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Dear Friends,
The DSNI Annual Meeting is here!
Come join us to celebrate our successes and to continue developing our vision for a Dudley Village Campus that will support all our young people and their families!
Wednesday, June 27, 6:30 pm at Saint Patrick's Church 400 Dudley Street Dinner for everyone!
Live music!
Childcare and translation are available!
Program Highlights include: - State of the Village
- Proposed changes to By-Laws regarding DSNI Board of Directors Composition
- Launch of the Dudley Village Campus Visioning Process
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| These Youth Won't be Taking the
Summer Off!
 | | Youth leaders engage in a team-building activity. |
This summer everyone at DSNI and many around the neighborhood are focused on realizing our shared vision for the Dudley Village Campus (DVC)-the community equivalent of a college campus. A place where the efforts of every organization and school, every business and informal child care provider, every event and activity is coordinated to promote the academic success of all the community's children and youth.
Thanks to the Boston Youth Fund, to date DSNI and the Dudley Neighbors Inc. land trust have been able to hire a total of 29 youthfor the summer-- 16 are part of our CommunityScapes program and 13 will work as Community Organizers.
The youth will be divided into 4 teams that will build different aspects of the DVC. The People Team will plan for the annual MultiCultural Festival and find ways to tell the "cultural story" of the DVC. The Education Team will promote early literacy and welcome families to the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School. The Environment Team will develop raised bed gardens and beautify the DVC. The Land Team will landscape and beautify the land trust properties.
Save the date! The DSNI Multicultural Festival will be held onSaturday, August 11th at Mary Hannon Park, Dudley Street, Dorchester.
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Dudley Parent Leaders Thrive!
 | | Parent leaders Fabienne Eliacin, Rosa Galvao and Towanna Ransom. |
When Dudley Children Thrive (DCT) hosted a crowd of children and parents at its Family Fun Fair on May 19, it was a trio of committed parent leaders keeping things on schedule and greeting people at the door: Fabienne Eliacin, Rosa Galvao and Towanna Ransom.
Ultimately, Dudley Children Thrive is focused on helping children get ready to thrive in school. But in order for children to become the best they can be, parents need to have opportunities to develop themselves and connect to people and resources in their community. That's the idea behind the Leadership Development program of Thrive in 5 and Boston Parent Organizing Network (BPON) in which Fabienne, Rosa and Towanna participated. The Family Fun Fair was the culmination of their project for the program and they demonstrated what they learned, visualizing, planning and coordinating all the resources needed to make the event possible.
The event was packed with fun activities, carefully selected by the planners to carry healthy messages. Body by Brandi was in the house to teach children about moving their bodies, kids could "touch-a-truck" while firefighters from the Boston Fire Department taught them about fire safety, the Boston Children's Museum involved children in an interactive show about the benefits of drinking water, and healthy snacks were provided courtesy of The Food Project and the Boston Public Health Commission. Overall, the event was a great success-a win-win for these three developing leaders and for all the young children of our community.
The next DCT Round Table will meet on Mon, June 18th from 6:00 - 8:00.
 | | Boston firefighter teaches children about fire safety. |
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About DSNI
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative is a resident-led, community change collaborative in the Dudley area of the Roxbury and North Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston.
Our mission is to empower Dudley residents to organize, plan for, create, and control a vibrant, diverse, and high-quality neighborhood in collaboration with community partners.
DSNI Leads Boston Promise Initiative
As the lead agency for the Boston Promise Initiative, DSNI is working to align the efforts and resources of families, community and faith-based organizations, schools and universities, businesses, government agencies, and private funders to create a Dudley Village Campus--a community that supports students as whole people, preparing them to attain excellent educations. Currently we are making use of a Promise Neighborhoods planning grant and working to prepare our application for a large implementation grant.
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Jobs For the People, By the People In an effort to share what DSNI and organizer Travis Watson learned while working to maximize resident, minority and female participation during the construction of the Kroc Community Center,we recently published For The People, By The People. The booklet summarizes best practices from the very successful Kroc effort which can be utilized to ensure significant numbers of residents, women and minorities work on future projects in the city. For copies or more information please contact Travis at 617.442.9670 x180 or TWatson@dsni.org. Looking forward, we have begun working with Community Labor United and SEIU Local 615 on a Good Jobs Campaign. In the early stages of the Campaign we are helping to convene other advocacy groups to come up with a common platform about what constitutes a good job. We expect to be addressing working conditions as well as pay.
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 | Valdy Goncalves
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Meet Youth Coordinator Valdy Goncalves
The summer youth will be overseen by our new Summer Youth Coordinator and GOTCHA Coordinator, Valduvino "Valdy" Goncalves. Valdy grew up in the Dudley Street neighborhood and graduated from Northeastern this past May with a major in Human Services. During college he was the President of the Cape Verdean Student Association, a college counselor, and worked for DSNI's CommunityScapes. He will be going to graduate school in the fall to prepare to be Guidance Counselor in the Boston Public Schools.
Welcome Valdy!
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