The Chelsea Collaborative works to empower Chelsea residents and Chelsea organizations to enhance the social, environmental and economic health of the community and its people. The Collaborative carries out its mission through community organizing, technical assistance, program development and information dissemination

Description:
For close to 20 years, the Collaborative has worked with its member agencies, community groups and funding groups to achieve major accomplishments in the areas of citywide community organizing; immigrant workers’ rights; voter registration, education, and mobilization; environmental justice; and tenant’s rights.

Current projects of the Collaborative include:

 The Chelsea Latino Coalition mobilizes Chelsea Latino businesses, churches, youth agencies, public officials, police, and other community leaders to empower the entire Latino population, particularly youth, in Chelsea.
 The Summer Youth Employment Initiative was created to reduce and ultimately eliminate youth violence. This program hires youth during the summer months to keep them off the streets and teach them valuable employment skills.
 The RIOT (Ready Individuals Organizing Teens) Squad employs 7 teens year-round on community organizing projects to improve and increase civic participation and reduce youth violence.
 Chelsea United in Defense of Education promotes the participation of parents and students in all levels of the public school educational process.
 The Chelsea Voter Initiative works to educate the immigrant community about voting and participating in political processes.
 The Latino Immigrant Committee engages newly arriving immigrants and refugees in learning the political and governmental systems locally and nationally; in realizing educational opportunities; and in eliminating exploitation in the workplace. In the past year the Latino Immigrant Committee trained 650 workers on worker’s rights, health, and safety. One of our workers’ rights campaigns was taken up as a statewide model by Attorney General Martha Coakley.
 The Chelsea Citywide Tenants Association is a committee of residents living in low-income or public housing and/or support the effort to create more sustainable affordable housing in Chelsea.
 The Chelsea Community Fund provides grants to Chelsea neighborhood coalitions, organizations, and advocacy groups.
 Building Social Capital aims to create a model program of civic participation by holding 1000 conversations with a diverse, cross-section of Chelsea residents.
 The Green Space and Recreation Committee (Green Space) works to achieve environmental justice by engaging residents, environmentalists and health advocates in increasing and improving the amount and quality of open space; creating public access and educational opportunities along Chelsea Creek; planting trees; and reducing pollution-related health issues.

History:
In its 20 year history the Chelsea Collaborative has evolved from a collaborative of human services agencies into the premier civil rights, human empowerment, grassroots community organizing force in Chelsea, MA. Originally founded in 1988 as the Chelsea Human Services Collaborative, the agency was formed to implement a 5-Year Human Services Plan for Chelsea. The original format met the needs of the community at the time, but the community quickly began to change. As the city became more diverse, the Collaborative saw opportunities for growth and was frequently the only local organization willing to respond to new, often controversial community issues.

The Collaborative and the community of Chelsea have experienced substantial change since the agency’s inception. Twenty years ago Chelsea was a predominately white community with an influx of newly arriving non-white immigrants. The new immigrants were facing many of the same challenges the white immigrants had faced as their families settled in Chelsea in the early and mid-1900s. There was a need for an agency to act as an umbrella for a number of human service programs. Over time the community gained a Latino majority. The Collaborative, in response to some spcific needs, developed programs that were focused on community organizing, human rights, and social justice. These programs contain a very important leadership development component, empowering people to recognize injustice and advocate for themselves.

Over the years the Collaborative has developed projects to meet the current needs of the Chelsea community. As needs change, so do the projects of the Collaborative.

Contact people:

Roseann Bongiovanni, Associate Executive Director , (phone), (email) Gladys Vega, Executive Director, (phone), (email) Yessenia Alfaro, Project Director, (phone), (email)

Address:

300 Broadway Chelsea , MA 02150 (See a map)

Directions:

From Boston, take Route 1 North. Exit at Fourth Street in Chelsea. Broadway is second right. Collaborative one half block down on the right.   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: Chelsea Commuter Rail,   Walk distance (in minutes): 15   Nearest Bus Stop: Bus 111 from Haymarket , 5 minute walk For maps or information, please see http://www.mbta.com