ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
October 28, 2004
DSNI celebrating 20 years
of community rebuilding
Jeremy Schwab
When the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative,
an advocacy group whose mission is to fight for the needs of residents
along the Roxbury-Dorchester line, celebrates its 20th anniversary
November 4, revelers will also celebrate the revitalization of
the Dudley Street neighborhood.
The neighborhood has come a long way since the 1980s. When Ros
Everdell started volunteering at DSNI in 1988, she says there
were 1,300 vacant lots in the group’s core area, a swath
of territory between Dudley Square and Upham’s Corner.
“There used to be whole streets abandoned, blocked with
jersey barriers because if you didn’t people would just
dump there or leave abandoned cars,” says Everdell, DSNI’s
organizing director.
Over half of the lots have been developed. Those developments
include two new schools, hundreds of houses and plentiful green
space, including a Town Common and two greenhouses currently under
construction.
Considering DSNI does not actually develop real estate, the organization
has played a surprisingly central role in the development of the
neighborhood’s real estate.
DSNIs influence comes from its relationship with the city. Through
the city, the group obtained a memorandum of understanding giving
DSNI a leading role in the development of city-owned land in the
neighborhood. Developers come to DSNI for approval and community
input, although the final authority on what gets built rests with
the city.
Through its Community Land Trust, DSNI plays an even more central
role in development. The city puts vacant land in the trust, and
DSNI helps determine what gets built on the land.
“We pretty much have the same powers as the Boston Redevelopment
Authority,” says community development organizer Jason Webb.
So far, DSNI has set in motion the construction of 144 units of
housing through the land trust, all of it sold at below market
rates so as to be more affordable to nearby residents.
DSNI is not solely concerned with real estate development, however.
The group petitions the city and state on education policy issues,
trains activists in leadership development and helps teenagers
find summer jobs.
Lauren Thompson, DSNI’s chairwoman of the board and head
of the Education Committee, said DSNI has been cultivating relationships
with schools in its area of service, trying to learn what the
needs of those schools are so DSNI can advocate for them with
the city and state.
“It’s tough being a neighborhood group and going into
some schools, because some principals are weary,” said Thompson.
“They don’t know what you want to do. But it is important
for neighborhood groups to be resources in schools because parents
trust DSNI. We’ve been successful in other areas.”
For the past two summers, DSNI has helped coordinate one arm of
the city’s summer jobs program, placing over 150 teenagers
with nonprofits, summer camps and day care centers.
DSNI’s Resident Leadership Development Program is an example
of the organization’s efforts to maintain close ties with
the community and to involve residents in advocacy work, whether
as DSNI volunteers or elsewhere.
The Resident Leadership Development Program trains community residents
and activists to become better advocates for their neighborhoods.
“We traveled to Detroit recently to do a training,”
said Executive Director John Barros. “DSNI feels we have
developed some great best practices over the last 20 years on
how to bring a diverse community together on a shared vision.”
The 20th Anniversary Jamboree will take place on Thursday, November
4 at 6:00 p.m. at the UMass Boston Campus Center, 100 Morrissey
Boulevard in Dorchester. The event will honor the achievements
of community residents, businesses and nonprofits in the neighborhood.
Cape Verdean, Latino and soul music will enliven the mood and
a multi-ethnic cuisine featuring three caterers will fill bellies.
Tickets are $35 for residents and $50 for non-residents. For tickets,
call Sara Galvao at 617-442-9670 or email jamboree2004@dsni.org.
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