Boston Foundation invests more than $4 million in six local social justice leaders →

By Lauren Booker Globe Staff,Updated April 9, 2024, 2:49 p.m.

The Boston Foundation has identified six community partners in a new Shifting Power, Advancing Justice initiative, and will invest more than $4 million in their organizations to support their work on social justice efforts, according to an announcement this week.

Each nonprofit organization and “movement” leader will receive $675,000 over three years as a part of the Shifting Power, Advancing Justice focus area. The funding would support general operations, wellness, technical assistance, capacity building, and can be used for emergencies.

“These six movement leaders each play a central role in their organizations and in the broader community. They are difference makers, shaping collective action that improves lives and drives social and economic change,” said M. Lee Pelton, president and CEO of the Boston Foundation.

The selected leaders are Darian Burwell Gambrell, executive director, DEAF, Inc.; Gamaliel Lauture, co-executive director, Brockton Interfaith Community; Mike Leyba, co-executive director, City Life/Vida Urbana; Noemi Mimi Ramos, executive director, New England United 4 Justice; Shanique Rodriguez, executive director, Massachusetts Voter Table; and Dwaign Tyndal, executive director, Alternatives for Community and Environment.

As part of the Shifting Power, Advancing Justice initiative, the community leaders will partner with the Boston Foundation to craft their work plans, with the goal of tailoring the funding directly to that work, “to ensure [the funding] serves their needs, goals and long-term vision,” according to the announcement.

“We … know that our most valuable role can be played beyond the grant itself, providing a space and platform for these movement leaders to connect, plan and build community with each other to create a stronger, networked ecosystem for change,” said Vetto Casado, director of Shifting Power, Advancing Justice at the Boston Foundation.

With extensive resumes marked by years of pushing for social justice, the grant recipients have made impacts beyond their current organizational role.

For instance, Mike Leyba, with City Life/Vida Urbana, has fought for equal marriage rights for LGBTQ people. And, for four years, Shanique Rodriguez, with Massachusetts Voter Table, worked as the manager of mobilization and BIPOC organizing at Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts.

“They each have unique approaches to that leadership and, with this new effort, we strive to create a partnership that respects and supports each of them and the organizations they represent to continue and amplify their transformative work,” said Pelton.

Much unease in blue states as Supreme Court weighs the Trump ballot case →

Shanique Rodriguez, who works to improve voter turnout as executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, views the intense focus on the 14th Amendment as a real-time civics lesson and the legal tussles over Trump’s candidacy as a healthy sign of engagement with democracy.

At the same time, she said, she is concerned that efforts to remove him from ballots only deepen doubts about the reliability of elections — doubts Trump has fueled since his loss in 2020. Talk of barring a candidate from the nation’s highest office, Rodriguez said, “creates this feeling of, ‘Can I even trust the system?’”

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Rejected ballots cited in push for same-day registration →

Shanique Spalding, executive director of the MA Voter Table, said showing up to the polls to vote “is enough of a challenge for many voters” and administrative issues “should never be a barrier to their vote being counted.”

“Same-day registration addresses registration issues promptly, empowering voters of color, low-income voters, and unlikely voters,” she said.

“It ensures that every eligible voter who wants to can exercise their right to vote and have their voices heard in our democracy.”

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Voting rights groups again press for updates to Mass.’ election laws →

“Same Day Voter Registration is a critical step towards eliminating barriers to voting, which disproportionately affect voters of color and low income voters,” Shanique Spalding, the executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, an advocacy group devoted to addressing racial injustice and economic inequality, said in a statement.

By adopting the legislation, Massachusetts will “send a clear message that every eligible citizen’s voice matters and deserves to be heard,” Spalding continued.

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Commentary: Voter engagement can’t wait until election season gets hot →

Government officials and organizations can help meet this need by targeting the root causes of these voting barriers and facilitating neighbor-to-neighbor education programs. Massachusetts Voter Table (MVT) offers a robust example of what it takes to make voting more accessible. Along with their nonpartisan community-based partners and over 1,000 grassroots leaders they’ve trained, have had conversations with close to 750,000 unique voters in gateway cities and Boston. Their successful campaigns, bolstered by this relationship building, have yielded victories in policy areas such as earned sick time, a $15 minimum wage, and affordable housing. We must facilitate campaigns like this one.

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Trust, civic education seen as keys to voter engagement →

MA Voter Table Executive Director Beth Huang said it all comes back to trust and people trusting that their vote actually can lead to change in their community. But that trust between a candidate or elected official and voters can’t only exist when an election is coming up, she said.

“Trust is broken when candidates make big promises, their campaign office is closed by that Wednesday or Thursday after Election Day, and then people vote and things don’t change,” Huang said. “And so I think sometimes we see a trust broken when there aren’t continued organizations or structures for people to be engaged year-round.”

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