Jamaica Plain non-profit receives city mini-grant

Jamaica Plain’s Dominican Development Center (DDC) was one of several organizations to receive a mini-grant last week from the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement (MOIA) to help support nonprofits that work in immigrant communities. 

Mayor Martin Walsh said each $5,000 grant to the DDC and 19 other nonprofits will help celebrate Boston’s rich cultural diversity and applaud the work immigrant-serving organizations here and across the city do each and every day. 

“The coronavirus pandemic shined a bright light on the disparities in our community,” said Mayor Walsh. “Immigrants have been on the frontlines from the beginning and they have also been the most impacted. This year especially, we need to celebrate immigrant contributions to our community and recover from this pandemic in a more equitable state than we entered it.”

The mini-grants are funded through corporate sponsorships for We Are Boston, an annual end-of-the year reception that honors the contributions immigrants have made to our City. This year’s We Are Boston 2020: From Resilience to Equity is on November 19 from 5-6 pm.

Funding to the DDC will support the Latino Workers Leadership Empowerment Program to develop leadership skills among Latina immigrant workers confronting worker rights violations during and after the pandemic. 

Located on Seaverns Avenue in JP, the DDC’s Latino Workers Leadership Empowerment Program helps support Latina immigrant workers who are confronting worker rights violations during and after the pandemic. Through its grassroots organizing effort, the DDC works in collaboration with other coalition members to support Latina Workers confronting worker right violations and all kinds of abuse because of the anti-racist and-immigrant environment. 

“Funding will be used to continue and expand our leadership program and workforce development efforts for job opportunities and protections for almost 200 hundred domestic workers already impacted by COVID 19,” said the DDC. “Two hundred and fifty five of these workers contracted the virus.”

The program runs every other week for 8 weeks between 6:00 pm- 8:00 pm.

Walsh said these mini-grants are made possible through the contributions from We Are Boston 2019 sponsors including State Street Corporation, Arbella Insurance Foundation, Eastern Bank and Verizon; and this year’s corporate sponsors include Arbella Insurance Foundation, Eastern Bank and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

For this year’s We Are Boston 2020: From Resilience to Equity on November 19, Mayor Walsh will recognize the successes of the past year and name this year’s honorees. The evening will culminate with the City’s new Cabinet Chief of Equity, Dr. Karilyn Crockett, speaking on the convergence and divergence of African American and immigrant struggles and how the corporate and philanthropic sectors can support the fight for equity for all. 

“We picked this year’s theme because ‘resilience’ means the ability to recover quickly from difficulties, and that is exactly what our immigrant communities are doing during this pandemic. And this resiliency, this strength, is what gets us to equity,” said Yusufi Vali, Director of the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement.

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