Does it seem to you as if we have more hotter days in the summer than we used to? Is Morrissey Boulevard underwater more frequently when high tides and coastal storms coincide? Is air quality poorer, and are incidents of asthma higher than in years past?

If you answered yes to the foregoing questions, you’re onto something. Climate change is a critical and sensitive threat, and it is happening, affecting all of us. In fact, it is affecting low-income communities of color more than other communities, and the consequences are increasingly dire.

For these reasons, the Fairmount Indigo CDC Collaborative, comprised of Dorchester Bay, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, and Southwest Boston CDC, are working together thanks to a generous grant from the Kresge Foundation to strengthen local advocacy capacity to influence legislation at the state and local levels that will help improve the environment in our communities.

We have spent the past year putting together an action plan to engage our communities around key issues and key pieces of legislation that, when implemented, will make a real difference in quality of life and health outcomes not just in the future, but in the here and now. In the months to come, you’ll be hearing more about our work and how you can help improve the health of our communities and the quality of life for all Bostonians.

This and other vital work in which Dorchester Bay is engaged wouldn’t be possible without generous philanthropic support. The Kresge Foundation is one of many foundations and corporate supporters who understand the importance of lifting up communities and driving equity forward.

You’ll note in the story below that Dorchester Bay has received generous funding from several such organizations. This funding, whether it be to support our small business programming, our efforts to reduce food insecurity, or our re-entry work to support returning citizens, underscores the extent to which we are all in this together.

Many hands make for lighter work, and we’ll need all of those helping hands to strengthen our community and – no exaggeration – help to save the planet.

Thank you for your support of Dorchester Bay!
 
Very truly yours,