| MAYOR WALSH ANNOUNCES MENTORING MOVEMENT HAS EXCEEDED GOAL OF 1,000 NEW MENTORS |
BOSTON - Thursday, January 26, 2017 - Mayor Martin J. Walsh yesterday joined with representatives from Mass Mentoring Partnership and mentoring programs across the city to announce that the city has exceeded its initial goal for the Mayor's Mentoring Movement by recruiting 1,356 new mentors to serve Boston youth. The Mayor's initiative was launched in late 2014 with the goal of recruiting 1,000 new mentors in two years. To celebrate this milestone, Mayor Walsh also declared yesterday, Thursday, January 25 as Mentoring Day in Boston.
"We are thrilled that so many caring adults have answered the call to serve as mentors and help make a difference in the lives of young people across the City of Boston," said Mayor Walsh. "Mentorship helps our young people dream bigger and reach higher. I look forward to building on our strong momentum, and get even more people to join our movement and serve as role models for our youth."
Yesterday's celebration at City Hall was part of a recruitment fair that included Mayor's Mentoring Movement programs. City employees and the public had the opportunity to talk with programs about opportunities to mentor young people in different settings.
Mass Mentoring Partnership partnered with Mayor Walsh in 2014 to connect volunteer mentors with mentoring opportunities by referring them to partner programs across the city, who then match the adults with young people waiting for mentors.
"We want to thank our mentoring program partners for all of their work to achieve this exciting milestone," said Marty Martinez, President & CEO of Mass Mentoring Partnership. "These empowering youth-adult relationships can help young people reach their full potential and strengthen our community."
Mentors encourage positive choices, promote high self-esteem, and academic achievement. They foster confidence in young people that allows them to be the best version of themselves and more productive members of society. The impact of a caring adult's dedication and care can lift youth off of a bad path and place them on a road to success.
To learn more about the Mayor's Mentoring Movement, visit: bostonmentors.org or follow the conversation on Twitter using #BostonMentors.
About Mass Mentoring Partnership
Mass Mentoring Partnership (MMP) is fueling the movement to expand empowering youth-adult relationships to strengthen communities across Massachusetts. MMP serves more than 250 mentoring programs and youth development organizations statewide supporting 33,000 youth in caring relationships. For more information, please visit: www.massmentors.org
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本地William James College(位於1 Wells Ave., Newton, 係心理學高等研究學院)安排臺灣電影「太陽的孩子」於2月9日(週四)晚上六時至該校公映, 並邀請電影女主角阿洛.卡力亭.巴奇辣出席講述拍片經過及答詢。該活動開放各界免費入場(請電郵RSVP@CMGMH@williamjames.edu預訂),歡迎媒體朋友前往欣賞並採訪。| MAYOR WALSH LEADS 37TH ANNUAL HOMELESS CENSUS |
Yearly count of Boston's homeless helps focus City housing efforts
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Mayor Walsh thanking volunteers who helped with the Census.
BOSTON - Thursday, January 26, 2017 - On Wednesday night, Mayor Martin J. Walsh led a group of 400 volunteers, including City of Boston cabinet and department heads, State officials, community and civic leaders, and homeless providers in conducting the street count for the City's 37th annual homeless census. The street count is part of a larger census of homeless adults and families in emergency shelters, transitional housing and domestic violence programs.
In 2016, Boston was identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as the city with the lowest percentage of unsheltered people living on the street of any city conducting a census. The annual homeless census is required by HUD as a key component of Boston's $24 million funding grant.
"I want to thank all of last night's volunteers for their time and commitment to our homeless neighbors," Mayor Walsh said. "The annual homeless census is far more than a one-night count -- it's part of a year-round commitment to housing our homeless and helping our neighbors in need. One of the things I am most proud of as Mayor is that since the first time I led this census three years ago, more than one thousand homeless people in our city have been housed -- and we are not stopping until we have ended chronic homelessness in the City of Boston."
This year, the Census' 400 volunteers canvassed 45 areas covering every city neighborhood, Logan Airport and the transit and parks systems. After a robust recruitment effort, two-thirds of the event's participants were first-time volunteers.
Results of the homeless census form the basis for Boston's policy efforts. Boston's Way Home, the City's plan to end chronic and veteran homelessness, puts housing first, dramatically redesigning the way the City delivers services to the homeless, increasing resources devoted to housing the homeless, and deploying new technologies to match formerly homeless people with housing and services
Since the launch of the plan:
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Recipient:
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Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association – Carver
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Grant:
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$61,203
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Project:
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The Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association proposes to study the use of in-day plant cooling via sprinkler irrigation in order to lower cranberry vine canopy temperatures during the growing season and prevent scalding of developing berries. The grant will help growers identify heat stress and the development of new tools for growers to utilize when employing in-day cooling.
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Recipient:
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Community Harvest Project – N. Grafton
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Grant:
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$15,000
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Project:
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The Community Harvest Project will transition one acre of traditional apples to high density apples. This innovative approach will use their land and volunteers more effectively, while drastically improving the availability of highly desired fruit in the hunger relief food system. They plan to replicate their methods, transitioning 1-2 acre of apples to high density each year and training orchard interns in the process.
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Recipient:
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Community Involved in Sustaining Ag, Inc. – South Deerfield
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Grant:
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$50,000
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Project
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This project will offer personalized assistance to specialty crop farmers in western Massachusetts to introduce them to food safety requirements and to enable them to implement the food safety required improvements needed to compete in wholesale produce markets.
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Recipient:
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Hilltown CDC – Chesterfield
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Grant:
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$20,000
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Project:
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Hilltown CDC aspires to enhance awareness among residents of nearby farms and where to buy food grown in the Hilltowns, increase farm sales (expanded markets or increased volume through existing markets) for existing farms to increase profitability and long-term viability, increase production of farm products to meet regional demand, and increase access to fresh, locally produced food for all residents, including low-income and elderly populations, to contribute to good nutrition and health.
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Recipient:
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Massachusetts Farm to School Project / Third Sector New England – Boston
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Grant:
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$63,523
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Project:
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Through a combination of outreach, training, and technical assistance, the recipients will provide school food purchasers with the knowledge and tools to maximize their local specialty crop procurement by effectively using RFPs for both direct farm and distributor purchases. They will also ensure effective promotion of local specialty crops through expansion and evaluation of the Harvest of the Month campaign, a promotional campaign highlighting a different local specialty crop each month.
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Recipient:
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MA Nursery & Landscape Association & MA Flower Growers’ Association – Conway
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Grant:
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$10,376
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Project:
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The recipients will invest in agricultural education and outreach and create an awareness of the benefits of gardening and landscaping by producing a series of social media posts that will capture and educate a new audience.
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Recipient:
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North Organic Farming Association – Barre, MA
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Grant:
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$42,566
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Project:
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The North Organic Farming Association (NRCS) seeks to engage and educate growers on best practices in both low-tech and high-tech systems by coordinating an organization-wide focus on high tunnel and season extension practices. This work is important and timely because currently, there are few resources available to organic farmers on ways to successfully grow specialty crops in high tunnels and make the most of their investment.
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Recipient:
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The Sustainable Business Network – Cambridge
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Grant:
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$31,096
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Project:
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The Sustainable Business Network aims to address and overcome many of the challenges met by specialty food crop producers and buyers in order to build new business relationships through open communication between the specialty crop growers and buyers. This will be achieved by offering specialty crop producers and buyers technical assistance. Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts (SBN)’s intention is to increase access to Massachusetts and New England specialty crop products by eliminating barriers that are preventing buyers and sellers from doing business, thereby increasing the sales of specialty crops across Massachusetts and New England.
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Recipient:
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University of Massachusetts, Amherst – Amherst
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Grant:
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$25,760
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Project:
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This project will identify and convert 12 shelf-stable produce recipes (using the Ball Book Home Canning Recipes or equivalent specific to specialty crops) into scale-appropriate product formulations, conduct the proper quality assurance analysis and have each formula validated by a recognized Process Authority to support the adoption of value-added processing for local produce farmers. This work will provide the necessary technical support to manufacture safe quality products that will increase the usage of specialty crops, enable season extension for growers and reduce the overall waste of produce.
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