Your United Parish Core Team for our church’s work as a member of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization is today launching the monthly UP GBIO Newsletter. Many of you receiving this have helped GBIO in its campaigns for justice in many ways over the past few years, and we thank you for all you have done. Your contribution to the greater work of GBIO is invaluable and so meaningful during this time where our values seem to be under constant attack.
For those that don’t know us we are Connor Israel and David Rockwell and we serve as the two GBIO liaisons for the United Parish. We are starting this monthly newsletter to keep you all up to date regularly about what is happening with GBIO and how you can get involved.
Today there is an immediate thing you can do for public housing – contacting the Governor and other senior state officials by phone or e-mail to get them to keep their promise on funding badly needed repairs to some 43,000 units of state-owned public housing. See TAKE ACTION below.
And there are other ways to get involved and stay informed – see UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES below.
Please feel free to reach out to us at gbio@upbrookline.org if you’d like to meet and learn more about the work of GBIO and specific ways you can support our mission of building community power across the Boston region.
Best,
Connor I. and David R.
United Parish GBIO Liaisons
TAKE ACTION
E-mail or Call the Governor’s Office to Support Public Housing
After a successful Housing Justice Campaign, GBIO is organizing to ensure that the Governor and her key top officials make good on their promise to better support Massachusetts’ public housing tenants. Our key ask of them is to budget $200 million for badly needed capital improvements to public housing properties in the upcoming state capital budget.
Please do this right away!
Decisions are being made on the capital budget in the next three weeks.
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES
Organizing Power: Foundation for Justice – Sunday, April 27, 1:30-7:30 PM
Register here!
This is a training for leaders who want to organize their congregations, organizations, and communities to make change in a time of great uncertainty and increasing isolation. It is the last of four such trainings — two have occurred with great results, and the third is fully booked. Don’t miss this chance to learn about the power, and the tools to build it, that leaders can use to organize institutionally, locally and beyond for this moment and for generations to come.
Relational Get Together – Thursday, April 24, 7:00 PM
Register here!
Are you interested in connecting with another GBIO member from a different congregation? Join us on Thursday, April 24 on Zoom to do just that. During this call, you’ll be paired with another GBIO member for a one-on-one conversation about how you are living your faith and your values. This is a wonderful chance to meet a new friend and learn more about other faith traditions.
UPDATES
Returning Citizens
The GBIO Returning Citizens team, led by UP’s own Mark J., is gearing up for an active and impactful 2025. To that end, they held a Listening Session on March 15th (hosted in the United Parish parlor). Thirty-five justice-impacted persons, community service providers, and concerned people worked together to explore, debate, and prioritize action areas the GBIO Returning Citizens team could focus on in coming months. It was important, stimulating work.
If you are interested in getting more involved with returning citizens’ work, reach out to Mark.