Achieving Justice, Dignity for All

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On behalf of YWCA Boston, I’m both pleased and excited to announce that we will be re-launching Boston’s well regarded LeadBoston and InIt social justice leadership programs (www.bostonccj.org ) later this year.

Through an exclusive licensing agreement with the Boston Center for Community and Justice, YWCA Boston will continue these programs and focus Boston’s current and future leaders on both understanding the most pressing social issues facing Boston today and working to build a better Boston.

With more than two dozen graduates of LeadBoston among YWCA Boston board members, management, volunteers, staff and supporters, we well know the power and importance of these programs and their ability to affect personal and professional social change.  We are also delighted to have BCCJ’s three professional program staff joining YWCA Boston to help ensure the same high standards that have been a hallmark of BCCJ programs.

YWCA Boston’s licensing of these programs is part of a larger strategic shift as we tackle systemic social issues with concerted, holistic strategies.  Working across racial, religious, gender and economic divides, YWCA Boston is working to use evidence-based programs to achieve its key initiatives:  educating Boston’s at-risk populations on health topics; supplementing and supporting the work of key community health, education and safety service providers; and engaging  the city’s corporate, civic and philanthropic  leaders to create practices and policies that  assist all Bostonians in achieving the dignity they deserve.

This realignment of priorities and programs occurs as YWCA Boston celebrates 145 years of pursuing and achieving greater social justice for all Bostonians.  The city, the country and our organization have come far since 1866, when YWCA Boston’s founders pursued voting rights for women and people of color, provided desegregated, affordable lodging and housing, improved child labor laws and provided access to education for women and new immigrants.

While much has been accomplished, more remains to be done: 

• women are still paid less than their male counterparts and remain underrepresented in the legislature and in corporate board rooms;
• hate crimes have increased in Boston during three of the last four years;
• black men continue to be imprisoned at a disproportionate rate, and  women of color continue to face dramatic health disparities;
• the rights of legal immigrants are imperiled;
• Boston remains one of the most racially segregated cities in America
• the richest Bostonians are getting richer while critical social services are diminishing for the poorest Bostonians.

Indeed, many social injustices in Boston today are institutional, taking on a virulent life of their own beyond the best intentions of Boston’s civic leaders. 

History – YWCA’s and the city’s – has shown that working with only one segment affected by inequalities gets us only so far. The same is true for talk without action, and action without talk.  We believe that by educating and then facilitating interactions and efforts among and between all segments and sectors of our community’s population, we can steadily and measurably improve social cohesion and reduce racial and gender disparities in key sectors and neighborhoods of Boston.

Changing people’s hearts, minds and actions is difficult work.  It will require the best tactical, intellectual and financial resources of any undertaking, and require an unwavering dedication to the vision of what we can be as a city and community.   

We invite you to join us as we redouble our efforts to make Boston the best, most vibrant and inclusive city in America.

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