Category: Equity

Newton's Community Solar Share Initiative: Sometimes, the Answer is Hidden in Plain Sight

Posted on January 26, 2017 at 12:06 pm. Written by Elise Harmon

Typically, low income households pay a higher percentage of income for electricity than those in other income brackets. In Boston, for example, median-income households spend 2.8 percent of their total income on electricity on average, whereas low-income households spend 6.7 percent of income on electricity. At the same time, disadvantaged households often do not have […]

MAPC’s Metro Mayors Community Safety Day on the Hill

Posted on May 6, 2014 at 5:27 pm. Written by Karen Adelman

April 30, 2014, Boston: Exuberance was in the air as over 250 youth, mayors, law enforcement and municipal officials, legislators and community advocates gathered in Nurses Hall at the State House. It was the Community Safety Day on the Hill, an annual rally organized by MAPC’s Metro Mayors Coalition focused on addressing youth violence prevention […]

Fighting Gang Violence: MAPC Facilitates Metro Mayors Shannon Grant Coalition

Posted on February 3, 2014 at 11:43 am. Written by Karen Adelman

In 2014, for the 8th year in a row, MAPC will be facilitating the Metro Mayors Shannon Grant Coalition. The Shannon Grant is a statewide youth and gang violence prevention grant that includes both law enforcement and social services components. The Metro Mayors grant comprises of eight inner-core communities: Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Quincy, Revere, […]

Investing in Healthy Neighborhoods: The Healthy Neighborhoods Equity Fund

Posted on December 2, 2013 at 5:24 pm. Written by Amanda Linehan

The way we design neighborhoods can help – or hurt – our health. The location of our homes and businesses, the quality of sidewalks and streets, community programs and public safety – all can influence health and quality of life issues from access to healthy food to strong connections with neighbors. Understanding this, the Conservation […]

Bringing holiday cheer to Stoughton business owners

Posted on December 21, 2012 at 5:33 pm. Written by Amanda Linehan

Yesterday I spent the afternoon walking around Stoughton Center, popping into different local businesses to meet the owners and encourage them to come to a business breakfast on January 25, which MAPC is hosting along with the town of Stoughton. As the Globe recently reported, the town of Stoughton is coming up on an exciting […]

CORI Reform: Helping ex-offenders get jobs is good for the region

Posted on May 16, 2012 at 12:13 pm. Written by Amanda Linehan

Everyone deserves to have a job. But when access to employment is limited for large groups of people in a community with high rates of criminal convictions, it doesn’t only affect those individuals. The impact ends up extending to the economic viability for the entire region as well. Fortunately, Massachusetts has recently made an important […]

"Unbanked" Bostonians: the next hurdle for Hubway?

Posted on January 3, 2012 at 5:12 pm. Written by Amanda Linehan

This story from The Atlantic’s Cities blog highlighted an important issue facing bike share programs across the country (including Hubway), which rely on a credit/debit card system for rentals (more on how Hubway’s membership works). The credit card system is simple and convenient, allowing users to take out a bike with the swipe of a […]

Equity report release: Balancing facts and stories

Posted on December 15, 2011 at 3:10 pm. Written by Amanda Linehan

We probably all know that Metro Boston is an unequal place. It’s clear from hearing the stories of friends and colleagues that racial and income divides linger. But how segregated are we really? How great is the gap between rich and poor? For many of us, there’s been no way of painting a factual picture […]

Sad statistics don’t have to endure

Posted on December 15, 2011 at 11:54 am. Written by Amanda Linehan

Yvonne Abraham’s Boston Globe editorial “A sad statistic that endures” did an excellent job describing racial disparities in the birth of underweight babies, a key finding from MAPC’s newly-released “The State of Equity in Metro Boston” report. Yvonne’s column focused on our finding that “a college-educated black woman is a fraction more likely to have a […]