Social Innovation Forum Success Stories

Generations Incorporated engages active older adults in results-driven intergenerational programs that inspire students and improve schools. Their programs generate strong relationships between older adults and students that get results and make a difference in both of their lives. As an affiliate of Experience Corps, they deliver nationally recognized, sustainable programs to Greater Boston public schools. Each year, they engage over 300 older adults as mentors and literacy tutors to elementary school children. Volunteers serve weekly in one of twelve partner schools or afterschool programs, achieving strong mentoring relationships, tangible improvements in student literacy, and benefits to their mental and physical health.

Medicine Wheel Productions (MWP) is an arts organization dedicated to the production of site-specific public art installations, both intimate and large-scaled, that invite people to use art as threshold, gaining awareness of self, community and the human condition. As part of the organization’s commitment to true inclusion, Medicine Wheel involves young adults with court involvement, addiction issues, and other risks in all aspects of the art as performers, managers, in production, and as public emissaries. MWP public art projects range from the local to international: No Man’s Land has transformed blighted land in South Boston into a public art park; The Tonnes is a post peace project in Ireland inviting communities along the border into dialogue through art.

The mission of The My Life My Choice Project (MLMC), a program of Justice Resource Institute, is to decrease the incidence and severity of girls being victimized within the commercial sex industry, with a focus on the Greater Boston area. To this end, MLMC provides a continuum of prevention, victim identification, and intervention services. MLMC offers provider training, prevention groups, case coordination, and survivor mentoring to victims of exploitation. Since 2002, MLMC has reached over 500 girls and over 2,000 providers, both in Massachusetts and nationally, in a variety of locations including group homes, juvenile detention facilities, child protective services offices, schools, and other community based settings.

Hearth Outreach is a program of Hearth Inc., the only organization in the country with a sole focus and comprehensive approach to ending elder homelessness. Outreach staff canvas 10 Boston homeless shelter programs weekly to identify and place homeless elders in permanent housing. Before, during, and after placement, they help to ensure that their elder clients are able to maintain long-term housing by providing direct assistance to identify and obtain safe, affordable housing; facilitating access to physical health, mental
health, financial, legal, and other critical social services; stabilizing them within their homes; and helping them build social and community networks. The program seeks to reach all people ages 50 or above who are currently, or may be at risk for, living on Boston’s streets and in homeless shelters.

More Than Words (MTW) is a social enterprise that empowers youth who are in the foster care system, court involved, homeless, or out of school to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business. By working as a team to manage their own retail and online used book business, café, and community space, youth develop the employment skills, leadership, and self-confidence they need to successfully transition to adulthood. In addition to store-based job training, youth are engaged in personal transition planning and case management to support their progress towards employment and education. The MTW model is premised on the belief that when at-risk youth are challenged with authentic and increasing responsibilities in a business setting, and have high expectations and a culture of support, they can and will address their personal barriers, create concrete action plans for their lives, and become thriving members of society. Through the success of its model, MTW is motivating communities to rethink how to engage vulnerable youth and reshape the way services are delivered to this population.

The Bessie Tartt Wilson Initiative for Children (BTWIC) works through research, advocacy, and policy reform to strengthen early education and care for low-income children, ages 0–5, across Massachusetts. A pioneer in early education, Bessie Tartt Wilson opened her first childcare center in 1946, serving working families in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Her daughter, Mary Reed, followed in her mother's footsteps and led Tartt's Day Care Centers, where she witnessed firsthand the challenges low-income families face in their attempt to access reliable, quality care for their children. Recognizing that many of these challenges are due to shortcomings in the early education system and seeking broader, more enduring impact, Mary decided to shift her role from practitioner to advocate. She established BTWIC in her mother’s name and is working to elevate and permanently sustain the quality of early education for low-income children across Massachusetts. BTWIC partners with parents, childcare providers, and government leaders to develop and implement effective policy solutions that positively impact the lives of tens of thousands of children and families.

Cradles to Crayons (C2C) provides children ages 10-12 living in poverty with the basic essentials they need to be safe, ready to learn, and feel valued.The C2C model serves as a bridge connecting those who have more with those who have less, breaking down some of the barriers within and between communities.C2C collects new and gently-used children's items through community drives; processes and packages donations at its Giving Factory with the help of thousands of volunteers; and, through partnerships with social service agencies that identify specific children and their individual needs, distributes donated toys, books, clothes, and other items to children throughout Massachusetts at no charge. Through grass-roots civic engagement and meaningful volunteer opportunities, C2C reaches tens of thousands of needy children annually, enables social service agencies to work more effectively, and mobilizes thousands of youth and adults to learn about the problem of poverty and become part of the solution.

In 1993 ReVision Urban Farm was launched in the Franklin Field neighborhood of Dorchester, Mass. The one-acre farm functions both as a center for productive work and meaningful community engagement and a supplier of healthy, naturally grown produce. Homeless women who live at the ReVision House shelter gain job readiness skills by working side-by-side with volunteers from Dorchester and surrounding communities to grow produce and bring it to market. Produce from the farm is prepared for shelter meals, given to local residents in need, and sold to customers. Through a combination of revenue from grants, donations, and food sales, ReVision Urban Farm, a Victory Program's Social Enterprise, is able to sustain its job-readiness training, volunteer and community benefit programs.

The United Teen Equality Center (UTEC), founded in 1999, was the result of an organizing movement driven by young people to develop their own teen center in response to gang violence. Today UTEC is a youth led agency that uniquely blends a drop-in, safe-haven center with more structured youth development and organizing work, serving over 1,500 Lowell teens annually. Guided by its core values of peace, positivity, and empowerment, UTEC staff proactively "meet teens where they're at" using every opportunity to build trust and engage them in one or more of its four program areas: Streetwork/Peacemaking, Youth Development, Education, and Youth Organizing/Political Action. By directly linking preventing and intervention services with youth-led policymaking, UTEC provides a pathway from the street to the state house, from peacemaking to political action for older youth most often overlooked and considered disengaged.  UTEC's long-term vision is to serve as a model for other youth agencies across the Commonwealth and beyond.

Building Impact unlocks the civic potential of companies and individuals by engaging them where they work and live - in office and residential buildings. By partnering with building owners, Building Impact delivers structured community involvement opportunities to companies, their employees, and building residents to connect with local nonprofit organizations addressing the issues of Youth & Education, Hunger & Housing, Health & Wellness, and Employment & Job Training in Greater Boston.

Strong Women, Strong Girls fosters high aspirations among low income, 
minority elementary school girls and helps them develop skills for life-long success. College women, who are trained and engaged as mentors, lead girls in an innovative after-school program model that includes the study of ontemporary and historical female role models, research-based learning activities, community service projects and horizon-broadening field trips to colleges and other sites.

Tacos Unidos, a project of Roca, is a nonprofit business venture that sells healthy tacos and burritos to create training and employment opportunities for high risk young people ages 16-24 from Chelsea, Revere and East Boston.

WriteBoston, a city-wide initiative, seeks to foster a “culture of writing” at all public high schools in Boston. WriteBoston works to improve writing proficiency among high school students by matching teachers with expert writing coaches and creating opportunities for students to engage in the writing process with peers and community members.

The mission of Common Impact is to strengthen high-potential nonprofit organizations by helping companies deploy their human capital more strategically in the social sector. Rooted in the growing ethic of corporate responsibility, their approach harnesses the power of corporate volunteers to execute service projects with community-based nonprofits and create successful long-term partnerships that are of value to all.

Viet-AID aims to integrate Vietnamese Americans into the social, economic and civic life of the United States in order to reduce poverty, social isolation and alienation. It is the only community development corporation in the country founded and operated by Vietnamese immigrants and refugees.

Eagle Eye Institute empowers urban people from low income communities, especially youth of color, to play a positive role caring for our environment. Eagle Eye is dedicated to developing and disseminating innovative environmental education programs that transform the lives of urban youth through hands-on exploratory learning on the environment and career bridging to natural resource fields.

Madison Park Development Corporation seeks to build the physical, economic, social and cultural renaissance of Roxbury. Arts, Culture, and Trade Roxbury (ACT Roxbury) uses arts and culture to enrich and strengthen the physical, economic and social revitalization of the Dudley Square Business District and Lower Roxbury community by engaging and cultivating cultural businesses, artists and institutions as economic resources and community assets.

Year Up’s mission is to prepare urban young adults for life and work in our technology-driven society and to guide urban young adults toward successful and rewarding careers and higher education. Year Up is a one-year, intensive training program that provides urban young adults, ages 18-24, with a combination of hands on skill development, college credits, and real work apprenticeships in the 21st century economy. The program has expanded to seven cities across the United States.