Activists, ideas find home at Neal’s Freedom House

When Mayor Thomas M. Menino first faced the public to discuss the city’s failed negotiations with school superintendent candidate Manuel Rivera, it was before a capacity crowd at Roxbury’s Freedom House.

It was no accident that more than 250 parent activists converged in the basement auditorium for what had been planned as Rivera’s first meeting with Boston parents. Over the last few years, Freedom House has become a hub for parent and student activism.

“We’ve become a place where the community gathers, where information is disseminated,” said Freedom House Executive Director Ricardo Neal. “We’ve opened our doors so people can come in and engage.”

Since taking the reins of Freedom House in 2003, Neal has quietly rebuilt the 56-year-old institution after its mid-1990s slump, during which it ran through six executive directors in seven years.

Under Neal’s watch, Freedom House is once again operating after-school programs for middle and high school students and senior citizens. Freedom House also hosts organizations, including Reflect and Strengthen, a program for teenage girls; We Are Educators with a Touch of Class, a peer-to-peer teen health education program; a local peace organization; a Buddhist organization; and Dunk the Vote, a voter education and mobilization organization.

And increasingly, Freedom House gives Roxbury activists a forum to air ideas and grill candidates for elective office like Gov. Deval Patrick, whose first campaign stop in Boston’s black community was held in the building’s auditorium.

“People understand that whatever the issue is, if you come to Freedom House, you will be heard,” Neal said. “We’re committed to civic engagement.”

Neal’s family moved to Lawrence from Jamaica when he was 12 to escape the political violence that gripped their home country in the early 1980s. His parents encouraged their eight children to excel in school as a means of advancing in the United States. All eight children made it through college.

After graduating from UMass-Amherst and obtaining a master’s degree in social work from Boston University in 1999, Neal entered the nonprofit sector. He joined Freedom House in 2001, working as a consultant before heading the agency. Under Neal’s guidance, the agency has kept education at the forefront of its programming.

The after-school programs at Freedom House focus on academic performance, workforce skills and college preparation. In 2003 Freedom House joined the Campaign for Proficiency, an effort that uses data from the MCAS exam to help inform teachers and tutors’ work with students.

In 2004, Freedom House teamed up with JFY Networks to offer preparation for the MCAS test.

“By 2006 we were re-established,” Neal said. “We were no longer re-emerging. We’ve moved to a phase of increased visibility and stability.”

Gail Snowden, daughter of Freedom House founders Muriel and Otto Snowden, says Neal has brought a strong commitment to the mission of the agency and a spirit of collaboration.

“Ricardo doesn’t bring a lot of ego to the table,” said Snowden, who serves as chairwoman of the organization’s board. “He works very hard to include other people in what we’re doing.”

Freedom House played a central role in the search process for the new school superintendent, helping parents and students to articulate an agenda for candidates: tackling the Boston school system’s growing dropout rate, improving the system’s family-community engagement and closing the achievement gap between white students and students of color. Much of that work was funded by a $175,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation aimed at increasing community involvement in school systems.

“Historically, parents have been disengaged from the work of reforming education,” Neal said. “The idea is to work with community-based organization with deep roots in the community to help engage parents.”

That network of parent-activists which Freedom House helped recruit and organize filled the capacity crowd Menino confronted last week as he attempted to explain the city’s failed bid to fill the superintendent vacancy. In addition to the 250 parents who made it into the auditorium, Neal says another 60 parents were turned away.

While the superintendent search is far from over, Neal sees Freedom House’s role in the process as a victory in the struggle to get more parents involved.

“Freedom House gave me the platform to do this work — working with students and parents to be part of the system that makes decisions,” he said. “I really believe that change is possible. I think institutions like the Freedom House — that believe in changing lives and uprooting and dismantling obstacles — are worth the investment.”