David Connolly lends a light but effective choreographic touch. A simple waltz begins a tentative coupling. As a bus takes off, the passengers lean as one, mimicking the sensation of a bus
turning a corner. The show has its share of thrilling ensemble numbers as well as scenes of stirring intimacy and revelation. As the journey gets underway, people board the bus — a row of chairs — with black passengers taking seats in the back. While Violet and the Old Lady chat, a low hum rises from the seated passengers and grows into a euphoric traveling anthem. A memorable flashback unfolds at the first stop, as Violet sits at a table to play draw poker with her new friends Monty and Flick. Alongside them, Young Violet reluctantly sits down at a table for a lesson in draw poker from her father, who sees it as a way to teach her arithmetic. He calls out hands in rhythmic, rhyming phrases that ascend into a chantlike song. As she learns the game and its lingo, her reluctance yields to pride and she sings along with her father. Meanwhile, her words and gestures are echoed by Violet, who is outplaying the soldiers, and joins in the song. Violet arrives at the Preacher’s church in time for an all-out gospel performance. Accompanying the marvelous soloist, Lula, and the Preacher, who vibrates with strobelight-speed euphoria, are 11 singers from Greater Boston gospel choirs (In the course of its run, the production will draw more than 100 singers from 11 choirs). When the service ends, Violet implores the Preacher to heal her. He tries to dismiss her and, failing that, points out her false hope in his power. “Your scar is already healed,” he tells her. “It’s not going anywhere. You need to make your peace with that.” Violet ignores his good advice. Her true healing comes later, back at the bus station.
Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER • 17
FOOD
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TIP OF THE WEEK
Classical flavor A lighter Beef Bourguignon is just as sumptuous
Healthy 5-minute breakfast ideas These five breakfast ideas aren’t just healthy and delicious, they take a mere 5 minutes or less to make. n Cereal sundaes: Start with plain yogurt, which is loaded with beneficial probiotics. Then, set out a variety of healthy toppings and let everyone in the family customize their breakfast sundae. Bran cereal, fresh or dried fruit, chopped unsalted nuts and a drizzle of raw honey will gear you up for a great day. n Sprouted grain waffles: Most toaster waffles use refined wheat flour, often devoid of nutrients. Sprouted grains activate otherwise dormant nutrients to produce protein that keeps your family fueled. Learn more at www. FoodForLife.com. Top with a favorite nut butter and you have an energizing, nutrient-packed breakfast. n Microwave egg scrambles: Fresh eggs are nutritional powerhouses packed with protein and vitamins A, D and E. Simply crack an egg into a coffee cup, add a tablespoon of milk and beat until mixed. If desired, add extras like chopped onion, mushrooms and cheese. Microwave for 30 seconds, then stir and microwave for another 30 seconds until done. n Breakfast pizza: Start with sliced naan or a whole wheat bagel. Toast to warm and add a smear of ricotta cheese. Then top with sliced tomatoes and sprinkle with a dash of fleur de sel and dried basil, if desired. If you prefer a sweeter pizza, skip the tomatoes and use sliced fruit instead. n Superfood smoothie: Select vitamin-packed frozen or fresh fruits such as berries, mango, pomegranates and kiwi. Add sliced fruit to the blender. For an extra-creamy smoothie that tastes like a healthy version of a fruity malt, blend with almond or coconut milk, plain yogurt and frozen banana. Experiment with ingredients to create the perfect customized smoothie. — Brandpoint
BY THE EDITORS OF RELISH MAGAZINE
T
he 2009 movie “Julie and Julia” was a shot in the arm not only for Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” but for her classic Beef Bourguignon recipe as well. “Carefully done, and perfectly flavored, it is one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man,” wrote Child in the cookbook that jumpstarted her culinary career and which became the focal point of Julie Powell’s culinary blogging adventure. To put a healthy spin on the recipe, we cut down on the beef, used lean beef and increased the veggies. To capture the richness of the original, the recipe uses a beurre manié, a mixture of butter and flour that thickens the sauce so that it, in Child’s words, “enrobes” the other ingredients. The sauce is velvety and smooth, the vegetables are sweet, and the beef is perfectly seasoned and tender.
Beef Bourguignon n 1 ½ tsp olive oil n 1 ½ pounds lean beef stew meat n 2 cups vertically sliced onion n 2 cups diagonally sliced carrot n 1 (12-oz) package mushrooms, quartered,
halved if small n 1 cup diced green bell pepper n 1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes n 1 (14 oz) can fat-free, reduced-sodium beef broth n 1 ½ cups dry red wine n 2 garlic cloves, pressed n 2 Tbsp tomato paste n 1 bay leaf n ½ tsp dried thyme leaves n ½ tsp coarse salt n ¼ tsp coarsely ground black pepper n 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour n 2 Tbsp butter, softened n Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high. Add beef in batches and cook until brown on all sides. Remove to a plate. Add onion, carrot, mushrooms and green pepper to pan; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Return beef and any juices to pan. Add tomatoes, broth, wine, garlic, tomato paste, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a simmer. Cook until beef is tender, about 2 hours. Discard bay leaf. Combine flour and butter in a small bowl. Stir with a fork until mixture becomes a paste. Ladle about 1/2 cup pan juices into flour mixture. Whisk until very smooth. Add mixture to pan. Stir well. To serve, ladle into soup plates and sprinkle with parsley. Serves 8. — Recipe adapted by Jean Kressy from Julie Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”
WORD TO THE WISE NEW! THURSDAY NIGHT ARTS
Flan: A type of dessert made from smooth, congealed custard topped with caramel that is often popular in Spanishspeaking countries. — Cookthink
AT HALEY HOUSE BAKERY CAFÉ EVERY THURSDAY AT 7 PM
THE DISH ON … ‘Bon Appetit: The Food Lover’s Cleanse: 140 Delicious, Nourishing Recipes That Will Tempt You Back into Healthful Eating,’ by Sara Dickerman Savor the seasons while rebooting your eating habits with Bon Appétit’s popular online plan now expanded for the whole year. Inside are 140 recipes, divided into four different two-week cleanses, that use fresh, flavorful, unprocessed ingredients for tasty and nutritious meals. — William Morrow Cookbooks
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1/21: Nina LaNegra’s Art Is Life Itself! feat. singer Shea Rose, poet Skoot & Open Mic 1/28: Lyricists’ Lounge from Boston Day & Evening Academy 2/4: Fulani Haynes’ Jazz Collaborative 2/11: #LiftedBoston from Outside the Box Coming to the House Slam! 1/22: Muggs Fogarty & WOWPS Qualifier - 6:30pm doors
Come By The Bolling Building to check out our new enterprise, Dudley Dough Haley House Bakery Cafe - 12 Dade Street - Roxbury 617 445 0900 - www.haleyhouse.org/cafe
COMMUNITY CALENDAR 18 • Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER
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FRIDAY THROUGH BARBED WIRE PRESENTS 4TH FRIDAY SERIES Monthly prose/poetry participatory event focused on the voices of prisoners, through their writings, as mentoring tools to help youth in the community make positive choices. Audience participation encouraged. Light refreshments. Created and directed by Arnie King. Friday, January 22, South End Technology Center, 359 Columbus Ave. For more info: throughbarbedwire@yahoo. com or visit www.arnoldking.org; tel. 857-492-4858. Cost: Donation.
SATURDAY BEYOND TWO DIMENSIONS On Saturday afternoon, January 23 from 12-3pm, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site invites the public for its second annual winter afternoon open house. This year’s program title is “Beyond Two Dimensions” and will focus on the three-dimensional objects in the collection, including the firm’s tools, office machinery, and other artifacts. Archivist Anthony Reed will be on-hand at 12:30pm and 2pm to offer a brief introduction to the collection and the role of the National Park Service as curator of “America’s Best Idea.” Visitors will be able to walk through the firm’s historic design office, where rarely-shown original objects will be on display. This free event takes place at Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site at 99 Warren Street in Brookline, and no advance registration is required. For further information, please call Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site at 617-566-1689, Monday through Friday.
UPCOMING BLUE HILLS RESERVATION Moderate walk, some hilly terrain, 3.5 miles. Meadow Road to Three Pines Trail to No Name Trail. Meet at the Donovan School at 123 Reed St. in Randolph. Sunday, January 31 at 1pm. The Southeastern Massachusetts Adult Walking Club meets each weekend on either a Saturday or Sunday at 1:00 for recreational walks. This club is open to people of 16 years of age and older, and there is no fee to join. Walks average 2 to 5 miles. New walkers are encouraged to participate. The terrain can vary: EASY (mostly level terrain), MODERATE (hilly terrain), DIFFICULT (strenuous & steep). Walks will be led by a park ranger or a Walking Club volunteer leader. Occasionally, the Walking Club meets at other DCR sites. Some DCR sites charge a parking fee. The rangers recommend wearing hiking boots and bringing drinking water on all hikes.
ADDRESSING GLOBAL INEQUALITY Several of the world’s most influential leaders in global economic policy will take part in a public dialogue, entitled “Addressing Global Inequality,” on January 31, at Wellesley College’s Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs. The event will feature
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); Sri Mulyani Indrawati, managing director and chief operating officer of the World Bank; and Mark Malloch-Brown, former deputy secretary general and chief of staff for the United Nations. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ’59, a Wellesley alumna who founded the Institute, will also take part. The public dialogue is the keynote event for “Impact Albright,” a weekend symposium that draws on scholars, policy makers and government officials to discuss global inequality in areas such as public health and hunger. Symposium panelists will include Ophelia Dahl ’94, co-founder and chair of the board for Partners In Health; Rajul Pandya-Lorch ’85, head of the 2020 Vision Initiative and chief of staff to the director general for the International Food Policy Research Institute; and Per Pinstrup-Andersen, the H. E. Babcock professor of food, nutrition and public policy and the J. Thomas Clark professor of entrepreneurship, and professor of applied economics at Cornell University. The Public Dialogue begins at 2:30pm. Both the dialogue and the morning symposium panels are free and open to the public. For full details, see this public schedule: https://albrightinstitute.swoogo.com/ impact-albright/public-schedule.
EXTRAPOLATION Simmons College presents Extrapolation with Daniel Kornrumpf and Kathy Soles, painters creating personal responses with their media, from February 4 March 4 at the Trustman Art Gallery, located on the fourth floor, Main College Building, 300 The Fenway in Boston. A reception from 5-7pm will be held on Thursday, February 4, 5-7pm with a February 11 snow date. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public. The images of Daniel Kornrumpf and Kathy Soles entice the viewer in divergent ways. Kornrumpf is an observer who creates portraits derived from social media and his personal life. His small, finely wrought embroideries are set within a larger linen field that plays call and response to the threads creating the image. Within his oil paintings he leaves us open space, reflective of the partial narrative available even amongst one’s intimates. Soles’ paintings are exuberant in both form and color, based on her interest in the natural world. Painting con brio with oil, Soles uses colors that energetically evoke the sea, sand and sky. The Gallery continues its Lunchtime Lecture series on Thursday, February 25, 12:30-1:30 with Professor Bob White, Communications, presenting Pandemonium Shadow Show. Trustman Gallery hours are 10am - 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. The gallery is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact Marcia Lomedico at 617521-2268, or visit the Trustman Art Gallery website at www.simmons.edu/trustman and visit us on Facebook.
LOOKING BACK SEMINAR SERIES Celebrate Black History Month with the Disparities Solutions Center Racial
SATURDAY, JANUARY 23
MYLES STANDISH STATE FOREST
Easy walk, 2.5 miles. Hike around the scenic Easthead Reservoir at Myles Standish State Forest. Meet at Headquarters, 194 Cranberry Road, South Carver. (508) 866-2526. Saturday, January 23 at 1pm. The Southeastern Massachusetts Adult Walking Club meets each weekend on either a Saturday or Sunday at 1:00 for recreational walks. This club is open to people of 16 years of age and older, and there is no fee to join. Walks average 2 to 5 miles. New walkers are encouraged to participate. The terrain can vary: EASY (mostly level terrain), MODERATE (hilly terrain), DIFFICULT (strenuous & steep). Walks will be led by a park ranger or a Walking Club volunteer leader. Occasionally, the Walking Club meets at other DCR sites. Some DCR sites charge a parking fee. The rangers recommend wearing hiking boots and bringing drinking water on all hikes.
and Ethnic Disparities: Looking Back Seminar Series — Racial & Ethnic Health & Health Care Disparities & Dysfunction: Historical & Contemporary Issues. Tuesday, February 16, 12-1:30pm*, Sweet Conference Room, Gray/Bigelow 4th Floor, Massachusetts General Hospital. *A light lunch will be served. The Looking Back seminar reviews a key historical topic in racial and ethnic disparities and highlights its impact on present-day configurations of disparities. The information presented in this seminar will be indispensable for participants interested in applying lessons learned from the past to correct the contemporary crisis we face in our health care system today. In honor of Black History Month, please join us for a presentation by Drs. W. Michael Byrd and Linda A. Clayton, nationally known health policy experts whose work focuses on the medical history and health experience of African Americans and other populations that experience disparities in the U.S. health system. Drs. Bryd and Clayton will present the development of the unequal health system that evolved in English North America from antiquity to the present, followed by an exploration of present-day disparities in our health care system. The presentation will include a survey of health and health care disparities in Massachusetts, along with the impact the Affordable Care Act has had on disparities. The seminar will be followed by an audience question and answer session. This event is free and open to the public, and members of local health care organizations are encouraged to attend. Please RSVP (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ SCBXMXV) to reserve your spot.
ONGOING PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITIONS AT THE MULTICULTURAL ARTS CENTER Through January 29 the Multicultural Arts Center will host “Somos Uno” and “IRAN: Women Only,” both photography exhibitions by local Erica Frisk and travel photographer Randy H. Goodman. Both women present different and reflective ways of looking at locations close and far from us here in Cambridge, MA. Erica takes us on a journey through Mexico, focusing on Oaxaca while Randy gives us a glimpse into the life of women, past and present, in Iran. Both shows transcend our knowledge of these places we read and hear about daily through each woman’s true experience. 41 Second St., East Cambridge. For more information visit www.multicultur alartscenter.org/galleries/. Gal-
leries are FREE and open to the public. Regular Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 10:30am-6pm.
LIST PROJECTS: ANN HIRSCH Showing though February 21. Ann Hirsch’s work in video and performance considers the effects of technology on popular culture; many of her projects examine how young women are portrayed and present themselves in social media and online. Hirsch — who often characterizes her work as research — has started a YouTube channel for one of her personas which gained a cult following, appeared as a contestant on a reality television show, and created a series of works loosely based on her pre-teen experience in an online chat room in the 1990s. The exhibition at the List Center will include three projects (the artist’s self-described “greatest hits”): Scandalishious (2008-2009), Here for You (Or My Brief Love Affair with Frank Maresca) (2010), and Twelve (2013). Ann Hirsch (b. 1985, Baltimore) lives and works in Los Angeles. Hirsch holds an MFA in Art Video from Syracuse University and a BFA in Sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. List Projects: Ann Hirsch is curated by Henriette Huldisch, Curator, MIT List Visual Arts Center. Support for this exhibition has been generously provided by the Council for the Arts at MIT, the Office of the Associate Provost at MIT, Terry & Rick Stone, MIT School of Architecture + Planning, the MIT List Visual Arts Center Advisory Committee, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and many generous individual donors. Special thanks to Fatboy USA. GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday-Wednesday 12-6pm, Thursday 12-8pm, Friday-Sunday 12-6pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays. PUBLIC ART HOURS: Always open and always free. LOCATION: 20 Ames Street E15-109, Cambridge.
ADMISSION: Our exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public.
JOCELYN CHEMEL EXHIBIT Growing up just a few doors down from Nelson Mandela in apartheid South Africa, Jocelyn Chemel was taught to keep quiet. Jail time was an ever-present threat and as Chemel’s parents searched for an exit strategy she took in the violence around her in silence. Now she’s speaking out about the atrocities she witnessed through a brave series of mixed media artworks. City Hall has invited Chemel to show her work as part of Black History Month and Chemel will also show at the historic Strand Theatre in Dorchester. The barbed wire and shadowy figures in Chemel’s work strike a particularly resonant chord in Boston, a city with a long history of support of Nelson Mandela’s anti-apartheid, pro-education stance. The Hub has never forgotten Mandela’s 1990 speech at Madison Park High School in Roxbury, and many civic leaders still study his teachings. BARBED, Mayor’s Neighborhood Gallery, 2nd floor, Boston City Hall, through February 28.
DROP INTO ART This fall Danforth Art Museum\School will continue its monthly tradition of hosting a free afternoon of art and art-making for children and their accompanying adults. On the first Sunday of the month, through May, from 2-4pm, families are invited to enjoy current exhibitions, tours, and hands-on activities in the museum galleries and art school studios. Each month features a different theme inspired by artwork on view in the museum, and use a variety of artist materials. Drop Into Art is sponsored by Impact Framingham and the MutualOne Charitable Foundation. For more information on Danforth Art Museum\School, please visit www.dan forthart.org or call 508-620-0050.
SUDOKU ANSWERS FROM PG 19
The Community Calendar has been established to list community events at no cost. The admission cost of events must not exceed $10. Church services and recruitment requests will not be published. THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF PUBLICATION. To guarantee publication with a paid advertisement please call advertising at (617) 261-4600 ext. 7799 or email ads@bannerpub.com. NO LISTINGS ARE ACCEPTED BY TELEPHONE, FAX OR MAIL. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. Deadline for all listings is Friday at noon for publication the following week. E-MAIL your information to: calendar@bannerpub.com. To list your event online please go to www.baystatebanner.com/events and list your event directly. Events listed in print are not added to the online events page by Banner staff members. There are no ticket cost restrictions for the online postings.
Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER • 19
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Above, Jessica Tang, Boston Teachers Union director of organizing, moderated a panel. To her left: Daphne Penn, member of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods, and Megan Wolf, member of Quality Education for Every Student. Right, Marléna Rose, Boston Education Justice Alliance campaign coordinator, convened the meeting. She called the cuts to public school budgets “unsustainable.”
BPS
continued from page 1 further cash-strap BPS by shifting more funds to charter schools. This in turn creates a cycle: as funds move, more cuts to resources and teachers reduce BPS performance, causing more people to turn to better-funded charters as the only viable option. “In this rush to talk about parent choice, my choice to choose BPS is being taken away from me,” Berents-Weeramuni said.
Boston’s property problem
Sources of the funding gap include incomplete reimbursement to BPS for students who go to charters, stagnation of Chapter 70 funding while costs rise and a failure to fully tap potential property tax revenue even in the midst of a building
boom, Berents-Weeramuni said. After state officials determine how much funds a school needs to operate, the state provides a certain percent, notifies the local district how much it must contribute and directs state monies to fill any gap. District contribution levels are set based on the local income and property values. In Boston, property values are high and luxury buildings are shooting up — but this wealth is under-tapped, Berents-Weeramuni said. Property tax exemptions apply to many nonprofits, including major universities, museums and hospitals, which own 51 percent of the city’s real estate, Berents-Weeramuni said. While Boston officials request that nonprofits holding $15 million or more in property pay a voluntary fee in lieu of taxes, this does not always happen. In fiscal year 2015, the city only received 68.6 percent of the requested amount,
FUN&GAMES SUDOKU: SEE ANSWERS ON PAGE 18
according to information on the City of Boston website. Proposition 2 1/2 —a law enacted in 1982 that limits annual increases in property tax to 2.5 percent — further reduces available revenues. Add to that the rate of inflation, which outstrips 2.5 percent, thus making this a smaller and smaller pool, he said.
Unified enrollment questions
Several speakers targeted the Boston Compact’s unified enrollment proposal, which would fold charter enrollment into BPS’s current system. Rose and others said that there has been a lack of transparency and information to parents about the implications. Megan Wolf, BPS parent and member of Quality Education for Every Student, said that the new system is being pushed before analysis of BPS’s current, home base,
system has been released — something MIT researchers are scheduled to do in February. Both Daphne Penn, a Union of Minority Neighborhoods volunteer and former teacher, and Wolf said that, too often, solutions have focused on enrollment policies and moving students to different schools, instead of improving schools.
Parent, student action
Rose said a major issue has been lack of community voice in education policy. Speakers called for attendees to make their voice heard as many measures come up for vote. “Families and communities are
being subjected to policies that are being pushed top-down instead of bottom up,” Rose said. On Feb. 3 the School Committee receives the proposed BPS budget and has until March 23 to consider and amend it, at which point the committee votes. On April 6, the budget goes to City Council and they vote on June 30. Both the School Committee and City Council are required to hold public hearings so that parents and activists can have their say. The School Committee votes on unified enrollment in June. Meanwhile, campaigns continue apace both for and against lifting the charter cap.
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and police departments to be sure these important agencies are reflective of the communities they serve,” he said. The dissolution of the committee does not necessarily mean an end to its purpose, Wu said. Other committees will take on the Post Audit and Oversight Committee’s budget oversight responsibilities. She added that diversity in city procurement is a major focus this term.
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Body cameras are back
Segun Idowu, co-founder of the Boston Police Camera Action Team saw new hope for body camera policy in this year’s council. Last year, BPCAT presented the city council with a proposed policy for guiding use of body-worn cameras and the storage, access and sharing of the videos. When the ordinance was sent to the Government Operations Committee — chaired by Councilor Michael Flaherty — the committee members not to act before their term ended, allowing it to die. Idowu says the organization will reintroduce the body camera ordinance. Should it not pass in council this term, BPCAT will lose what may be the easiest path to implementation, but will have other options, such as petitioning the police commissioner for executive action. If the ordinance again is sent to the Government Operations Committee, it likely will face the same fate. Flaherty continues as chair and Idowu said the new vice chair, Josh Zakim, told BPCAT that he did not believe the policy should go through the council. “If it goes there [Government Operations] it will probably go there to die,” he said. Idowu said he hopes Wu will direct the ordinance to the new incarnation of the Public Safety Committee — now expanded to be the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee. It is chaired by newcomer Andrea Campbell, from whom Idowu expects a more positive response, based on her campaign stances. The new vice chair, Timothy McCarthy, has been
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Following announcement of committee assignments, city councilors convened for a meeting. Councilor Tito Jackson, right, who enters his second term as Education Committee chair, spoke in favor of a proposed hearing on inconsistencies in commuter rail fares. ambivalent on the ordinance, but in favor of a body-camera pilot program, Idowu said, adding that he hopes McCarthy can be brought to share BPCAT’s view. “We are very happy that councilor Wu created this new committee, showing commitment to criminal justice reform — which was part of her campaign — and we are happy that she named councilor Campbell to be over the committee,” he said. Overall, the new council constitutes a more progressive body, Idowu said. “Boston has elected some pretty progressive people to the council, especially the new councilors — Councilors Campbell and Essaibi-George,” Idowu said. “A lot of the councilors last year, including Councilor Murphy, as soon as they were given the policy rejected it without reading it,” he said. On the day of Essaibi-George’s
swearing-in, the Banner asked her about BPCAT’s ordinance. Essaibi-George she had not seen the specific proposal but that she supported the pilot program and such a policy was necessary. “We have to set policy,” she said. In addition to criminal justice reform in general, the Public Safety and Criminal Justice committee will explicitly take on reducing recidivism and easing reentry into society. “It matched perfectly [with Campbell’s interests],” Wu said.
Education agenda
As City Council Tito Jackson enters his second term as chair of the Education Committee, he is joined by new vice chair Essaibi-George. Jackson said that early education and the needs of English Language Learner and special education students are among the issues on which he
increased costs and decreased state aid, have created what BPS officials estimate is a $50 million budget deficit. Heightening this is charter school advocates’ promise of record-smashing spending — $18 million — on a campaign to lift the Legislature’s cap on the amount of charter schools. Such a lift could exacerbate BPS’s financial shortfall because the reimbursement that district schools receive when students attend charters continues to be inadequate, Jackson said. Transportation costs — which comprise 10 percent of BPS’ budget — further burden the school system. BPS is required to provide transportation to charter schools but has no control over their start and end times, Kain said. Furthermore, if the MBTA’s proceeds with proposed fare raises, Jackson said that BPS’ current strategy of transporting seventh and eighth graders by T may no longer be a cost-saver. The council, which approves the city budget, will have some sway. Jackson said he will press for a modification to the charter reimbursement formula. He also will look into ways to make bus routes more efficient and alternate methods of transport — potentially dropping the T. Kain said SpedPac has had a close and positive working partnership with the city council, which seems set to continue. All councilors have been responsive when called upon for support, Kain said, and added that many — including Jackson, Ayanna Pressley, Matt O’Malley and Wu — are regular attendees at SpedPac meetings. Essaibi-George’s addition as new vice chair of Education is promising as well: the councilor has children in BPS and used to teach in the system. “We know councilor Jackson along with Councilor [Essaibi-] George will have background and insight into BPS and how it works,” Kain said. Jackson’s experience championing education issues and his accrued institutional expertise, in addition to his listed preference, contributed to the selection of him as chair, Wu said.
would like to focus. Carolyn Kain chairs the Boston Special Education Parent Advisory Council, or SpedPac, a citywide parent council that advocates for the needs of special education children in BPS. Kain said that major goals of SpedPac include improving services to help children with disabilities transition from school into the next stage in their lives and evaluations to ensure current students’ needs are being met properly. This includes moving SPED students into inclusionary settings — classrooms that integrate them with non-SPED peers — as soon as it becomes a reasonable option for the children. It also means and identifying and meeting student needs before they evolve to special education level. However, Boston Public School’s tight funding poses a limitation and concern. Major budget cuts, paired with
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INVITATION TO BID The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority is seeking bids for the following:
The Project consists of: Repairs of existing porch roofs and concrete stoops. Work includes, but not limited to, repairs to existing roof framing, step flashings, post reinforcing, ceiling sheathing replacement, and repair of exterior spalling concrete at steps.
BID NO.
DESCRIPTION
DATE
TIME
*WRA-4161
Purchase of One (1) New Snower Thrower for Loader (per Specifications)
02/02/16
2:00 p.m.
*WRA-4158
Supply and Delivery of Soda Ash to the Clinton Wastewater Treatment Plant
02/04/16
2:00 p.m.
Bids are subject to M.G.L. c.149 §44A-J & to minimum wage rates as required by M.G.L. c.l49 §§26 to 27H inclusive.
*WRA-4159
Analysis of Oil and Grease Lubricants and Fuel Oil and Related Training Services Deer Island Treatment Plant
02/10/16
2:00 p.m.
This project is being electronically bid. Hard copy paper bids will not be accepted. The bids must be submitted electronically at www.QuestCDN.com.
*WRA-4160
**A605
The work is estimated to cost $62,333 (Estimated construction cost includes Add Alternate #1)
Supply and Delivery of One 02/10/16 (1) Collision/Reaction Cell Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometer for the Central Lab at the Deer Island Treatment Plant
3:00 p.m.
RFQ/P Employee Assistance Program Services (EAP)
11:00 a.m.
02/12/16
*To access and bid on Event(s) please go to the MWRA Supplier Portal at www.mwra.com. **To obtain the complete RFQ/P MWRADocumentDistribution@mwra.com.
please
request
to
ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS The Medford Housing Authority, the Awarding Authority, invites sealed bids from General Contractors for the Framing & Flashing Repairs to Porch Roofs & Concrete Stoops Project of Housing for the Medford Housing Authority in Medford, Massachusetts, in accordance with the documents prepared by Antonio Gomes Architect.
LEGAL Contact QuestCDN.com at 952-233-1632 or info@questcdn.com for assistance or information on free membership registration, downloading, and working with this digital project. General Bids will be received until 10:00 AM on Thursday, 04 February 2016 and publicly opened, forthwith. All bids shall be submitted electronically online at www.QuestCDN.com no later than the date and time specified above. You must be on the QuestCDN authorized Plan Holder list in order to submit an electronic bid which is accomplished automatically when you download the digital bid documents or be placed on the planholder list manually by Docunet, the paper planset provider.
Bid documents may be obtained online at www.questcdn.com by inputting Quest eBidDoc project number 4217838 or MA DHCD project number 176064.
General bids shall be accompanied by a bid deposit that is not less than five (5%) of the greatest possible bid amount (considering all alternates), and made payable to the Medford Housing Authority.
Optional paper bid documents may be obtained from Docunet Corporation. Contact Docunet Corporation to place your order: 2435 Xenium Lane North, Plymouth, MN 55441. Call 763.475.9600 or visit www.docunetworks.com.
Bid forms and contract documents will be available at www.QuestCDN.com or may be viewed in person at Medford Housing Authority during normal business hours. Printed sets may not be taken or obtained from the Medford Housing Authority.
Please note: 1. All orders for paper documents must include a QuestCDN membership number obtainable by becoming a free member of QuestCDN. Click the “Join” button on the www.QuestCDN.com login page. 2. There is a $40 refundable deposit plus a nonrefundable shipping & handling fee of $35.00 per set (max. of two sets). The shipping and handling must be included as a separate check. 3. All checks are payable to Docunet. Refundable deposits must be a certified or cashier’s check. This deposit will be refunded upon return of all documentation in good condition within ten (10) days of receipt of general bids, otherwise the deposit shall be the property of Docunet. Tutorials, instructions and videos on how to complete the electronic bid documents are available online as well as in the Instructions to Bidders.
The job site and/or existing building will be available for inspection at 10:00 A.M. on Thursday, 28 January 2016. Bidders planning to visit site that day should meet and sign in at the site community room located at: Walkling Court, Medford, MA, prior to the site inspection. For an appointment to visit the site at other times, call Bernie Kirstein, Associate Director at 781-396-7200. In addition to the plan room noted above, drawings may also be electronically viewed with no charge at: Project Dog 978-499-9014 www.projectdog.com
Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER • 21
BANNER CLASSIFIEDS LEGAL
LEGAL NOTICE REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS The MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY (Authority) is soliciting consulting services for MPA CONTRACT NO. A377, FY16-18 TERM LEAN CONSTRUCTION (LC) CONSULTING SERVICES, ALL MASSPORT FACILITIES, BOSTON, BEDFORD, AND WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS. The Authority is seeking qualified consulting firm or team, with proven experience in providing Lean Construction implementation, support services and training on an on-call, as needed basis. These services are expected to be provided at all Massport locations; and not necessarily for construction projects only, but, for any effort the Authority deems appropriate. Consultant must be able to work closely with the Authority and other interested parties in order to provide such services in a timely and effective manner. The Authority expects to select two consultants. However, the Authority reserves the right to select a different number if it is deemed in its best interest to do so. Each consultant shall be issued a contract in an amount not to exceed $250,000. The services shall be authorized on a work order basis. A Supplemental Information Package, which will provide more details on the scope of the Project as well as the selection process and evaluation criteria, shall be available as of Wednesday, January 20, 2016, on the Capital Bid Opportunities webpage of Massport http://www.massport.com/ doing-business/_layouts/CapitalPrograms/default.aspx as an attachment to the original Legal Notice, and on COMMBUYS (www.commbuys.com) in the listings for this project. If you have problems finding it, please contact Susan Brace at Capital Programs SBrace@massport.com
Parker Hill Apartments Brand New Renovated Apartment Homes Stainless Steel Appliances New Kitchen Cabinets Hardwood Floors Updated Bathroom Custom Accent Wall Painting Free Parking Free Wi-Fi in lobby Modern Laundry Facilities
Two Bedrooms Starting at $2200 888-842-7945
By responding to this solicitation, consultants agree to accept the terms and conditions of Massport’s standard work order agreement, a copy of the Authority’s standard agreement can be found on the Authority’s web page at www.massport.com. The Consultant shall specify in its cover letter that it has the ability to obtain requisite insurance coverage.
REAL ESTATE
Wollaston Manor Senior Living At It’s Best
A senior/disabled/ handicapped community
Affordable Apartments for Households Under 50% AMI Studios @ $747*, 1BRs @ $770*, 2BRs @ $899*, 3BRs @ $1,024* *Rents subject to change in 2016. Utilities not included. Tenants will pay own Gas Heat, Gas Hot Water, Gas cooking fuel, Electricity and Water.
0 BR units = $1,027/mo 1 BR units = $1,101/mo All utilities included.
MAXIMUM Household Income Limits: $34,500 (1 person), $39,400 (2 people), $44,350 (3 people), $49,250 (4 people), $53,200 (5 people) and $57,150 (6 people)
Call Sandy Miller,
Residences at Acorn Park includes a total of 298-units across five buildings. The first affordable units will be ready for move-ins in June/July/August 2016. Apartments will have high end finishes including granite counter tops and wood cabinetry in the kitchens and bathrooms. Apartment will also feature nine foot ceilings, balconies, walk-in closets, carpet and vinyl flooring, central air conditioning, washer and dryers, refrigerators, microwaves, dishwashers and garbage disposals. The clubhouse will have the leasing office, WIFI, a great room with fireplace, catering kitchen, business center with meeting rooms, pool table, fitness center and men’s and women’s locker rooms. In addition, there will be an outdoor pool. 100% smoke free apartments. Pets welcome, breed restrictions apply.
Property Manager
#888-691-4301
Program Restrictions Apply.
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Any submission which is not received in a timely manner shall be rejected by the Authority as non-responsive. Any information provided to the Authority in any Proposal or other written or oral communication between the Proposer and the Authority will not be, or deemed to have been, proprietary or confidential, although the Authority will use reasonable efforts not to disclose such information to persons who are not employees or consultants retained by the Authority except as may be required by M.G.L. c.66.
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MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY THOMAS P. GLYNN CEO AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
@baystatebanner
Completed Applications and Required Income Documentation must be delivered, not postmarked, by 2 pm on February 25th, 2016 The Belmont Public Library (336 Concord Ave) will be the location for a public Info Session on Feb 10th, 2016 at 6 pm (Assembly Room) and the Lottery on 6 pm, March 15th (Flett Room).
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BAY STATE BANNER
www.baystatebanner.com
REAL ESTATE
89 Union Park Street Boston, MA 02118
Friendly Garden Co-op Apartments where member residents have a voice in the management of the property, has large studio and one bedroom apartments.
Waiting list is re-opening!
Located a short distance from Revere Beach, this active senior co-op is on an MBTA bus route, and is within walking distance to shopping, banks and medical professionals.
We will be accepting applications to be added to the existing waiting list for federally subsidized Studio and One-Bedroom apartments [NOTE: All apartments are currently occupied] 19 – Studios; 50 - One-Bedrooms; and 4 - One-Bedrooms w/ Mobility Accessible Design Heat, Hot Water and Electricity Included Subsidized Rent - HUD 202/8 Program Rules Apply
Features such as…... • Scenic views of Revere’s beachside community • Plenty of space for indoor relaxation • Emergency Response Person living on site, on call • On site laundry facilities and air conditioning • Large community room with many social events
Call 1-800-225-3151 • www.csi.coop
HAMILTON GREEN APARTMENTS 311 Lowell Street Andover, Massachusetts 01810
Waitlist open on 5/24/2014 has now been extended through 12/31/2014. 3 BEDROOM WAITLIST IS NOW CLOSED AND HAS A 1.5 YEAR WAIT AT THIS TIME. Waitlist applicants will be chosen by lottery. Rental Amounts and Minimum and Maximum Income Limits as of 1/1/2014 1
2
3
Transit-Oriented w/ Links to All Shopping Elevator Access Community Space On-site Laundry Facilities
At the time of application submission or lottery date of March 15, 2016, whichever is later: the head, co-head or spouse of the household must be age 62 or older, or 18 or older and have a disability that requires the features of a mobility accessible apartment.
Rent is based on 30% of income (income limits apply) to qualified seniors 62 and older and to younger persons, must be at least 18 or older, who are mobility impaired requiring the special design features of accessible units.
Household Size
For Details on Applications, the Lottery and the Apartments, or for reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, go to www.s-e-b.com/lottery or call (617) 782-6900 (x1, then x3). For TTY Services dial 711. Free translation available. Applications and Information also available at the Belmont Public Library (M-Th 9-9, F-Sat 9-5, Sun 1-5).
St. Helena’s House
FRIENDLY GARDEN CO-OP APARTMENTS
Rent
The Residences at Acorn Park Belmont, MA
91 Clay Street Quincy, MA 02170
Connect with the
This submission, including the litigation and legal proceedings history in a separate sealed envelope as required shall be addressed to Houssam Sleiman, P.E., CCM, Director of Capital Programs and Environmental Affairs and received in the Capital Programs Department no later than 12:00 NOON on Thursday, February 25, 2016, at the Massachusetts Port Authority, Capital Programs Department, Logan Office Center, One Harborside Drive, Suite 209S, Logan International Airport, East Boston, MA 02128-2909.
REAL ESTATE
4
5
6
50% $790
1BD Min Max
$25,170 $31,350
$25,170 $35,800
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
$942
2BD Min Max
N/A
$30,210 $35,800
$30,210 $40,300
$30,210 $44,750
N/A
N/A
80% $1,169
1BD Min Max
$36,540 $45,500
$36,540 $52,000
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
$1,397
2BD Min Max
N/A
$43,860 $52,000
$43,860 $58,500
$43,860 $65,000
N/A
N/A
Tenants pay for Electricity only – Utility Allowances are as follows: 1BR - $49; 2BR - $65; 3BR - $80 *Minimum income requirements do not apply to Section 8 Voucher holders. All utilities, except electricity are included in rent. Voucher holders are eligible. Applications are available at the property daily between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday – Friday or call Denise Henry @ 617-850-7256, TTY:711 or 800-439-0183. New Application Deadline: December 31, 2014
Gross Annual Income Cannot Exceed the 50% Area Median Gross Income Limits (AMI), Based on Household Size: Household Size
50% AMI*
1 Member
$34,500
2 Members
$39,400
*Subject to Change Based on Current HUD-Published Income Limits
Applications for housing can be obtained in the following ways: • In-person at St. Helena’s House on the dates and times specified in the table below: Wednesday, February 3rd
Thursday, February 4th
Saturday, February 6th
Tuesday, February 9th
10:00am-4:00pm
4:00pm-8:00pm
9:00am-12:00pm
10:00am-4:00pm
• By U.S. Mail if request is made by calling 617-426-2922/MA Relay 711 • By email if request sent to sthelenas@maloneyproperties.com and providing us with: o Applicant’s full name, full mailing address (street, city, state & zip code) and telephone number. For lottery all phone and email requests must be made between February 3 - February 17, 2016. Completed applications must be submitted in-person or via U.S. Mail to: • St. Helena’s House, Management Office, 89 Union Park Street, Boston, MA 02118 • Office hours for in-person submissions are: Monday-Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm Application Deadline for Entry Into Lottery: All completed, original applications must be received or postmarked by 5:00pm on February 26, 2016, and if considered preliminarily eligible, will be entered into the lottery to determine placement order of lottery applicants and then added to the existing waiting list. The waiting list will remain open after the lottery application deadline; therefore, any applications received after 5:00pm on 2/26/16 will be added to the post-lottery existing waiting list based on date and time of application (after lottery applicants have been added). A preference will be given for the four (4) accessible units to qualifying households who need these design features. Final determination of all eligibility and suitability criteria will be required when applicants near the top of the waiting list as vacancies become available. If any assistance is needed in completing the application or during the application process for any reason, including if you or a family member has a disability or limited English proficiency and as a result need such assistance, we will be happy to provide assistance upon request by calling 617-426-2922/MA Relay 711. The lottery will take place at 89 Union Park Street on March 15, 2016 at 1 PM. Equal Housing Opportunity
22 • Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER
BANNER CLASSIFIEDS
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE
PUBLIC AUCTION of a building located at 111 Townsend Street, Roxbury to be sold at a Suffolk County Sheriff’s public auction Thursday, January 28, at 11:00 A.M. Place: Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department Civil Process Division 132 Portland Street Boston, MA 02114 (Directly across the street from the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse) DESCRIPTION OF PREMISES No. 111 Townsend Street is a stately 3½ story brick building which was redeveloped in 1990 along with the buildings numbered 113 and 115. All three were developed in accordance with a common architectural plan. Each has three condominiums: a one bedroom, a two bedroom, and a three bedroom duplex with a working fireplace and access to a roof deck. The photos shown are of the duplex at No. 113, which has been well maintained and is currently vacant. The purpose of the photos is to indicate the housing quality that can be developed at No. 111 with renovation. The present owner of the property failed to maintain it, became severely delinquent in normal expenses, and following adjudication that has been conducted, he will lose title to the property by sheriff’s deed following the auction. Legal advertisements previously published in the Banner and found on the Banner’s website at: http://ads.baystatebanner.com/ads/2602257 set forth the legal circumstances. Those interested in the auction may view the property on Saturday, January 23 by appointment at 1:00 – 2:30 P.M. For appointment call Rachel at 617-261-4600 ext. 7799 before 4:30 P.M. on Friday, January 22. In the event of inclement weather, the viewing will be rescheduled for the same time on Monday, January 25.
Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER • 23
BANNER CLASSIFIEDS
REAL ESTATE
BRA Restricted Income Housing Lottery MetroMark Apartments 3593-3615 Washington Street Jamaica Plain, Boston MA 02130
40 New BRA Restricted Income Apartments For Rent
HELP WANTED Job Opportunities
Greater Media Boston, home to five of Boston’s most powerful radio brands: Radio 92.9, Hot 96.9, Country 102.5, Magic 106.7 and WROR 105.7, has immediate openings for a Production Director/ Copy Writer and a Digital Project Manager.
# of Units
Type
Rent*
Income Limit
6
Studio
$1,068
Up to 70%
2
1BR
$891
Up to 50%
13
1BR
$1,246
Up to 70%
1
1BR
$1,781
80% to 100%
2
2BR
$1,017
Up to 50%
12
2BR
$1,424
Up to 70%
Greater Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer
1
2BR
$2,035
80% to 100%
1
3BR
$1,145
Up to 50%
WBOS 92.9 / WKLB 102.5 / WMJX 106.7 WROR 105.7 / WBQT 96.9
1
3BR
$1,602
Up to 70%
1
3BR
$2,290
80% to 100%
*Rent is subject to change when the BRA publishes the annual rents. Maximum Income per Household Size HH Size
50%
70%
100%
1
$34,500
$48,250
$68,950
2
$39,400
$55,150
$78,800
3
$44,350
$62,050
$88,650
4
$49,250
$68,950
$98,500
5
$53,200
$74,450
$106,400
6
$57,150
$80,000
$114,250
*Income Limits subject to change when the BRA publishes the annual Income Limits From Feb 9th to Feb 24th applications can be requested by phone (617.782.6900) or email (seb.housing@gmail.com). Applications may also be picked up at the Connolly Branch of the Boston Public Library (433 Centre St, Jamaica Plain) on Tuesday Feb 16th (1 pm to 6 pm) and Saturday Feb 20th (10 AM to 2 PM) and Monday Feb 22nd (4 pm to 8 pm) Completed Applications can be dropped off to the SEB Office between 10 AM and 4 PM on March 8th and 9th. The deadline for application drop off at the SEB Office is 4 pm on March 9th. Completed applications can also be mailed to the SEB Office but must be postmarked by March 9th, 2016. The SEB Office is on 165 Chestnut Hill Ave #2, Brighton, MA 02135. Selection by lottery. Asset, Use & Occupancy Restrictions apply. Minimum income limits apply. Disabled households have preference for 10 accessible units. Preference for Boston Residents. Preference for Households with at least one person per bedroom. MetroMark Apartments is a smoke free community For more information or reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, call 617.782.6900
Both positions are full time and include benefits. For more information, please visit www.greatermedia.com. ~ No phone calls, please! ~
Project Hope Housing Services Coordinator Project Hope Housing Services Coordinator will be responsible for oversight of the eviction prevention program and will provide support and resources to staff working with homeless families to ensure stable, affordable housing. Qualifications: • 3+ years in human services program management • Bachelor’s in social work or related field preferred • Knowledge of homelessness and housing issues specifically: • MA tenant laws and eviction process • Housing search resources for homeless/low-income families • Ability to work with team of direct service staff and diverse population • Computer proficiency • Verbal and written communications skills Please submit cover letter and resume to: pcomfrey@prohope.org
Seeking Bilingual Spanish speaking counselor to strengthen young Latino families.
HELP WANTED
Susan Sklan, Program Director of Counseling and Consultation Services Family ACCESS 492 Waltham St. West Newton, MA 02465 ssklan@familyaccess.org
Senior Water & Wastewater Engineer Hoyle, Tanner is seeking a dynamic Senior Project Manager with 12 -15 years or more of experience in municipal water and wastewater engineering services to work in our Manchester, NH office. The position requires senior level project management, significant client contact, and technical planning, design, permitting and construction phase services on water and wastewater projects throughout New England. The successful candidate will be working in our Manchester, NH office managing new and existing projects in New Hampshire and other New England states. The successful candidate will have tremendous growth opportunities across New England. BSCE and PE license are required. MSCE preferred.
New Jobs In Fast-Growing
HEALTH INSURANCE FIELD!
Please send resume citing career code CLQ10116 to: HOYLE, TANNER & ASSOCIATES, INC., 150 Dow Street, Manchester, NH 03101 or via e-mail to jhann@hoyletanner.com or by fax to 603-669-4168.
Companies Now Hiring MEMBER SERVICE CALL CENTER REPS Rapid career growth potential $ STIPEND DURING 12-WEEK TRAINING Are you a “people person?” Do you like to help others? Full-time, 12-week training plus internship. Job placement assistance provided.
FREE TRAINING FOR THOSE THAT QUALIFY HS diploma or GED required. Free YMCA membership for you and your family while enrolled in YMCA Training, Inc. Call 617-542-1800 and refer to Health Insurance Training when you call
Project Hope Collaborative Shelter Referral Coordinator Project Hope seeks a highly organized individual to manage a federal grant program to identify homeless families in need of services in the Boston area and to provide resources for these families through outreach to other agencies. The Coordinator will establish and maintain operational and data based systems for the program. S/he will participate as a member of the Workforce Development team to review participants’ progress, needs and services. Requirements: • Experience in workforce development with a focus on low-income community members • Experience with homeless families • Experience with grant management activities • Excellent communication and organizational skills • Ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds • Bachelor’s degree preferred Please submit cover letter and resume to: pcomfrey@prohope.org.
United Housing Management is currently seeking the professionals below. Please forward resumes no later than January 22, 2016 to 530 Warren Street, Dorchester, MA 02121 or fax to 617-442-7231. Property Manager: The successful candidate will have a minimum of 5 years of experience in managing at least 150 units with Project Based Section 8 and Low Income Housing Tax Credit, with the ability to interpret and analyze financial projections, experience and skills in team building and motivation, organizational skills with strong verbal and written communication, and ability to relate effectively with people of various backgrounds. Proficiency in a second language is a plus. Professional Certification as a Property Manager and Tax Credit Specialist are required. Transportation is a must. Assistant Property Manager: Experienced in the management of a Section 8 development for a minimum of three years. Responsibilities include the full range of property management functions, but not limited to recertification, and tenant relations - COS certification and Tax Credit experience are required. Candidate must be self-motivated and possess excellent communication, organizational skills – bilingual English/Spanish is a plus. Transportation is a must. Occupancy Specialist: The ideal candidate will have 3 years of experience in Tax Credit and Section 8 Housing. (COS) certification is required - Tax Credit experience is a plus. Candidate will maintain the waiting list of applicants for housing; strong organizational skills and attention to detail are required – bilingual English/Spanish is a plus. Transportation is a must.
To serve a growing Latino community in Waltham and Newton, Family ACCESS Counseling and Consultation Services is seeking a counselor or social worker (licensure preferred) who is fluent in Spanish and English. The Bilingual Clinician will provide home-based and center-based mental health services (individual, family and group counseling and case management) to Maintenance Technician: Experienced in two or more phases of building parents, infants and children and mental health classroom consultation to maintenance repairs including HVAC, electrical, plumbing, appliances, carthe Early Learning Center of Family ACCESS. This position targets the impentry, plastering, locks, flooring. Must be dependable and self-motivated migrant families that live in the Waltham, Newton area. The Clinician will with excellent customer service skills. Must have own tools and a reliable 386161:Layout Page 1 to provide scheduled participate as a member of a strong clinical team and work collaboratively vehicle1with1/14/16 a valid driver’s9:47 license.AM Will be required with other programs of the agency. The position is part time or full time (25 nights and weekend’s coverage - bilingual English/Spanish is a plus. hours plus) and eligible for benefits. The candidate will need their own car for home visits. United Housing Management LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer If you are interested in joining the Family ACCESS team, we would like to hear from you. Please submit cover letter & resume by mail or email to:
HELP WANTED
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER www.hoyletanner.com
ADVERTISE YOUR CLASSIFIEDS (617) 261-4600 x 7799 • ads@bannerpub.com Find rate information at www.baystatebanner.com/advertise
C ambridge
City of
www. c a m b rid g e m a . g o v
Together. Cambridge works. Bring your career to the City of Cambridge and, together, we’ll achieve great things. Your work will support a city rich in industry and communities alive with culture. Get together with a city that works. Work for Cambridge today. Current openings include:
• Afterschool Teacher, Dept. of Human Service Programs • Community School Director, Dept. of Human Service Programs • Director of Libraries, Libraries • Fiscal and Administrative Manager, ...Traffic, Parking and Transportation Dept. • Graphic Designer, Libraries • Parking Services Manager, Traffic, Parking and Transportation Dept. • Teachers Adult Education, Department of Human Service Programs • Water Systems Maintenance Craftsperson, ...Water For detailed job descriptions and application instructions on these and other positions, visit www.cambridgema.gov and click on JOBS. We are an AA/EEO Employer.
b
24 • Thursday, January 21, 2016 • BAY STATE BANNER
Boston Trades Assessment Center at Roxbury Community College Roxbury Community College (RCC), in partnership with YouthBuild Boston (YBB), is pleased to announce the Building Trades Assessment Center (BTAC). This Center is housed on RCC’s campus and our key industry partners include: • The New England Regional Council of Carpenters; • Skanska Construction; • Suffolk Construction; and, • Shawmut Design & Construction.
BTAC – 3 Week Introduction to Building Trades Program The three-week Introduction to Building Trades Program is designed for18-26 year-olds interested in pursuing a career in the construction trades. During these three weeks, participants will earn OSHA 10, CPR/ First Aid, RRP, Signal Rigger and 2A/IC Forklift Crane certifications. Graduates of the three-week program may be eligible to apply for the nine-week program. Participants who complete the nine-week Construction Methods and Materials Program will become Certified PreApprentices with the MA Department of Workforce and Labor Standards. START DATE: FEBRUARY 8, 2016 APPLICATION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 4, 2016 Interested in this program? Want to learn more or sign-up today? Contact: Clyde Thomas at 617-445-8887, ext. 107 or Greg Mumford at 617-445-8887, ext. 102
Lifelong Learning
STARTS 2/22/2016
Whether you’re 6 or 76, find something for the whole family!
STARTS 3/01/2016
PARTNERSHIP
PHARMACY TECHNICIAN
Comprehensive 264 hour program • 114 hours of classroom instruction, lab exercises, pharmacy calculations and hands on training
ids K
to Colle ge
Find something new for your kids to enjoy and let their creativity shine!
• 150 hours of externship at a neighboring pharmacy
Computer Coding
January 30 – March 19 Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. $25 deposit to secure your child’s spot
Voice Lessons
Ongoing: Call us for details
Coming Soon
• Drawing • Young Investors Club
REGISTER NOW http://bit.ly/1g7cmSS
Roxbury Community College - Lifelong Learning Office Location: Administration Building (#2), Room 101 Tel: (617) 933-7410 | Email: lifelonglearning@rcc.mass.edu Office Hours: M-Th: 9:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.| Fri: 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Prerequisites High school transcript or G.E.D., CORI, Accuplacer, and proof of immunizations Certification Graduates will be prepared for the PTCB national certification exam. Tuition $1,800 (includes $10 registration fee, books, lab fees and externship) Class Schedule • February 22 - June 15 • Mondays & Wednesdays • 6:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
VETERINARIAN ASSISTANT
Comprehensive 144 hour program • 84 hours of classroom instruction, lab exercises, hands on training • 60 hours of internship at a neighboring animal hospital, clinic or veterinarian office Prerequisites: High school transcript or G.E.D. Tuition $1,990 + $10 registration fee (includes books and lab fees) Class Schedule • March 1 - May 19 • Tuesdays & Thursdays • 6:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
REGISTER NOW http://bit.ly/1MYy5JH
Roxbury Community College - Corporate & Community Education Office Location: Administration Building (#2), Room 101 Tel: 617-541-5306 | Email: cce@rcc.mass.edu | www.rcc.mass.edu Office Hours: M-Th: 9:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.| Fri: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.