Mayor's Office of New Bostonians and the Haiti Fund launch initiative to help immigrant-led organizations

On behalf of Mayor Martin J. Walsh, Felix G. Arroyo, Chief of Health and Human Services, today joined the Mayor’s Office of NewBostonians and the Haiti Fund at the Boston Foundation to launch the Capacity-Building Initiative (CBI). The initiative was created to strengthen and increase sustainability among nine under-funded, immigrant-led, not-for-profit organizations that provide critical services to the immigrant community. 

“These organizations work tirelessly on a daily-basis to provide educational, workforce and legal services to nearly 16,000 youth and families from diverse populations.” said Mayor Walsh. “It’s important that they are able to continue this work for years to come. As footholds in the communities they serve, they work across cultural groups to ensure that all immigrants are able to fully participate in the civic and economic life of their neighborhood.”

The initiative is funded through a public-private partnership between the City of Boston and the Boston Foundation and is designed to occur in two phases, the assessment and the implementation phase. The organizational assessment carried out by Navin Associates, along with the implementation activities, are designed to lay the groundwork for organizational change that will help these organizations to become high performing, sustainable and effective, while enabling them to develop partnerships and collaborations to achieve improved long-term outcomes for their diverse communities.

“Through this partnership we will be able to allow the organizations to pull through for the long haul and be able to do more,” said Pierre-André Noel, Director of the Haiti Fund at the Boston Foundation. “By strengthening immigrant organizations, the City of Boston and The Boston Foundation are making the whole city stronger.”

The nine organizations were selected due to their proven record of serving immigrant communities and the various organizational and funding challenges that they are facing. The participating organizations include A Better Tomorrow Services Inc., Brazilian Women’s Group, CVC Unido, Greater Boston Nazarene Compassionate Center, La Alianza Hispana, Somali Development Center, South Shore Haitians United for Progress, Vietnamese American Civic Association, Youth and Family Enrichment Services Inc.