Boston Homelessness Ministries & Organizations

Boston Homelessness Ministries & Organizations

STARLIGHT MINISTRIES

Since 1990, Starlight Ministries has equipped individuals to build life-changing relationships with people affected by homelessness. Starlight trains individuals and groups in classroom settings as well as hands-on ministry venues. These opportunities provide the Church and those struggling with homelessness with effective tools for building communities where all can experience personal transformation through Jesus Christ.

Starlight develops church-community collaborations, so that each church community can find their unique contribution, and no one church is overburdened.

Boston Rescue Mission

39 Kingston House, Boston. Phone - (617) 338-9000

The Boston Rescue Mission continues to aid the homeless and poor of Greater Boston to self-sufficiency by assisting women and men in confronting and overcoming the root causes of their homelessness. To this end, the Mission provides basic life necessities such as food and shelter as well as social service programs. The goal is to provide the homeless and poor with the support, training, and resources necessary to sustain independent living for a lifetime. In addition to providing basic housing and meals, Boston Rescue Mission has a Residential Recovery Program, a Sober Living Program, an outpatient counseling center, Bible studies, and spiritual mentoring.

The Mission has many opportunities for individuals and small groups (2 to 6) of volunteers preparing and serving meals daily and on Sunday afternoons, doing maintenance, cleaning, laundry, office & computer work, manning the front desk, driving & pick-up with vans, and Saturday outreach (with food) and prayer on the Boston Common.

Home With Friends

Home With Friends is a collaborative Christian ministry which seeks to educate, encourage, and equip local churches to minister to families that are homeless by offering training, support

and mentoring opportunities. The three groups which collaborate with the Home With Friends program are Friends of the Homeless of the South Shore, Sanger Center for Compassion, and Starlight Ministries of Emmanuel Gospel Center. Lora Wooster and Sara Mitchell train and work with church teams of 8-12 people who develop a long-term (1-2 year) mentoring friendship with a family in transition, help with a rental subsidy, and offer the family their time, talents, encouragement and ongoing friendship.

If you or your church would like to get involved, call Lora Wooster at 617-939-3709 or Sara Mitchell at 617-262-4567.

Other organizations

Boston's Emergency Shelter Commission   

The Emergency Shelter Commission's mission is to coordinate the City's efforts to prevent and end homelessness and hunger through proactive planning, policy analysis, program development and advocacy with our city, state, federal and community partner agencies. The Commission's goal is to eradicate hunger and homelessness by seeking systemic solutions to these challenging socio-economic problems. The ESC coordinates a safety net of services and provides information and referral to homeless and hungry citizens in need.

Boston Health Care for the Homeless

This pioneering organization’s “mission is to provide or assure access to the highest quality health care for all homeless men, women and children in the greater Boston area. The integrated care model at BHCHP unites physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, case managers and behavioral health professionals in close collaboration. They follow patients in a variety of settings - on the streets, at the Barbara McInnis House, in our shelter-based clinics, in the hospitals and in housing - providing regular contact and uninterrupted care.”

Boston Public Health Commission

"The mission of the Boston Public Health Commission's Homeless Services Bureau is to improve the quality of life of Boston's homeless citizen's by providing emergency shelter, social services, and housing search services." - from the Homeless Services Bureau Mission Statement.  Directory of Emergency Shelters 

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Bridge offers a comprehensive range of services for youth ages 14 to 24 in a positive and safe environment. These programs for homeless, runaway, and high-risk youth include street outreach and the Mobile Medical Van, counseling, a drop in center, education, and some residential programs.

Massachusetts Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness

The mission of the ICHH is to provide the forum where new strategies in support of affordable housing development and to address the issues of homelessness among all populations are formulated. These new strategies will enhance the coordination and prioritization of housing resources and services of all types in support of vulnerable populations in the Commonwealth.

Pine Street Inn

Pine Street Inn provides a comprehensive range of services, including permanent supportive housing, job training and placement, emergency shelter and street outreach to more than 1,900 homeless men and women each day. The food services training program trains 100 men and women each year for jobs in the food services industry.

Rosie’s Place

889 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA

Rosie’s Place offers three meals a day, a food pantry, and emergency shelter for women. The advocacy staff assist with housing, educational and employment opportunities, clothing, wellness care, transportation and emergency funds for eviction prevention and medications. It is located at 02118.  Volunteers are welcome.

St. Francis House

39 Boylston Street / Boston, Massachusetts 02116

St. Francis House is a day shelter offering a variety of services for people who are homeless. It has many volunteer opportunities. In addition to a medical clinic and counseling services, St. Francis House offers the Moving Ahead Program (MAP) which is a 14-week job- and life-skills training program   The Next Step Housing Program in their building provides single-occupancy rooms for 56 single, low-income men and women.

Women’s Lunch Place

Located on the lower level of the Church of the Covenant at 67 Newbury Street, The Women’s Lunch Place is open from Monday through Saturday from 7:00am until 2:00pm. A continental style breakfast is available from 8:00am – 10:00am, and lunch is served restaurant style at 12:00pm.  In addition to meals, classes are offered on a variety of topics including literacy, computer skills, housing and legal issues, employment, financial literacy, nutrition, and stress reduction. Health care, counseling, clothing, and personal care items are available as well.

Ethiopian Churches in Greater Boston [map]

Ethiopian Churches in Greater Boston [map]

Map of Ethiopian Churches in Greater Boston. Data source: Emmanuel Gospel Center's Boston Church Directory, 2017. Click for interactive map.

Mekane Hiwot St. Michael Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Boston, MA

Ethiopian Evangelical Church, Boston, MA.

Boston Ethiopian Christian Fellowship, Cambridge, MA

St. Gabriel WelidetaLemariam Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Brookline, MA

Ethiopian Christians in Greater Boston: Diverse Journeys

Ethiopian Christians in Greater Boston: Diverse Journeys

by Steve Daman

Bostonians celebrate Ethiopians each year when runners sprint up Boylston Street to the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Ethiopians took first place in the men’s open four times in the last ten years. In 2016, Ethiopian men took the top three spots, and Ethiopian women took the top two spots in the men’s and women’s open, respectively.

Photo courtesy of the Associated Press, April 18, 2016.

But many Ethiopians in Boston have also been running another good race—that of keeping the faith. 

Boston is home to 9,000 to 12,000 Ethiopians. And like other immigrant groups, Ethiopians Christians have planted various expressions of Christian churches in and around Boston, serving the needs of Ethiopians here today. 

Map of Ethiopian churches in Greater Boston. Data Source: Emmanuel Gospel Center's Boston Church Directory, 2017. Click to go to interactive map.

Ethiopian Christianity Today

"[Ethiopia] has maintained its long Christian witness in a region of the world dominated by Islam. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church currently has a membership of around forty million and is rapidly growing,” according to a 2017 history of the Ethiopian Christian church. Western missionaries also planted Protestant churches among the Ethiopians starting as early as 1634.

Religion in Ethiopia

• Other/No Religion
• Orthodox
• Protestant
• Independent
• Catholic

• Other/No Religion
• Orthodox
• Protestant
• Independent
• Catholic

Ethiopia is 55% Christian: 34% Orthodox, 16% Protestant, 2% Independent, 0.5% Catholic. Data for Ethiopia from World Christian Database, 2017.

In Ethiopia today, more than half the population identify as Christian, including Orthodox, Protestants, Independents and Catholics. The Ethiopian churches in Greater Boston reflect this diversity, with about a half dozen each of evangelical and orthodox churches and one Catholic congregation.

Leader Profile

Workneh Tesfaye - pastor and church planter with Missions Door

Workneh Tesfaye grew up in a Coptic Orthodox family in Ethiopia. A graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, today Pastor Workneh is a Boston-based, church-planting missionary with Missions Door.

Back in 2008, a group of eight family members began to meet regularly every Sunday afternoon to pray for and raise support for orphans in Ethiopia. By 2011, as this group continued to grow, Pastor Workneh followed God’s direction to plant a new church out of this gathering—the Emmanuel Disciples Church—which continues to hold services in the EGC building in the South End.

Boston Ethiopian Christians 

The Ethiopian church in Boston is colorful, diverse, and rich with history, tradition, faith and service. The 2017 revision of “The Story of the Ethiopian Christian Community in New England” explores questions such as:

• What is life like for Ethiopian Christians in Boston?

• What are the biggest challenges they face in the U.S.?

• What are the areas of opportunity for ministry in this region?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Hundreds of biographical stories on Ethiopian Christians throughout history.

A comprehensive recent history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Stories of how God has been growing his Church among many people groups and ethnic groups in New England.

Take Action

Connect

Connect

 

How are we doing?

Understanding Dorchester: Overview + Resources

Understanding Dorchester: Overview + Resources

By Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher

Sometimes divided into North Dorchester and South Dorchester, this massive area of Boston includes many sub-neighborhoods, shown above. Grove Hall, Glover’s Corner, and St. Marks also are sometimes identified as sub-neighborhoods of Dorchester.

Dorchester is Boston’s largest and most populous neighborhood. In fact, Dorchester was a separate town from 1630 until 1870, when it voted to become a part of the city of Boston. If Dorchester’s population was separated from Boston, the community would be the fourth largest city in Massachusetts!

Dorchester reflects the diversity of Boston in its varied churches, people, business centers, buildings, and landscapes. The community has a long and rich history with many significant personalities, including activists Lucy Stone and William Munroe Trotter. Today Dorchester also has a rich mixture of diverse people groups ranging from Cape Verdeans to Hispanics and Vietnamese, as well as Irish, African Americans, and immigrants from the Caribbean.

Caleb McCoy, hip-hop artist and producer for OAK music group, was born and raised in Dorchester, MA. Caleb is also the development manager at EGC in the South End.

"Growing up in Codman Square has been a rich experience for me. So much of my story has been influenced by what this town has to offer. From the danger to the diversity, and everything in between, I take pride in being from Dorchester." - Caleb McCoy

Dorchester today: Top Ten Distinctives 

1. Size  

Dorchester has the largest population of any neighborhood in Boston – 124,489.

2. Immigration  

More than one third of Dorchester’s residents are foreign born (41, 685).

3. Higher Education  

Twenty-five percent of Dorchester residents aged 25 older had bachelor’s degrees or higher, compared with 45% of Boston residents.” This grew from 18% in 2000 to 25% in 2015.

4. Income 

The 2015 median household income for Dorchester was more than $12,000 lower than the Boston median income.

5. Housing  

Dorchester’s population is likely to experience future growth since 1,244 new housing units were approved in  2016 as a part of nearly two million square feet of new building development. Currently another 512 new housing units are approved or in the pipeline at the Boston Planning and Development Agency, including about 700,000 square feet of development in a dozen new projects.

6. Languages  

Dorchester residents speak a variety of languages at home:

• 16,918 residents speak Spanish

• 9,395 residents speak Vietnamese

• 4,045 residents speak Portuguese or Cape Verdean Creole

7. Children and Youth   

Dorchester has 15,841 children age 0 – 9 years and 16,428 young people age 10-19 years, which is significantly higher percentage of children and youth than that of Boston as a whole.

8. Poverty   

The poverty rate for Dorchester is about 23% compared with 21.5% for the city and 11.6% for the state.

9. Elders  

Dorchester has 11,879 residents 65 years and over, which reflects Boston as a whole.

10. Ethnic Diversity  

Dorchester is one of Boston’s more diverse neighborhoods with many Vietnamese, Cape Verdean, African American, Caribbean, White, and Hispanic residents.

Ethnic Makeup of Dorchester, MA

• Black / African American
• White
• Latino / Hispanic
• Asian
• Other Races

• Black / African American
• White
• Latino / Hispanic
• Asian
• Other Races

Population over 2012-2017. Source: Boston Planning and Development Agency, Boston in Context: Neighborhoods, January 2017, p. 12.

A BRIEF History of Dorchester

English Puritans  from Dorsett County in the West of England first settled Dorchester in June 1630. The organizer of this group, Rev. John White, and a number of the immigrants were from Dorchester, England.

In the early years these settlers built a church and school along with their homes. Two 17th century homes, the Blake House and the Pierce House, can still be visited in Dorchester.

The large area of the town developed as several village centers with farmlands in between and mills along the Neponset River. After the town agreed to be annexed by Boston in 1870, it experienced rapid growth with real estate developers and rail and streetcar lines proliferating. Triple-deckers housed the growing population, as churches, industries, businesses, and cultural activities grew and thrived.

The population peaked in the mid-twentieth century, and then went through several transitions as African Americans, Cape Verdeans, West Indians, Hispanics, Vietnamese and others moved in to replace earlier residents who had left for the suburbs.  Recently, new churches, businesses, and housing developments have taken root to serve the community.

Baker Chocolate Factory, Dorchester, MA. Photo by Mark N. Belanger, 2009.

Some Dorchester Firsts

• Oldest Congregation The First Parish Church of Dorchester is the oldest congregation in present day Boston.

• First Public School The Mather School, founded in 1639, was the first tax supported, free public elementary school in America.

• First Town Meeting  Dorchester held the first recorded town meeting in American history, on October 8, 1633.

• First Chocolate Dr. James Baker and Irish chocolatier, John Hannon began the first chocolate factory in America in 1764 in Lower Mills, Dorchester. The Baker Chocolate Factory became world famous.

Ashmont Station, Dorchester, MA.

Recommended Resources 

Dorchester TODAY

68 Blocks: Life, Death, Hope in Boston’s Most Troubled Neighborhood. Irons, Meghan E., Akilah Johnson, Maria Cramer, Jenna Russell, and Andrew Ryan.Boston: Boston Globe, 2013.

Reporters living in the neighborhood wrote a series of in-depth articles which were combined into the feature 68 Blocks. 

MyDorchester is an initiative to build civic engagement and social capital in Boston's largest and oldest neighborhood, Dorchester.

MyDorchester: Twitter / MyDorchester: Facebook

Books & Booklets on Dorchester today

Streets of Glory: Church and Community in a Black Urban Neighborhood by Omar McRoberts, 2003. McRoberts studied the relationship between churches and the community in the Four Corners area.

Mitchell, Rudy. Theresa Musante, and Elizabeth Spinney. Geneva-Bowdoin. Boston: Emmanuel Gospel Center, Youth Violence Systems Project, 2009.

Mitchell, Rudy, with Tamecia Jones. Uphams Corner. Boston: Emmanuel Gospel Center, Youth Violence Systems Project, 2008.

Dorchester HISTORY

www.dorchesteratheneum.org is an excellent collection of material on Dorchester history, including maps, pictures and articles.

 

BOOKS on Dorchester History

Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell. Dorchester. 2 vols. Images of America Series. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 1995, 2000.

The notable people, attractions, houses, churches, and other buildings of each section of Dorchester are covered in turn by this illustrated history using many old photographs.

The second volume has chapters covering the periods before and after Dorchester was annexed to Boston. These sections, like late 19th century county histories, focus on prominent citizens and their houses or businesses. This second volume also illustrates the history and various modes of transportation and the history of Carney Hospital. 

The two volumes give a good visual impression of selected aspects of Dorchester’s past history, but not a coherent and full narrative history of the neighborhood.

Taylor, Earl. Dorchester. Postcard History Series. Charleston, S. C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2005.

Edward Taylor’s Postcard History Series book on Dorchester, also by Arcadia Publishing, is basically the same type of illustrated history, but with a slightly different selection of pictures. 

Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell. Dorchester: A Compendium. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2011.

Unlike Sammarco's other three volumes on featuring historical photos with detailed descriptions, Dorchester: A Compendium is a collection of historical essays.

The first chapter traces the development of various parts of Dorchester while describing early leaders, buildings, and landowners.  Later chapters cover the many interesting men and women who have lived in Dorchester:

• Lucy Stone, abolitionist and women’s rights activist

• William Monroe Trotter, African American civil rights activist who helped found the Niagara Movement, a precursor to the NAACP

• Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, matriarch of the Kennedy family

• Edward Everett, famous orator

• Theodore White, historian, Pulitzer Prize winner

Sammarco's Dorchester: Then and Now, 2005.

The Then and Now books on Boston neighborhoods compare and contrast photographs of the same scenes and buildings in the past with more current ones. Different sections of this book feature schools, churches, and houses with their many changes.

In the case of Dorchester, many impressive houses and churches of the past have been lost over the years. Blayney Baptist Church, Baker Memorial Church, and Immanuel Baptist Church for example became parking lots. Fortunately, the stately buildings of the First and Second Churches of Dorchester still overlook Meeting House Hill and Codman Square respectively.

Dorchester is still home to many vibrant congregations even though many of them occupy more humble buildings today. To the probing mind, some of these pictures may raise the question, why did these churches grow, decline, and in some cases die?

Warner, Sam Bass, Jr. Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston (1870-1900). 2nd edition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978.

Streetcar Suburbs is a very insightful study of how the urban systems of transportation (streetcars) and housing interconnected in the rapid growth of Boston neighborhoods like Dorchester, Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.

This book is still relevant in Boston’s new wave of growth because transportation centered housing development is still important and because the book’s discussion of class divisions and inequality continue to be major issues in the city.

Orcutt, William Dana. Good Old Dorchester. A Narrative History of the Town, 1630-1893. Cambridge: John Wilson & Son, University Press, 1893. (Amazon.com)

Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society. History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts. Boston: Ebenezer Clapp, Jr., 1859.

What Did You Think?

Christ@Work: An Overview of Faith-Work Integration Ministries

Christ@Work: An Overview of Faith-Work Integration Ministries

By the ARC Team

What’s a Christ@Work Ministry?

Committed Christians want to live into their faith seven days a week, not just during Sunday worship or mid-week groups. Those committed to loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength acknowledge that we spend a majority of our weekly time and energy in our work life.

Christ@Work (C@W) ministries, also known as Faith at Work, Faith-Work Integration, or the more limiting term Marketplace Ministry, help Christians live out their faith through their work: in their workplace relationships, work ethic, and professional impact on the world.

By no means a comprehensive list, this birds-eye view should give you a glimpse of the scope of C@W ministries thriving nationwide today.

Overview of Christ@Work Ministries

1. Ministries to Bless the Christian Worker

Personal Ethics

Christians in skilled professions may face ethical dilemmas and professional challenges for which pastors without specialized knowledge aren’t equipped to offer counsel. These ministries offer literature or seminars on personal ethics. Speciality-specific convenings, such as medical ethics for Christian doctors, help Christians connect their faith to the specialized decisions they face.

Spiritual Care

Work life, like all aspects of life, can be a means of personal transformation and spiritual formation. These ministries offer counsel, chaplaincy, and coaching about spiritual development through work.

Spiritual Practices at Work

Some ministries offer materials or guidance for holding prayer meetings or Bible studies in the workplace. Such gatherings can provide workers otherwise unavailable for church groups opportunities for Christian formation. Such gatherings can also connect Christians in the workplace for mutual support.

Vocational Discernment

Christians with a robust theology of work can pursue the glory of God in anything from janitorial tasks to stock portfolio management. These ministries honor the dignity and theological meaning of the work itself, helping workers discern their gifts and calling, and align their career choices accordingly.

Christian Professional Networking

Skilled workers may find themselves the only Christian in their workplace. These ministries convene Christians in the same field for fellowship and peer support amidst professional or personal challenges to their faith.

2. Ministries to Bless Coworkers and the Company

Workplace Evangelism

What Christians often imagine when they first hear phrases such as Marketplace Ministry or Faith at Work, workplace evangelism-focused ministries help Christians have a positive relational impact on their colleagues. They support Christians working in secular settings to develop respectful and authentic relationships with their co-workers, to reflect God’s love, and to invite spiritual seekers in their sphere of influence towards a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. They may also hold workplace seminars or Bible studies as opportunities for spiritual conversation.

Corporate Ethics and Transformation

An unhealthy corporate culture not only makes life difficult for the employees, but it also undermines the long-term viability of the company. These ministries offer guidance for wisely challenging unhealthy corporate dynamics and taking practical initiative towards a lasting transformation of company values towards just, ethical, sustainable, and humanizing practices for the health of the organization.

3. Ministries To Bless the Community, Culture, and Planet

Professional Excellence Societies

To have a respected voice in the culture, those in artistic and creative professions may wish to hone excellence in their craft. These ministries promote Christian professional skill excellence to inspire and lead culture shift towards godly values, including the progress of their art to the glory of God.

Social Advocacy

Companies and organizations may have a just or unjust impact on human thriving and environmental sustainability, both locally and around the world. Christians are called to be faithful stewards of the earth and advocates for vulnerable populations. These ministries offer social impact analysis and promote social responsibility in company employment, vendor, environmental, and investment practices.

Mobilizing Professional Skill

Vulnerable populations may not have access to much needed but highly skilled services, such as dentistry. These ministries organize the donation of professional skill for under-served people.

Employment Facilitation

For some categories of people, significant barriers exist to securing employment. These ministries promote the God-given dignity of work for all by organizing Christians to offer job opportunities and entrepreneurship support for vulnerable populations, such as minorities, refugees, or those returning from incarceration.

 

WHAT DID YOU THINK?

Resource List for Reconciliation in Troubled Times

Resource List for Reconciliation in Troubled Times

Compiled by Megan Lietz and Dean Borgman

Prof. Dean Borgman mentioned these resources during his lecture – “Reconciliation in Troubled Times” – as one way that we might learn about how to respond to the division of our time. 

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

The New Jim Crow is a powerful and provocative book that explains how the racism associated with the Jim Crow era has not been removed, but redesigned and perpetuated through the social ill of mass incarceration. This is a must-read for understanding how systemic racism still has a profound impact on communities of color today.

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Jonathan Haidt (2012)

In The Righteous Mind, social scientist Jonathan Haidt argues that our moral, political, and religious positions come more from our “gut feelings” than reason. He considers the implications this has on how we interact with people of differing persuasions and offers perspectives that can help us learn how to cooperate across dividing lines,

Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice by Brenda Salter McNeil

Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil presents a roadmap describing the journey people go through when working towards biblical reconciliation. This book helps people better understand the journey they may be on and equip themselves to progress on to personal and social transformation.

Toxic Inequality: How America’s Wealth Gap Destroys Mobility, Deepens the Racial Divide & Threatens Our Future by Thomas M. Shapiro

Sociologist Thomas Shapiro explores how the historically high economic inequality our country is experiencing must be understood in light of racial inequality. Together, this combination creates “toxic inequality” that must be named, understood, and addressed together to create a more just society.

Preaching Politics: Proclaiming Jesus in an Age of Money, Power, and Partisanship by Clay Stauffer

How can you address the divisive issues of our time in a politically diverse congregation? Preaching politics talks about how issues that underlie our differences, such as our view of money, materialism, and power, impact faith and can be responded to through the teachings of Jesus.

Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation by Miraslav Volf

Croatian theologian, Miraslav Volf, addresses how we see “the other” in a negative light and calls us to move from a position of excluding those who are different from us to embracing them with the love of Jesus. He provides a theology of reconciliation that he believes, when lived, allows people to experience the healing power of the Gospel.

End of Life Care: Starter Resources

End of Life Care: Starter Resources

By Bethany Slack

Modern medical technology has changed the way we experience serious illness and dying. We have more treatment choices, but they sometimes lead to unnecessary suffering. And how does our faith impact how we want to experience death? No matter our age or stage of life, learning about end of life issues can benefit us and our loved ones.

Unsure of where to start? Here are some books and articles that address the changing landscape of dying, medical technology, decision-making, and faith.

How Modern Medicine impacts Aging and Death

Being Mortal: Medicine and what Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

Hailing from Newton, MA, Dr. Gawande teaches at Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health as well as practicing surgery. He offers a vision of how medical practice could prioritize quality of life throughout the lifespan.  

 

End of Life Decision-Making

The Town Where Everyone Talks Death reported by NPR, 3/5/14

This brief article provides a fascinating peek at what can happen when a community decides to get end of life discussions out in the open.

Aligning a Medical Treatment with God's Plan by Karen Kaplan for the L.A. Times, 3/18/2009

From a secular perspective, Ms. Kaplan explores how faith and spirituality affect end of life decision-making.

Honoring Choices Massachusetts

Ready to make a health care plan for you or a loved one? Honoring Choices MA provides information, tools, and legal forms to help you write down your treatment preferences. Having a written plan helps you get the medical treatment you prefer, from now until the end of life.

Perspectives from Christian Voices

When Prolonging Life Means Prolonging Suffering by Dr. Kathryn Butler for Christianity Today, 9/8/2016

Drawing from her experience as a trauma and critical care surgeon, Dr. Kathryn Butler shares her perspective on dying, medical technology, and faith in God. She asks us to reconsider some common viewpoints in light of Scripture. Dr. Butler resides north of Boston.

The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life to Come by Rob Moll

Rob Moll has worked as a journalist, hospice volunteer and with World Vision. Here, he reintroduces the Christian tradition of preparing for a “good death”. In this tradition death becomes a significant spiritual event for both individual and community.

Finishing Well to the Glory of God by Dr. John Dunlop

A specialist in geriatrics, Dr. Dunlop provides nine strategies for navigating the end of life. His strategies are based in both medical knowledge and Scripture. Dr. Dunlop also acknowledges and confronts the cultural limitations of writing as a white, middle-class Christian.

Take Action

Questions or comments on any of these resources?

Contact Bethany

Contact Bethany

Are you looking for information on a topic not addressed here?

Bethany Slack, MPH, MT, is the Public Health and Wellness research associate at EGC. Her passion is to see Jesus’ love translated into improved health and health justice for all, across the lifespan and across the globe.

Top 6 Books For Understanding The South End

Top 6 Books For Understanding The South End

by Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher, Applied Research and Consulting

The South End has undergone a dramatic transformation in this generation. Christian leaders in the South End can benefit from these recommended resources for foundational and ongoing learning about this dynamic community.

The books I've selected are not just informative — they also illustrate methods of researching a neighborhood or community. These methods include historical research, biographical research, the use of documents and photographs, interviews, and participant observation. The books also represent different time periods from the 1890s settlement house research to very recent studies. 

Once Upon a Neighborhood: A Timeline and Anecdotal History of the South End of Boston

by Alison Barnet

While Barnet’s history of the South End is not a continuous narrative, it is by far the most detailed study of the neighborhood. The book is arranged chronologically by year, with many years having multiple entries of a paragraph for each fact or anecdote. The history from the 1960s on is especially detailed since the author lived in the South End during that period. This work covers all types of businesses, publications, organizations, and churches. It does an excellent job of covering the rich diversity of groups and individuals which have lived in the South End. Some entries are associated with a founding date or initial activity, but also describe later developments up to the twentieth century. On the other hand anecdotes sometimes also review past history from the associated date. You can dive into this book at any point and find a fascinating mix of people, events and issues from a cross-section of neighborhood life.

Boston’s South End: The Clash of Ideas in a Historic Neighborhood 

by Russ Lopez

The South End is a complex neighborhood which has experienced many waves of change. This is the only full length book to narrate and interpret the overall history of this diverse community. Lopez notes some truth in the standard narrative of the neighborhood rising, declining, and gentrifying, but says the fuller story is more multifaceted and nuanced.  Since this has been a multi-racial, multi-ethnic neighborhood for over 125 years, it offers many lessons in conflict resolution and community organizing for other urban neighborhoods. The chapter on religion in the South End describes several major institutions, but fails to cover some of the largest Protestant churches. Although the book contains occasional factual errors, it is the most comprehensive history of the South End.  

A Block in Time: History of Boston's South End Through a Window on Holyoke Street

by Lynne Potts

See also by the same author, Faces of a Neighborhood: Boston’s South End in the Early Twenty-first Century.

Lynne Potts, a long term resident, writes with flair and adds a personal touch to her concise history of the South End. She also gives those interested in the research process glimpses of her own research methods including trips to archives and libraries as well as detailed first hand observations and interviews. Although the book includes enough general information to understand the neighborhood’s development and trends, its unique contribution is the author’s personal perspectives and experiences woven into the general narrative. The approach of studying a neighborhood beginning with an in-depth look at one typical block works well here because the people, events, and experiences described are representative of the larger neighborhood over the last several decades.

Boston’s South End

by Anthony Mitchell Sammarco

See also by the same author, Boston’s South End: Then and Now.

The Arcadia Images of America Series books are full of historical photos with detailed descriptions and introductions for each of the towns and neighborhoods covered. While these do not give full histories of the communities, they do help the casual reader absorb a visual sense of the history and learn many detailed facts. Photos are organized in chapters about churches, schools, hospitals, businesses, libraries, transportation and other institutions. Many of the photographs show buildings, but quite anumber also include groups of everyday people. By learning about the history of your neighborhood you can join with others interested in history, have common ground for conversations, and gain an understanding of community identity.

Legendary Locals of Boston's South End

by Hope J. Shannon

While a neighborhood like the South End has many historical buildings, its current and past residents are the most interesting and important aspect of what makes it a community. Hope Shannon presents short, illustrated biographies of women and men of the past and recent times who have made significant contributions to the community and wider world. Shannon selects famous, infamous, and everyday people from many walks of life for Legendary Locals. The biographies range from Alexander Graham Bell, Louisa May Alcott, Rev. A.J. Gordon, and Cardinal Richard Cushing to former Mayor James Michael Curley. People who have lived in the South End of Boston over the last several decades will enjoy reading about historical figures and familiar faces, while newer residents and future generations will benefit from the careful research behind all of these biographies.

The City Wilderness: A Settlement Study

by Robert A. Woods, (editor)

In the 1890s the South End House was established as a settlement house, and the residents and associates began living in and researching the neighborhood. This classic book was the result of that research. Although the language and views were shaped by the culture and ideas of that time period, the research opens a window into the lives of South Enders at the turn of the century. The topics covered include history, description of the population, public health, employment, politics, “criminal tendencies,” recreation, the church, education, social agencies and charitable organizations (including an analysis of their methods). The most fascinating elements of the book are three color coded maps indicating for each block, the types of buildings, the nationalities of residents, and the types of employment of the workers. The book can be accessed online at Google books.

Other more specialized books on the South End

South End Character: Speaking Out on Neighborhood Change

by Alison Barnet

While the book Legendary Locals of Boston's South End highlights South Enders who achieved some prominence or fame, in contrast South End Character gives us a window into the lives of the lesser known “old South Enders.” Barnet also contrasts the perspectives and lifestyles of long-time residents and wealthier newcomers. Many of the chapters are reflections and sketches of people and life in the 1960s and 1970s. These short essays originally appeared as columns in the South End News. The look backward is not just a nostalgic reminisce, but an examination of values and issues in a changing neighborhood. Alison Barnet has also written several other books including South End Incident: A True Story.

Faces of a Neighborhood: Boston’s South End in the Early Twenty-first Century

by Lynne Potts

In this second book on the South End, author Lynne Potts interviewed 24 diverse neighborhood residents. The interviews draw out insights on contemporary issues facing people living in the city today. The 24 South Enders included people from different age groups, economic groups, as well as people who were long-time residents and newcomers.

Boston’s South End

by Lauren Prescott

This annotated collection of South End related postcards covers the period from the late 19th century to the mid Twentieth century. This is not a complete history, but it does have extensive notes with its many pictures of South End churches, hospitals, charity organizations, and businesses. For example, the book gives details on Rev. Edgar J. Helms’ development of Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries, as well as historical notes on the Salvation Army, the Union Rescue Mission, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the YWCA, and the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (founded in the South End). Other chapters cover schools and education; hotels and recreation; and businesses and industry.

Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio

by Mario Luis Small

Villa Victoria has been a national model of community development. This study looks at the relationship of poverty and social capital, finding in Villa Victoria that poorer urban communities are not necessarily lacking in social capital.

Good Neighbors: Gentrifying Diversity in Boston's South End

by Sylvie Tissot, (translated by David Broder and Catherine Romatowski)

A French Marxist’s perspective on gentrification in the South End based on participant observation and interview research in neighborhood associations and networks.

Take Action

Volunteer or Intern

Volunteer or Intern With Applied Research

Jamaica Plain's Journey Through Time: History + Resources

Jamaica Plain Over Time: History + Resources

by Rudy Mitchell, Senior Researcher

From progressive education policies in the late 1600s, to the arrival of immigrants and industry in the 1800s, to the establishment of diverse housing projects and churches up to the present day, Jamaica Plain's colorful and action-filled past is worth exploring as part of Boston's unique history.

Some Jamaica Plain Firsts

THEATER  The Footlight Club of Jamaica Plain is the oldest community theater in the country.

ANIMAL WELFARE  In 1868 George Angell published the first magazine on the humane care and welfare of animals, “Our Dumb Animal Friends: We Speak for Those Who Cannot Speak for Themselves.” He was also the founder of the M.S.P.C.A. whose animal hospital is on South Huntington Avenue.

MEDICAL  On Oct. 16, 1846, Dr. John C. Warren, a Jamaica Plain resident, performed the first surgery publicly demonstrating the use of ether on a patient.

Historical Overview

Map of Jamaica Plain showing sub-neighborhoods. Boston Redevelopment Authority, Jamaica Plain District Profile…, Boston, 1979, 5

Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood was a part of the separate town of Roxbury from 1630 until 1851. An influential center of West Roxbury, the town was annexed in 1874 to the city of Boston. Early settlers, like William Curtis who built his house in 1639, were mostly farmers and fruit growers.

The Eliot School was established in 1676 with a grant of land from the Thomas and Ruggles families and later an endowment from Rev. John Eliot, Apostle to the Indians. The donors “stipulated that the school be open to all children, white, black, and Indian.” [1] The current Eliot School building dates to 1832.

The first church in Jamaica Plain, the Third Parish in Roxbury, was established in 1769. Rev. William Gordon, its first pastor, served as chaplain in the Provincial Congress in 1775. 

The Loring-Greenough House was built in 1760 for Joshua Loring, a British Naval Commodore and loyalist appointed to the governor’s council. In 1774 after opposition from his neighbors, Loring fled from his house to join with the British in Boston. The home was later used by Washington's troops as a hospital during the Revolutionary War.

[1] Eugene Green, Jamaica Plain. Boston 200 Neighborhood Series (Boston: Boston 200 Corp., 1976), 7.

Early Infrastructure: Water Supply & Transportation Systems

In 1796 after the Revolutionary War, the Jamaica Plain Aqueduct Company developed an important water supply system from Jamaica Pond to Fort Hill serving Boston’s water needs. The system used gravity flow from the pond through miles of wooden pipes. 

Transportation developments in the 19th century influenced the growth of Jamaica Plain. The Boston and Providence Railroad was constructed through Jamaica Plain in 1834 with a station at Green Street opening in 1841.

By the 1870s horse drawn street cars were serving the growing community, and later electric streetcars took their place. For more insights on the impact of these on neighborhood development see Sam Bass Warner’s book, Streetcar Suburbs.

Early Factories

Also during the late 19th century and early 20th century various factories and 24 breweries were built in Jamaica Plain, mostly in the Heath Street and Stoney Brook areas.

In 1876 the B. F. Sturtevant fan company expanded and moved to Jamaica Plain, and by 1901 it was employing 650 men and manufacturing many products.

The Thomas G. Plant Shoe Company had one of the world’s largest shoe factories on the site of the current Stop and Shop plaza from 1896 to 1976. In the 1920s the Moxie soft drink company developed a factory complex called Moxieland nearby at the site of today’s Bromley Heath Housing Project. In those days Moxie outsold CocaCola.

Iglesia Metodista “San Andres” (St. Andrew’s Methodist Church)

Immigration, Population Growth & Churches

Immigrant groups from Ireland, Germany, Latvia, and other countries contributed to neighborhood growth and provided workers for these industries. 

Several large churches and many smaller ones started up to serve the spiritual needs of the growing population. The German churches included the First German Baptist Church (now River of Life Church), the German Methodist Episcopal Church (now St. Andrew's Methodist), and the German Reformed Christ Church. Other churches started during the 1800s including St. John’s Episcopal (1841), Central Congregational (1853), Boylston Congregational Church (1879), First Baptist (1842), Blessed Sacrament Church (1891), and St. Thomas Aquinas Church (1869).

Jamaica Plan: Population vs. Year

• Population

• Population

Boston Redevelopment Authority Research Division, Historical Boston in Context: 1970-2000 Decennial Census, Boston: B.R.A., 2015. 2010 information from 2010 U.S. Census, STF 1, B.R.A. Research Division analysis. 1950 and 1960 data from B.R.A., Jamaica Plain Profile, 1988 (boundaries may vary from later boundaries). 2015 data from “Neighborhood Profiles,” August 2017.

Although the population of Jamaica Plain continued to grow during the first half of the 20th century, many of the factories and breweries experienced declines, fires, closures, or relocation. The elevated Orange Line tracks along Washington Street had a negative impact on nearby businesses and residences. The 1930s Depression and later redlining also had negative impacts on housing and housing construction in the community.

An important new development in housing took place with the opening of the Heath Street public housing in 1942 and the Bromley Park housing project in 1954. Although Bromley was opened with some fanfare and tours in 1954, it later developed a variety of problems. 

Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana was started in 1975.

By the 1960s and 1970s many Spanish speaking immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other places were moving into Jamaica Plain. These new residents started many small businesses along Centre Street and Washington Street. 

Spanish speakers also added vitality to the spiritual life of the neighborhood by starting many new churches, including Primera Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal (1969), Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal “Roca de Consolacion” (1969), Iglesia Metodista “San Andres” (1971), Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana (1975), and Iglesia Comunitaria de Boston (1988).

 While Jamaica Plain’s population was becoming more diverse during the 1960s and 1970s, it was also declining during that period.

Jamaica Plain IN RECENT DECADES: Current & Future Developments

J.P. Licks ice cream shop

In recent decades the elevated Orange Line was taken down. The scars left from demolition for the never-built Southwest Expressway were healed with the Southwest Corridor Park and new building development.

These physical changes along with other improvements have brought renewal in Jamaica Plain. Some older industrial buildings have been renovated, and newer businesses like J.P. Licks (ice cream shop and café) have made Centre Street an attractive and lively neighborhood center.

The future Jackson Square Recreation Center.

Recently, transit-oriented housing developments have sprung up around the Forest Hills MBTA train station. Hundreds of new residential units have been completed or are under way.

The JP/Rox Plan for the Washington Street and Columbus Avenue areas is likely to bring additional changes in the coming years. While Jamaica Plain continues to transition into the future, its beautiful green spaces will keep it true to its nickname as the “Eden of America.”

Map of Jamaica Plain, Boston Planning and Development Agency

Recommended Resources

Green, Eugene. Jamaica Plain. Boston 200 Neighborhood Series. Boston: Boston 200 Corporation, 1976.

This 24 page booklet weaves oral histories together along thematic lines and adds some early history of Jamaica Plain. Pictures and illustrations from many eras enhance the text.

When the interviews were made over 40 years ago, the protests to stop the Southwest Expressway were fresh in people’s minds. This and other issues of those days are brought to life in the oral histories recorded here.

Hirsch, Kathleen. A Home in the Heart of the City: A Woman’s Search for Community. New York: North Point Press, 1998.

Kathleen Hirsch's first-hand account of Jamaica Plain in the 1990s is well-written. The author writes about finding and building community in an urban neighborhood, as well as many perennial concerns like balancing career and parenting.

Although Hirsch encounters and writes about the diverse aspects of Jamaica Plain, her perspective is basically that of a professional from the Back Bay who is trying to connect with the everyday life of a gentrifying neighborhood. Some of her writing explores the spiritual dimension of community, at least in a general way.

She writes, “When I moved here, I didn’t expect that my quest for community would lead me to craftsmen, much less drug dealers or humble Xerox-shop managers, or that a world of Mondays would come to echo the wisdom of the Psalms” (86).

After getting a coffee on Sunday morning at Sorella’s café, she reflects on the meaning of Sabbath rest, “To be at rest is to observe the bones of God’s work through man in the world laid bare. To be at rest is to see with clarified vision. And this vision forces me to contemplate not what I am meant to do with my days in this place on earth, but what I am meant to be. To what, here and now, am I to be faithful” (79)?

Hoffman, Alexander von. Local Attachments: The Making of an Urban American Neighborhood, 1850-1920. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994.

No other book presents such a detailed historical and social analysis of any Boston neighborhood as Hoffman’s Local Attachments does for Jamaica Plain. The author concludes, “if ever we are going to cope with the problems of our cities, we need to understand better the historic neighborhood and how it functioned within the urban system of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries” (248). 

The book mines many primary sources including church records to develop a full picture of the social networks and civic spirit that composed a strong sense of local community and public culture in this neighborhood. Its historical perspective “traces the dramatic transformation of Jamaica Plain into a modern urban neighborhood” (xxii).

Hoffman explains and documents  how “the most important voluntary institutions in any late nineteenth-century American community, and especially in the historic land of the Puritan, were those connected with religion” (122).

While Jamaica Plain has continued to change significantly in the last twenty years, this book is still essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the neighborhood.

Von Hoffman, Alexander Carl. The Making of the Modern City: The Development of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, 1632-1920. Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1986.

Rogovin, Janice. A Sense of Place/ Tu Barrio: Jamaica Plain People and Where They Live. Translated by Yolanda Rivas. Boston: Mercantile Press, 1981.

The text (in English and Spanish) is by various JP residents, with editing and photos by Janice Rogovin.

Many of the stories bring to life the experiences of residents in the late 1970s up to 1981 as they reflected on community life, their homes, and being forced to move when new people bought the buildings they were living in. The book includes many photos and glimpses into the lives of families who were facing difficult times.

Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell. Jamaica Plain. Images of America Series. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 1997. Reissued in 2004.

Topics covered in the chapters of these books include churches, schools, natural features, community service organizations, transportation, early settlers and their estates and houses. Pictures of the early years of the Boston Children’s Museum illustrate the valuable educational role it played in the community.

At one time German groups, clubs, and churches served immigrants working in the neighborhood. Clubs such as the Jamaica Club and the Tuesday Club were once more prominent than today. Churches also sprouted up all over the neighborhood as the population grew. Other important institutions documented with pictures include hospitals such as the Faulkner Hospital and the Veteran’s Administration (VA) Hospital.

If you are curious about the history of the Loring-Greenough House or Curtis Hall or you wonder about the origins of Jamaica Plain names like Spring House and Peter Parley Road, these books will give you brief answers.

Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell. Jamaica Plain: Then & Now. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

The pictures in this volume often repeat the ones in Sammarco’s Images of America book on Jamaica Plain. However, as the title suggests, this work also pairs up old photos with modern photos of more or less the same view.

Whitcomb, Harriet Manning. Annals and Reminiscences of Jamaica Plain. Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, 1897. 64 pages.

Whitcomb shares many details of pioneering families and their homes in Jamaica Plain. In the process she connects the community to many historical events in Boston and America.

Hay, Ida. Science in the Pleasure Garden: A History of the Arnold Arboretum. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1995.

This well illustrated and comprehensive work details every aspect of the arboretum and its history. The book touches on both science and history in tracing the development of one of North America’s most important arboretums.

WEB SITES

Remember Jamaica Plain blog – http://rememberjamaicaplain.blogspot.com/

Jamaica Plain Historical Society – www.jphs.org

Self-Care Resources for Anti-Trafficking Leaders

A. LOCATIONS FOR RETREAT:

• List from Harvard Div School: https://hds.harvard.edu/life-at-hds/religious-and-spiritual-life/retreats-and-quiet-places

• St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer MA,

• Agape Community, Ware MA

• The Emery Guest House at SSJE, near Newburryport, MA

B. BOOKS ON BURNOUT PREVENTION AND SABBATH:

• Silent Compassion: Finding God in Contemplation, by Richard Rohr

• The Rest of God:Restoring your soul by restoring Sabbath, by Mark Buchanan

• Sabbath: finding rest, renewal and delight in our busy lives, by Wayne Muller

• Sabbath as resistance: saying no to a culture of now, by Walter Brueggemann

• Community and Growth: Jean Vanier

• Leading on Empty : Wayne Cordiero

• Trauma Stewardship: Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky

Resources For Churches about Anti-Human Trafficking

• International Justice Mission: ijm.org/churches

• Let my People Go Network: www.lmpgnetwork.org

• Greater Boston Prayer and Action Network: gbpan.wordpress.com

• Safe Church training: diomass.org/inside/learning/safe_church

• Safe Families Resources: http://www.safefamilies.org/

• Domestic Violence survivor support: Hagar’s Sisters: hagarssisters.org

• Domestic Violence Response Training: Safe Havens : interfaithpartners.org

• Response to Child Abuse in a Christian Context: www.netgrace.org

• Support for healing from sexual brokenness: Living Waters Ministry, Boston

• Sexual addiction, Men’s accountability groups: nathanproject.net

• Domestic Violence Abuser education, EMERGE: www.emergedv.com

• Confronting the Exploiters - by One Life Matters: onelifematters.org

• Fair Trade Products for Churches: Equal Exchange: shop.equalexchange.coop/organization-orders

• ENGAGE TOGETHER Church Toolkit

• Mentoring Toolkit - Elevate: taking your life to the next level By Rebecca Bender and Kathy Bryan

• Hands that Heal training - faastinternational.org/hands-that-heal

OTHER BOOKS/RESOURCES FOR LEADERS WE RECOMMEND:

• Anatomy of Peace - The Arbringer Institute

• Thanks for the Feedback - Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen

• Let Justice Roll Down - John Perkins

• Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott

• Small Victories - Anne Lamott

• The Irresistible Revolution - Shane Claiborne

• Unlikely - Kevin Palau

• When Helping Hurts - Steve Corbett

• Helping without Hurting - Steve Corbett

• Generous Justice - by Tim Keller

• Trauma and Recovery - Judith Hermon

• The Wounded Heart - Dan Allender

• Real Sex - Lauren Winner

Resources to Learn More About Human Trafficking

A. RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Remember to order through Amazon Smile and support an organization fighting human trafficking.

• The Just Church - Jim Martin

• The Diary of Jasmine Grace - Jasmine Grace Marino

• Girls Like Us - Rachel Lloyd

• The Slave Next Door - Kevin Bales

• Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecoside and the secret to saving the earth - Kevin Bales

• Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery - Siddharth Kara

• Not For Sale - David Batstone

• A Crime So Monstrous - Ben Skinner

• The Locust Effect - Gary Haugen

• The Good News about Injustice - Gary Haugen

• Half the Sky- Nicholas Kristof

• Justice Awakening: How you and your church can help end human trafficking - Eddie Byun

• The White Umbrella: walking with survivors of sex trafficking - Mary Frances Bowley

• Roadmap to Redemption, 10 week Workbook for survivors - Rebecca Bender

• Collaborating against human trafficking - Kirsten Foot

• The Essential Abolitionist: What you need to know about human trafficking and modern slavery - John Vanek

• Undaunted: Daring to do what God calls you to do - Christine Caine

• Unstoppable: Running the race you were born to win - Christine Caine

• Unashamed: Drop the baggage, pick up your freedom, fulfill your destiny- Christine Caine

B. RECOMMENDED DOCUMENTARIES:

• Sex+Money: A National Search for Human Worth

• Playground

• Very Young Girls

• Call and Response

• Fields of Mudan

• Nefarious: Merchant of Souls

• A path appears (Episode 1 features Boston, and MLMC)

• Voices of human trafficking 2017 (short video produced by EGC Films)

• I am Jane Doe

C. INFORMATIONAL WEBSITES:

• In My Backyard

• polarisproject.org (USA)

• Enditmovement.org (USA)

• mceht.org (MA state coalition)

• slaveryfootprint.org (labor trafficking)

• betterworldshopper.org (fair trade resources)

D. EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR SCHOOLS:

• Love 146 Not a Number Prevention Curriculum

• My Life My Choice Prevention Curriculum

• CAASE Chicago toolkits: The Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) provides comprehensive toolkits for teachers, writers, churches, students, doctors, etc who want to spread the word about human trafficking in their spheres.

• Learn2Impact social justice curriculum: Learn2Impact offers a free high school curriculum focused on social justice. The curriculum is planned out according to a semester long class schedule and includes units on human trafficking and fair labor.

• IJM Social Justice Curriculum for High School Students. International Justice Mission has created a complete curriculum for high school students dealing with social justice--particularly modern day slavery. Includes lesson plans, handouts, and homework assignments.

• Human Trafficking 101 for School Administrators and Staff Human Trafficking 101 Factsheets from the Blue Campaign with useful resources for trafficking awareness for schools.

• Human Trafficking Toolkit for High School Students and Educators A collection of downloadable resources about human trafficking to be used in a high school setting.

IV. Resources For Churches:

• International Justice Mission: ijm.org/churches

• Let my People Go Network: www.lmpgnetwork.org

• Greater Boston Prayer and Action Network: gbpan.wordpress.com

• Safe Church training: diomass.org/inside/learning/safe_church

• Safe Families Resources: http://www.safefamilies.org/

• Domestic Violence survivor support: Hagar’s Sisters: hagarssisters.org

• Domestic Violence Response Training: Safe Havens : interfaithpartners.org

• Response to Child Abuse in a Christian Context: www.netgrace.org

• Support for healing from sexual brokenness: Living Waters Ministry, Boston

• Sexual addiction, Men’s accountability groups: nathanproject.net

• Domestic Violence Abuser education, EMERGE: www.emergedv.com

• Confronting the Exploiters - by One Life Matters: onelifematters.org

• Fair Trade Products for Churches: Equal Exchange: shop.equalexchange.coop/organization-orders

• ENGAGE TOGETHER Church Toolkit

• Mentoring Toolkit - Elevate: taking your life to the next level By Rebecca Bender and Kathy Bryan

• Hands that Heal training - faastinternational.org/hands-that-heal

OTHER BOOKS/RESOURCES FOR LEADERS WE RECOMMEND:

• Anatomy of Peace - The Arbringer Institute

• Thanks for the Feedback - Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen

• Let Justice Roll Down - John Perkins

• Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott

• Small Victories - Anne Lamott

• The Irresistible Revolution - Shane Claiborne

• Unlikely - Kevin Palau

• When Helping Hurts - Steve Corbett

• Helping without Hurting - Steve Corbett

• Generous Justice - by Tim Keller

• Trauma and Recovery - Judith Hermon

• The Wounded Heart - Dan Allender

• Real Sex - Lauren Winner

Organizations Working Against Human Trafficking in the Boston Area

I. Who is involved in the Abolitionist Network?

A. Churches in the Abolitionist Network:

• City Church, Brighton MA (Has an Abnet cohort)

• City on a Hill Church, Allston MA

• Church of the Advent, Boston MA

• Church of the Cross, Brighton, MA (Seeking the welfare of the city)

• Christian Fellowship of Boston, Brazilian Church in Somerville MA (live2Love movement)

• Defenders Church, Dorchester Boston MA (rose of Sharon ministry)

• Emmanuel Baptist Church, Norfolk, MA (Sanctity of Life ministry)

• Love Alliance Church, Brockton, MA

• Regeneration Church, Exeter, NH

• Reunion Church, Boston and Somerville, MA

• South Shore Baptist Church, Hingham, MA

• The River South, Quincy, MA

• United Church of Christ Norwell, Norwell, MA (South Shore coalition)

B. Churches involved in the movement against Trafficking:

• South End Neighborhood Church

• CCFC, The Harbor, and The River (Unbound.org)

• Park Street Church

• Arlington Baptist Church (All Hands In) Arlington, MA

• Bethel AME (Bethel Institute for Social Justice: Shatter the Silence network) Boston MA

• Highrock North Shore, Salem, MA

• Emmaus City Church, Worcester, MA

• Reality Boston Church, South End Boston, MA

• Grace Chapel, Lexington/ Wilmington, MA

• St Stephens Episcopal Church, South End Boston, MA

• The Vineyard, Hopkington, MA

• The Vineyard, Saugus MA

• CCFC, Central Square Cambridge MA

• The Well Church, East Boston, MA

• Heart Change Fellowship, Boston MA

C. Christian Ministries in the greater Boston area addressing human trafficking:

• All Hands In - We are committed to making a difference in our community by providing educational awareness and events on the issue of human trafficking in addition to seeking opportunities to assist survivors of Human Trafficking.

• Amelia’s Light - Prevention education, community awareness and vocational support for our sisters in Uganda

• Amirah - Amirah (\a-meer-ah\) is a non-profit organization located in the Boston area dedicated to providing effective, whole person aftercare for survivors of commercial exploitation.

• Art Speak (Highrock North shore)

• Bags of Hope Ministries /Jasmine Grace, at EGC

• Bethany Christian Services of Southern New England

• BLOOM by Teen Challenge New England - short term residential housing for girls 12-18 in South-Eastern MA

• Gathering For Hope, Lexington and North Shore (Grace Chapel)

• Greater Boston Prayer and Action Network

• Live2Love Worship ministry (Christian Fellowship of Boston Church)

• Rose of Sharon Ministry (Defenders Church)

• Route One Ministry, at EGC - The vision of Route One is to minister to women exploited by the sex industry

• SOBO project (see the one be the one) in Quincy MA

• Shatter the Silence and the Shatter Project

• The Bakhita House - a safehouse for women over 18 coming out of sex trafficking or labor trafficking

• The Nathan Project : support for men recovering from sex and porn addiction

• The Well Coffee House, In South Station, Boston MA (The Well Church)

• The River South Center / Arojo Cafe

• Unbound

II. Who else is fighting Human Trafficking locally? (Abnet partners)

A. Coalitions/ Networks:

• Massachusetts Coalition to End Human Trafficking

• Connecting and Equipping MA to Prevent, Identify and End Human Trafficking!

• DEMAND Abolition This site focuses on the demand side of human trafficking and how to stop this cycle. The site includes important and helpful information on why this approach could be the answer to this major problem

• CEASE Network Boston A network working to lessen the harm inherent to the illegal sex industry by reducing the demand for paid sex. Through initiatives targeting sex buyers the CEASE Network will cut the illegal sex trade by 20%, in every city it operates in, within two years.

• Not on Our Watch: Lower Roxbury Coalition, Dumas.LaFontant@wshc.org

• MA Department of Public Health task force, led by Linda Brown. Quarterly gatherings, focusing especially on labor trafficking and public health

• The High Risk Youth Network Monthly meetings and “speakers series” to connect agencies, NGOs and community leaders working with “high risk youth” in Boston.

B. Labor Trafficking / Immigration activists:

• MA Interfaith Worker Justice We are a network of people of faith that calls upon our religious values in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the United States on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers, especially low-wage workers.

• MataHari: Eye of the Day This site will connect you with many different social issues that are faced on a daily basis such as “internalized and institutional racism, heterosexism, classism, xenophobia, partner and sexual violence and exploitation as it occurs within our communities of color, immigrant communities and within our social justice organizations”. They are seeking justice for the many people who are abused in our community today.

• MA coalition for Domestic Workers

• MIRA: The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. MIRA’s work encompasses policy and advocacy analysis, institutional organizing, training and leadership development, and communications.

• Boston Faith and Justice Network We believe you need to “Live gratefully, change our community, and Advocate” for the cause. Resources available such as the “Lazarus at the Gate” curriculum, looking at financial Stewardship, justice and generosity.

C. Academia / Research:

• Carr Center for Human Rights: programing on Human Trafficking through out the year

• Intercollegiate convention against modern slavery : network of Boston area schools coming together to end modern slavery

• Melissa Farley - Northeastern University

• Donna Hughes - University of RI

D. Aftercare for Youth:

• My Life My Choice - We empower youth to find their voice and create a positive life path: through Survivor mentoring, groups, advocacy, and community trainings.

• The SEEN Coalition - wrap around model for case management for CSEC girls

• BLOOM, by teen Challenge - short term residential housing for girls 12-18

E. System involved youth:

• Roxbury Youthworks - GIFT program

• Roxbury Youthworks - BUILD program, for boys and trans youth survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation

• Germaine Lawrence- Group home for high risk girls in Foster Care

• StreetSafe

F. Homeless youth:

• Home For Little Wanderers

• Bridge over Troubled Waters

• Y2Y shelter in Harvard Square

G. Aftercare for Adults:

• Housing and case management for survivors of human trafficking:

• RIA house Case management and survivor support groups for women over 18 who are coming out of commercial sexual exploitation

• The Eva Center Case management and housing for women over 18 who are coming out of commercial sexual exploitation. House has some capacity for women with children.

• Amirah whole-person, wrap around care and housing for women over 18, domestic, coming out of sex trafficking/ commercial sexual exploitation

• Procopio Consulting and Counseling : male survivors of commercial sexual exploitation

• Bethany Christian Services of Southern New England - case management for labor and sex trafficking

• MataHari:eye of the Day - case management for labor trafficking especially

H. Addiction recovery for adults:

• Place of Promise

• The Salvation Army

• Teen Challenge women’s home in RI

I. Domestic Violence/ Rape crisis support:

• Hagar Sisters

• Boston Area Rape Crisis Center

• Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence

J. Healthcare Resources:

• Mass General : Freedom Clinic

• Boston Medical Center Clinic for DV and human trafficking

• HEAL trafficking- National network of resources and trainings for healthcare providers on human trafficking

• Education For Health Care Services:

• Human Trafficking: Guidebook on Identification, Assessment, and Response in the Health Care Setting

• Article : responding to the needs of a human trafficking survivor

K. Law enforcement and Legal services:

• MA Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force (BPD)

• Federal law enforcement task force including the FBI and DHS

• Homeland Security Blue Campaign

• Peter DiMarzio hosts Quarterly victims assistance network meetings for New England

• Attorney General’s Office, Human Trafficking Prosecutors team

• Boston University Law School, Human Trafficking Clinic

• Family Justice Center - A location housing several non-profits and police units, under the same roof to foster collaboration

III. Learn more about human trafficking:  

A. Recommended Books

Remember to order through Amazon Smile and support an organization fighting human trafficking.

• The Just Church - Jim Martin

• The Diary of Jasmine Grace - Jasmine Grace Marino

• Girls Like Us - Rachel Lloyd

• The Slave Next Door - Kevin Bales

• Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecoside and the secret to saving the earth - Kevin Bales

• Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery - Siddharth Kara

• Not For Sale - David Batstone

• A Crime So Monstrous - Ben Skinner

• The Locust Effect - Gary Haugen

• The Good News about Injustice - Gary Haugen

• Half the Sky- Nicholas Kristof

• Justice Awakening: How you and your church can help end human trafficking - Eddie Byun

• The White Umbrella: walking with survivors of sex trafficking - Mary Frances Bowley

• Roadmap to Redemption, 10 week Workbook for survivors - Rebecca Bender

• Collaborating against human trafficking - Kirsten Foot

• The Essential Abolitionist: What you need to know about human trafficking and modern slavery - John Vanek

• Undaunted: Daring to do what God calls you to do - Christine Caine

• Unstoppable: Running the race you were born to win - Christine Caine

• Unashamed: Drop the baggage, pick up your freedom, fulfill your destiny- Christine Caine

B. Recommended Documentaries:

• Sex+Money: A National Search for Human Worth

• Playground

• Very Young Girls

• Call and Response

• Fields of Mudan

• Nefarious: Merchant of Souls

• A path appears (Episode 1 features Boston, and MLMC)

• Voices of human trafficking 2017 (short video produced by EGC Films)

• I am Jane Doe

C. Informational Websites:

• In My Backyard

• polarisproject.org (USA)

• Enditmovement.org (USA)

• mceht.org (MA state coalition)

• slaveryfootprint.org (labor trafficking)

• betterworldshopper.org (fair trade resources)

D. Educational Resources For Schools:

• Love 146 Not a Number Prevention Curriculum

• My Life My Choice Prevention Curriculum

• CAASE Chicago toolkits: The Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) provides comprehensive toolkits for teachers, writers, churches, students, doctors, etc who want to spread the word about human trafficking in their spheres.

• Learn2Impact social justice curriculum: Learn2Impact offers a free high school curriculum focused on social justice. The curriculum is planned out according to a semester long class schedule and includes units on human trafficking and fair labor.

• IJM Social Justice Curriculum for High School Students. International Justice Mission has created a complete curriculum for high school students dealing with social justice--particularly modern day slavery. Includes lesson plans, handouts, and homework assignments.

• Human Trafficking 101 for School Administrators and Staff Human Trafficking 101 Factsheets from the Blue Campaign with useful resources for trafficking awareness for schools.

• Human Trafficking Toolkit for High School Students and Educators A collection of downloadable resources about human trafficking to be used in a high school setting.

IV. Resources For Churches:

• International Justice Mission: ijm.org/churches

• Let my People Go Network: www.lmpgnetwork.org

• Greater Boston Prayer and Action Network: gbpan.wordpress.com

• Safe Church training: diomass.org/inside/learning/safe_church

• Safe Families Resources: http://www.safefamilies.org/

• Domestic Violence survivor support: Hagar’s Sisters: hagarssisters.org

• Domestic Violence Response Training: Safe Havens : interfaithpartners.org

• Response to Child Abuse in a Christian Context: www.netgrace.org

• Support for healing from sexual brokenness: Living Waters Ministry, Boston

• Sexual addiction, Men’s accountability groups: nathanproject.net

• Domestic Violence Abuser education, EMERGE: www.emergedv.com

• Confronting the Exploiters - by One Life Matters: onelifematters.org

• Fair Trade Products for Churches: Equal Exchange: shop.equalexchange.coop/organization-orders

• ENGAGE TOGETHER Church Toolkit

• Mentoring Toolkit - Elevate: taking your life to the next level By Rebecca Bender and Kathy Bryan

• Hands that Heal training - faastinternational.org/hands-that-heal

Other books/resources for leaders we recommend:

• Anatomy of Peace - The Arbringer Institute

• Thanks for the Feedback - Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen

• Let Justice Roll Down - John Perkins

• Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott

• Small Victories - Anne Lamott

• The Irresistible Revolution - Shane Claiborne

• Unlikely - Kevin Palau

• When Helping Hurts - Steve Corbett

• Helping without Hurting - Steve Corbett

• Generous Justice - by Tim Keller

• Trauma and Recovery - Judith Hermon

• The Wounded Heart - Dan Allender

• Real Sex - Lauren Winner

V. Self Care Resources for Leaders:

A. Locations for retreat:

• List from Harvard Div School: https://hds.harvard.edu/life-at-hds/religious-and-spiritual-life/retreats-and-quiet-places

• St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer MA,

• Agape Community, Ware MA

• The Emery Guest House at SSJE, near Newburryport, MA

B. Books on burnout prevention and sabbath:

• Silent Compassion: Finding God in Contemplation, by Richard Rohr

• The Rest of God:Restoring your soul by restoring Sabbath, by Mark Buchanan

• Sabbath: finding rest, renewal and delight in our busy lives, by Wayne Muller

• Sabbath as resistance: saying no to a culture of now, by Walter Brueggemann

• Community and Growth: Jean Vanier

• Leading on Empty : Wayne Cordiero

• Trauma Stewardship: Laura Van Dernoot Lipsky

Who else is fighting Human Trafficking locally?

Who else is fighting Human Trafficking locally? (Abnet partners)

A. COALITIONS/ NETWORKS:

• Massachusetts Coalition to End Human Trafficking

• Connecting and Equipping MA to Prevent, Identify and End Human Trafficking!

• DEMAND Abolition This site focuses on the demand side of human trafficking and how to stop this cycle. The site includes important and helpful information on why this approach could be the answer to this major problem

• CEASE Network Boston A network working to lessen the harm inherent to the illegal sex industry by reducing the demand for paid sex. Through initiatives targeting sex buyers the CEASE Network will cut the illegal sex trade by 20%, in every city it operates in, within two years.

• Not on Our Watch: Lower Roxbury Coalition, Dumas.LaFontant@wshc.org

• MA Department of Public Health task force, led by Linda Brown. Quarterly gatherings, focusing especially on labor trafficking and public health

• The High Risk Youth Network Monthly meetings and “speakers series” to connect agencies, NGOs and community leaders working with “high risk youth” in Boston.

B. LABOR TRAFFICKING / IMMIGRATION ACTIVISTS:

• MA Interfaith Worker Justice We are a network of people of faith that calls upon our religious values in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the United States on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers, especially low-wage workers.

• MataHari: Eye of the Day This site will connect you with many different social issues that are faced on a daily basis such as “internalized and institutional racism, heterosexism, classism, xenophobia, partner and sexual violence and exploitation as it occurs within our communities of color, immigrant communities and within our social justice organizations”. They are seeking justice for the many people who are abused in our community today.

• MA coalition for Domestic Workers

• MIRA: The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. MIRA’s work encompasses policy and advocacy analysis, institutional organizing, training and leadership development, and communications.

• Boston Faith and Justice Network We believe you need to “Live gratefully, change our community, and Advocate” for the cause. Resources available such as the “Lazarus at the Gate” curriculum, looking at financial Stewardship, justice and generosity.

C. ACADEMIA / RESEARCH:

• Carr Center for Human Rights: programing on Human Trafficking through out the year

• Intercollegiate convention against modern slavery : network of Boston area schools coming together to end modern slavery

• Melissa Farley - Northeastern University

• Donna Hughes - University of RI

D. AFTERCARE FOR YOUTH:

• My Life My Choice - We empower youth to find their voice and create a positive life path: through Survivor mentoring, groups, advocacy, and community trainings.

• The SEEN Coalition - wrap around model for case management for CSEC girls

• BLOOM, by teen Challenge - short term residential housing for girls 12-18

E. SYSTEM INVOLVED YOUTH:

• Roxbury Youthworks - GIFT program

• Roxbury Youthworks - BUILD program, for boys and trans youth survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation

• Germaine Lawrence- Group home for high risk girls in Foster Care

• StreetSafe

F. HOMELESS YOUTH:

• Home For Little Wanderers

• Bridge over Troubled Waters

• Y2Y shelter in Harvard Square

G. AFTERCARE FOR ADULTS:

• Housing and case management for survivors of human trafficking:

• RIA house Case management and survivor support groups for women over 18 who are coming out of commercial sexual exploitation

• The Eva Center Case management and housing for women over 18 who are coming out of commercial sexual exploitation. House has some capacity for women with children.

• Amirah whole-person, wrap around care and housing for women over 18, domestic, coming out of sex trafficking/ commercial sexual exploitation

• Procopio Consulting and Counseling : male survivors of commercial sexual exploitation

• Bethany Christian Services of Southern New England - case management for labor and sex trafficking

• MataHari:eye of the Day - case management for labor trafficking especially

H. ADDICTION RECOVERY FOR ADULTS:

• Place of Promise

• The Salvation Army

• Teen Challenge women’s home in RI

I. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE/ RAPE CRISIS SUPPORT:

• Hagar Sisters

• Boston Area Rape Crisis Center

• Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence

J. HEALTHCARE RESOURCES:

• Mass General : Freedom Clinic

• Boston Medical Center Clinic for DV and human trafficking

• HEAL trafficking- National network of resources and trainings for healthcare providers on human trafficking

• Education For Health Care Services:

• Human Trafficking: Guidebook on Identification, Assessment, and Response in the Health Care Setting

• Article : responding to the needs of a human trafficking survivor

K. LAW ENFORCEMENT AND LEGAL SERVICES:

• MA Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force (BPD)

• Federal law enforcement task force including the FBI and DHS

• Homeland Security Blue Campaign

• Peter DiMarzio hosts Quarterly victims assistance network meetings for New England

• Attorney General’s Office, Human Trafficking Prosecutors team

• Boston University Law School, Human Trafficking Clinic

• Family Justice Center - A location housing several non-profits and police units, under the same roof to foster collaboration

Christian Leadership Web Sites [Resource List]

Christian Leadership Web Sites [Resource List]

by Rudy Mitchell

CTPastors.com

Offers new resources for pastors and church leaders, and contains the 145 issue archive of Christianity Today's Leadership Journal.

Leadership Network

Seeks to foster innovation movements that activate THE CHURCH to greater impact for the Glory of God’s name. What began in 1984 with 20 leaders now serves over 200,000 leaders all over the world. 

Life and Leadership

Many resource guides and book reviews on Christian leadership, especially relating to the church. 

christian-leadership.org

The Christian Leadership website of Claybury International offers articles on Christian leadership. In addition, their free Christian Leadership Academy online courses examine what it means to be a Christian Leader modeled on the character and teaching of Jesus. This international ministry is based in England.

You May Also Like