Massachusetts Leadership Academy | Strengthening the Next Generation of Activists for Social Change

Value Based Messaging for the GLBT Community – Organizing for Change Event June 12

Based on his own personal and political experiences, Congressman Barney Frank will lead a discussion of the challenges–then and now–of developing messages that move people about GLBT issues. In the latest session in the Academy’s Organizing for Change series, Congressman Frank will be joined by representatives from the following co-sponsoring organizations: Mass...

From Freedom House to Present Day, Parents on the March: June 19

The Academy’s Organizing for Change series continues in June with a powerful presentation that will inspire and support today’s parents and organizers who are standing up for quality education in Boston. Join some of the local leaders who worked with Otto and Muriel Snowden, founders of the Freedom House in the 50′s and...

Do you have Real Clout?

There’s no secret for how to win the policy change you’re looking for, just a series of planning and organizing activities that add up to a campaign. Start by learning how the policy-making process works: the Real Clout textbook was written to serve as a how-to manual for community activists who,...

Videos – The Mel King and Frances Fox Piven sessions.

Here is the link to all the Academy Videos , including the both the Frances Fox Piven and the Mel King sessions. Or you can scroll down to look at some highlighted videos Many people have told us they are using these videos for training and inspiring new organizers in Boston,...

Consumers! Mind Health Care for All Please

Cost Control is on the Senate Agenda tomorrow and Thursday. The place will be crawling with “Special Interest Groups” like ours — meaning Health Care for All. They have done the research, they have found amendment sponsors, now they are asking us all to get to work and call our own Senators. So do...

House Vs. Senate Health Reform Plans: Let The Comparison Shopping Begin

Plain talk is what we civilians need here, and WBUR’s CommonHealth’s blog called Reform and Reality gets off to an excellent start with this entry. The Massachusetts House released its plan for cutting health costs on Friday. The Senate isreleasing its own plan today. And now begins the public “compare and contrast” period, the ingathering of input...

Senior Citizens Disrupt Massachusetts Legislative Session

Best Chant to be seen in a video embedded in this article by State House News Service was “Today we March Tomorrow We Vote!” While most of the media led their stories with the protest around rising fares and reduced services at the MBTA, the State House News gave a few more details including the...

Nearly 200 teenagers will lobby state lawmakers today

And they did!! Well, Erik Ariel Torres, from ABCD University High School said there were at least 60 of them. “There’s a real crisis with the levels of funding,” said Lew Finfer, an organizer for the Youth Jobs Coalition. “About 1,200 jobs are at stake.” in the Boston Herald on Wednsday the 25. “ Boston’s Thomas M. Menino and 20...

The EBT Debate – the Video

This 35 minute debate was preceded by hours and hours of negotiations between Legislators who filed amendments to severely restrict the use of EBT Cards by welfare recipients to prevent fraud and Legislators who were concerned that the proposed solutions were unenforceable and threatened small businesses and certain professional services — carefully itemized on a 16...

Budget Debate Process — Nobody said it was going to be easy.

It was a lousy process for fans of transparency who long for the time we had 10 full days (and nights) of televised debate one line item at a time. Never mind there were huddles of legislators in the corners of the Chamber or (gasp) behind closed doors developing arguments and and counting votes in relative...