SCC News
Winter Member Meeting: Stand Up for Somerville
SCC held its Winter Member Meeting on Wednesday February 24th, at the HealeySchool in Somerville. There was great music to start off the night with dinner at 5:30, followed by the Member Meeting itself at 6:30. The centerpiece of the meeting was "mini information sessions" that provided opportunities for Members and others interested to learn about SCC's work. These sessions included information on Community Corridor (Green Line) Planning, Real Estate Development, Anti-Displacement Organizing, Jobs for Somerville Residents and Leadership Development and Financial Education. We also elected our Board of Directors and Officers for 2010, giving SCC six wonderful new board members - Cassie Arnaud, Regina Bertholdo, Katjana Ballantyne, Matthew Kardonsky, Josh Wairi, and Mulugeta Zegeye. Along with all the night's activities, we joyously gave our annual Hazel Hughes award to Yvette Verdieu, a SCC Board member for 6 years who personifies community leadership, both inside SCC and in the community at large. We also happily gave our annual Norris Weston award to Allison Driscoll, an attorney from Goodwin Proctor who has provided countless hours of pro bono legal service to SCC. Overall the night was a great success and it was wonderful to see so many people engaged in the various workshops offered!
First Session of LDI a Success
On February 27th, SCC launched the third annual Leadership Development Institute to strengthen relationships and skills among leaders in our community. This year's cohort includes 22 leaders who have fought for change in their workplaces, in their home countries and, of course, in Somerville. By convening a group with so much collective wisdom and experience to learn about power, relationship building and other fundamental aspects of leadership, SCC hopes to provide more and more members of our community with the capacity and support to make real change. This year's institute is unique in that, for the first time, it is completely bilingual in Spanish and English. Speakers of both languages will use interpretation equipment so that all participants can speak and listen in their native language. We look forward to building relationships across language, race, and class to promote strong leadership throughout our community.
First Time Homebuyers Class a Success
SCC's First-Time Homebuyer Seminar got off to a great start last week with SCC's conference room packed to capacity for the first two sessions of our four-part class. During the first session, residents of Somerville and surrounding communities had a lively discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of being homeowners. Later, a loan officer from a local credit union gave an informative and engaging talk on how best to navigate the mortgage process. For the second session, participants heard from a local real estate broker and Somerville-based home inspectors, and many asked questions about their particular circumstances. Next week, our prospective homebuyers will attend presentations by a real estate attorney and an insurance agent, and they will get important information from SCC staff on budgeting and credit. If you're interested in getting on our first-time homebuyer's class waitlist, please contact Matt Shuman at 617-776-5931 ext. 225.
Community Corridor Planning Updates
Cold winter days are good for two things: sipping hot tea and having productive meetings! The CCP Advisory Team met on February 3rd to help plan the work in front of us. Here’s what’s coming down the train tracks:
1. The on-line mapping tool—a place where people can go on line to swap ideas, post photos and videos that are linked to places on the Green Line Corridor Map—will be launched in March. We will be hosting workshops at the high school and at other community settings to teach people how to use the tool. Look for a schedule of workshops in the near future on our website.
2. PhotoVision: at the CCP Community Vision meeting at the Argenziano School last fall (October 28th), participants were asked to list “important places” along the Green Line Corridor. Since that meeting, a team of 23 volunteers took over 400 photos of these places. In February a jury made up of community members selected their top photos from this list that will be posted on the on-line mapping tool when it is launched in March. Stay tuned for details!
3. CCP will be hosting a series of planning “charettes” this spring, where residents will be asked to help design plans for the 7 new Green Line stations. The CCP Advisory Team and CCP partners will work closely with a planning facilitator to design these workshops.
4. In addition to station design, we will also begin hosting 3 working groups for interested Somerville residents to help turn the Corridor Principles into policy recommendations: 1. Affordability and Diversity; 2. Community and Economic Development, Local Jobs, and Local Businesses; and 3. The Green Environoment.
5. A team of 5 UEP students from Tufts will be doing their field project with us this spring to evaluate how effective our on line mapping tool is in engaging residents in community planning.
Please let us know if you are interested in being a part of any of the activities above! Contact: Meridith Levy