The Power of Permanent Community Spaces

The Power of Permanent Community Spaces: TBF’s Commitment to Spatial Justice

By Orlando Watkins, Vice President and Chief Program Officer

A thread running through much of the work of the Boston Foundation is the concept of spatial justice—the equity-centered preservation of communal spaces that define and exemplify the character of Boston’s neighborhoods. Faced with the increasingly rapid loss of spaces that are welcoming and meaningful, especially to residents of color, we believe there is a critical need to proactively preserve these invaluable community assets.

TBF has made deep investments in the spaces occupied by a number of nonprofit institutions that play unique and important roles in our city—while also occupying highly valued and much-needed community spaces. Through these spaces, they are not only fulfilling their missions; they are driving community development, sparking civic engagement and promoting economic revitalization.

I like the way Lee Pelton, TBF’s President and CEO, thinks about our support of these spaces. He emphasizes that while they are financial commitments, they are also so much more. He has said to me: “These investments remind me of the root of the word ‘wealth.’ ‘Well-being’ and ‘wealth’ are etymologically related because their meaning is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “weal,” which included “well-being” in its definition. By supporting permanent community spaces, we are helping to increase community well-being in our Commonwealth.”

Below are four recent examples of TBF’s deep commitment to spatial justice.

A Home for The Base

TBF was there at the beginning a decade ago with seed funding for this model youth program and since then has invested more than $1 million in The Base. The organization serves some 1,200 urban youth ages 4-18 every year and provides academic and career services through age 25 and above. Grounded in a passion for sports, all Base programming is offered at no cost—and most of their scholar athletes live in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan and are Black and/or Latino.

Along with its year-round competitive sports programming, The Base also serves as one of the anchors for Roxbury's Nubian Square, fostering deep relationships with neighboring schools, businesses and nonprofits.

And so, when the space The Base occupies—which was designed specifically for its programming—suddenly came up for sale this spring it was clear that enabling the purchase of the building not only would secure The Base’s long-term future, but also contribute to the continuing transformation of Nubian Square into a vibrant economic and residential community.

In March of this year, TBF stepped up with grants totaling $100,000 toward down-payment costs associated with acquiring the building. To date, other donors have committed hundreds of thousands for the same purpose and The Base has secured the remaining financing through Eastern Bank and state tax-exempt bonds to ensure that this important organization will always have a home.

Franklin Cummings Tech’s New State-of-the-Art Campus

In addition to making grants, increasingly TBF is using impact investing as a vehicle for investing in community spaces. This year, we made an “impact first investment” of $1 million in the development and launch of Franklin Cummings Tech (FCT). The loan is supporting construction of a state-of-the-art campus in Roxbury’s Nubian Square, as well as the college’s first few years of operation. With this investment, TBF aims to strengthen a major institution that has prepared thousands of underrepresented students for postsecondary success and family sustaining careers. Of the students served by FCT, close to 75 percent are students of color and 46 percent are first-generation college students.

“As Franklin Cummings Tech looks to the future of our new campus in Nubian Square, we are grateful to have received a $1 million Program Related Investment (PRI) from the Boston Foundation to help us close the financing package that led to our groundbreaking,” says Dr. Aisha Francis, FCT’s President and CEO. “TBF’s commitment to advancing economic opportunity for marginalized communities will be well served by the expanded educational resources and transformative technical and trade education we will offer through our new space. TBF's support puts the wind at our back."

Supporters of the new Franklin Cummings Tech development, including TBF staff Soni Gupta, pose for a ceremonial groundbreaking photo, holding shovels at the construction site.

A sign lists names of the supporters of the new Franklin Cummings Tech development, including the Boston Foundation

A Literary Gathering Place for Dorchester

“This unique development structure is a model for ensuring the success and growth of diverse and inclusive small businesses that can shape the city of Boston,” - Words as Worlds co-founders Porsha Olayiwola, Boston’s Poet Laureate, and Bing Broderick.

In January, TBF made an unrestricted grant of $300,000 to support a new bookstore and community gathering place in Dorchester’s Fields Corner, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Boston. Called Words as Worlds, it occupies the first floor of DOT Crossing, a new mixed-use, transit-oriented development funded by the City of Boston and numerous partners. Words as Worlds was selected by a committee of local investors to be the retail space on the first floor of the building.

We believe that supporting Words as Worlds in its early stages is a critical investment at a time when community spaces are rapidly disappearing. As such, this unique space, which includes a bookstore and a place for community events and performances, will be a beacon for residents, artists and others who believe strongly in the power of reflection and creativity.

“This unique development structure is a model for ensuring the success and growth of diverse and inclusive small businesses that can shape the city of Boston,” say co-founders Porsha Olayiwola, Boston’s Poet Laureate, and Bing Broderick. We at TBF believe that Words as Worlds offers a blueprint for current and future generations as they aspire to own spaces that keep community connected and unified.

Roxbury Community College

Roxbury Community College, a longtime mainstay in Roxbury, recently received a TBF grant of $350,000 over three years to support the launch of its new Center for Economic and Social Justice. The program will be housed in the historic Dudley House on RCC’s campus, which the college has been rehabilitating and repurposing.

The Center will specialize in developing innovative programs to help prepare RCC students for jobs in the clean energy and green tech sectors—growth industries that need workers and are lacking a diverse workforce. It aims to support the surrounding community by training students in green jobs and working with low-income property owners on rehabilitation and adaptation.

Community engagement and service is central to the goal of the new Center and RCC plans to support its surrounding community by engaging students in its green jobs pathways. It will also expand the role of RCC as a convener and connector in a community undergoing tremendous economic change—one where BIPOC residents need a voice in planning for the future of their community.

Five TBF staff members pose for a selfie photo with the historic David Dudley House behind them at the groundbreaking ceremony for renovations of the building which will be home to RCC's Center for Economic and Social Justice

Through these and other nonprofit organizations that TBF has supported with grants and investments, we are proud to have played a role in preserving and building the spaces they inhabit. They are important hubs that create a multitude of opportunities, while simultaneously lifting people up and building and strengthening place-based power in the communities they serve.