Community Change Inc.

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The Work

Since 1968, Community Change Inc. has served as a community for white people and their multiracial allies to come together to learn about systemic racism and to fight against it. To dismantle the oppressive ties of whiteness that threatens all of us. While our programming has always had a learning component, we recognize that the urgency of the current environment being driven by increasing anti-Black, anti-semitic, and anti-LGBT hate crimes in addition to the hundreds of legislative efforts to roll back civil rights protections across the country, including New England, requires that we create programming that moves white people from learning to action.

While our programming has always had a learning component, we recognize that the urgency of the current environment being driven by increasing anti-Black, anti-semitic, and anti-LGBT hate crimes in addition to the hundreds of legislative efforts to roll back civil rights protections across the country, including New England, requires that we create programming that moves white people from learning to action.

Recognizing that new technologies allow for anti-racist learning to occur in far more locations than our traditional programming has been able to reach, CCI has moved into the role of a legacy organization supporting the work of emerging white anti-racist activists and groups organizing within the greater Boston area. These groups are official programs and affiliates of CCI that are working hands-on with people to dismantle institutionalized racism. We now call our core programming “The Work” as this is the work that is needed to create the changes that CCI founder Horace Seldon envisioned in 1968. All programs work under the guidance of CCI leadership and are accountable to CCI values and mission as well as making sure that whenever possible they are celebrating and following the leadership of Black and Non-Black People of Color and working together when feasible. While some of the emerging programs are run solely by CCI staff, others are run with CCI oversight but function autonomously in their day-to-day operations.

Our Programs

CCI employs 4 primary programs in our work to seed and nurture communities of change around New England.

The Watering Hole

The Watering Hole was started in 2019 as the predecessor to the former Brown Bag lunchtime gatherings that were started decades ago. Recognizing that in today’s world, a noontime lunch gathering no longer worked. We moved to a monthly afterwork Watering Hole gathering as a way to connect with the CCI community over current events and issues relevant to the movement. The Watering Hole was moved to Zoom in 2020 due to Covid and after hearing feedback from constituents, we have decided to continue Watering Hole as a virtual event to allow for greater accessibility for both our MA and ME communities.

It’s a great opportunity to build relationships with other activists and movement folks from around New England.

Anti-Racism Organizing in the Suburbs (AROS)

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Anti-Racist Organizing in the Suburbs! This project is rooted in the critical mass of suburban people who want to take collective action to dismantle white supremacy. The project’s goal is to help white people in the suburbs take action to dismantle white supremacy and participate in the larger struggle for collective liberation.

The initial AROS project was a joint collaboration with Winchester Multicultural Network. The objective was to co-host a convening to create a “network” to coordinate actions, activities and develop an infrastructure that supports racial justice work in that region.

Anti-Racism Organizing in Maine (AROM)

As the AROS project grew, so did the need to extend its impact beyond the boundaries of Massachusetts. Through some critical relationships developed in the state over the years, CCI began to bring the learnings of AROS to Maine in 2019. Since then AROS-Maine has transformed into a broader effort called Anti-Racism Organizing in Maine (AROM), a flexible and dynamic program to strengthen the liberation movement infrastructure in the state. Based in Southern Maine, CCI acts as a supporter, incubator, and convener of the grassroots liberation work in the state. A few of AROM’s projects include:

Resourcing local Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) chapters in the state
Grassroots De-Silo Project: monthly convening space for grassroots leaders to share needs + offerings, deepen connections, and co-create imaginings
Monthly Community Drop-In: brown bag lunch for connection + relationship building
Sponsoring quarterly Groundwater Institute racial equity trainings in the state
Supporting a local Broad Based Organizing initiative
Piloting a Community Justice Mapping Project with Bowdoin CollegeReach out to jake@communitychangeinc.org for interest in any of these initiatives

CCI Symposiums & Technical Assistance

Since 2018, CCI has held an annual symposium focused on the issues most pressing to movement work in the region. Our symposiums bring together long-time activists, and experts in the work. The goal of these annual convenings is to give participants cutting edge information and access to community support that they can immediately bring to their work and local communities.

Community Change Inc. is creating a template for how communities, specifically majority white suburban and rural communities can build relationships and infrastructure to fight back against the most pressing issues of our time.. For decades we have focused on building communities of white people committed to working on being anti-racist.
COVID forced us to move much of our organizing and community building online but the past few years have demonstrated that this work continues to be critical. We also learned through Covid how important accessibility is, as a result the annual symposiums have been held online since 2021, though we are looking at the possibility of a hybrid convening in the future.

Historically, CCI has served to support emerging movement projects in the greater Boston area, including being the founding organizational partner for the Boston chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), where we continue to support the chapter as a fiscal sponsor.

As a long standing organization with decades of experience, we are pleased to announce that in 2024, our board and staff decided to officially offer technical assistance to new and emerging grassroots projects in both the greater Boston area and Maine. For more details, contact shay@communitychangeinc.org.