At an awards luncheon at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston on Jan. 12, Episcopal City Mission (ECM) handed out 20 Burgess Urban Fund grants totaling $241,000 to 20 Massachusetts organizations--ranging from the Merrimack Valley Project in Lawrence to the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Boston to the Coalition Against Poverty in New Bedford.
"We want to celebrate you and your work to improve the lives of those in the Commonwealth affected by social injustice," ECM's executive director, Ruy Costa, told the gathering.
Named for the Diocese of Massachusetts' 12th bishop, the late John Melville Burgess, the Burgess Urban Fund has for more than 30 years supported grassroots community organizing in response to social injustice, and it has awarded more than $6 million in grants.
“We feel quite strongly that by partnering with the wider community, we will have greater impact to improve the lives of the urban poor and the oppressed. This year’s grantees, truly emulate the Burgess Urban Fund’s mission and have the power and capacity to reach into so many neighborhoods as their areas of focus are faith-based organizing, immigrants’ rights, workers’ rights, affordable housing, poverty-related organizing, youth-senior organizing,” Costa said.
The complete list of Burgess Urban Fund grantees are:
• Alternatives for Community and the Environment: T Riders Union, Boston
• Boston Workers Alliance, Boston
• Brazilian Immigrant Center, Boston
• Brazilian Women’s Group, Boston
• Bread and Roses Housing, Lawrence
• Brockton Interfaith Community, Brockton
• Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, New Bedford
• Centro Presente, Somerville
• Chelsea Neighborhood Developers, Chelsea
• Coalition Against Poverty, New Bedford
• Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation: Youth Force
• Essex County Community Organization, Lynn
• Ex-Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement (EPOCH), Worcester
• Massachusetts Senior Action Council, Boston
• Merrimack Valley Project, Lawrence
• Metropolitan Interfaith Congregations Acting for Hope (MICAH), Framingham
• Student Immigrant Movement, Boston
• United Interfaith Action, Fall River
• The Worker Center for Economic Justice, Lynn
• Worcester Homeless Action Committee, Worcester