Civic groups are hoping to get all of the diverse, spread out neighborhoods in Dorchester together for a night of socializing, entertainment, and community building.

MyDorchester Night, going on Thursday at the Codman Square Tech Center on Washington Street from 6 to 9 p.m., is a free event designed to build social networking and create a sense of togetherness across the urban residential neighborhood.

"One of our main goals is to bring people together from all of Dorchester's neighborhoods," said Jennifer Gerber, 23, of Weston, an Americorps volunteer involved in the event. "Having worked in the community, I've heard a lot about how people sometimes don't like to go into neighborhoods they're not from. We want to get all of the nine neighborhoods together in one place and get to know each other, breaking down the stereotypes."

The event is being put on by SCI Dorchester, a partnership between Social Capital Inc., a statewide community building organization, and DotWell, a nonprofit group providing clinical services in the neighborhood.

Part of the evening will feature four networking rooms, each with a different theme - expand, connect, share, and enjoy - and with its own focus, such as signing up volunteers for area nonprofits, or pointing out services offered in the city like Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Ella J. Baker House for at-risk youths. There will be a coffeehouse in the "enjoy" room, featuring poetry, dance, spoken word, and jazz music.

It's all about building "social capital," organizers say.

"Social capital is the idea that the more people in a community each person knows, and the more connected they are to local resources, the better off the community is," Gerber said. "Economic capital is not the only capital that really matters to make a community sustainable, vital, and a safe place for everyone."

Original Article
JOHN GUILFOIL

SCI Dorchester has added a new feature to MyDorchester.org: Organic Groups. Here's a description of this feature from Drupal.org: 

Organic groups enables users with permissions to create and manage their own groups. Community members often need to self organize or spontaneously organize around a topic of interest. Organic Groups allows community members to organize. Organazing is important part of a healthy community.
Each group can have subscribers, and maintains a group home page where subscribers communicate amongst themselves. Group members can do so by posting different contents.
Groups may be selective or not. Selective groups require approval in order to become a member, or even invitation -only groups. There are lots of preferences to configure groups as you need to suit your needs to organize around a topic of interest. (http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/og)

CLICK HERE TO START A GROUP!

CLICK HERE TO SEE EXISTING GROUPS!

Are you civically engaged?

Do you want to get involved, but don't know how?
Then, you should consider attending the first Boston Civic Summit.

The Boston Civic Summit is a first of its kind effort to assemble Boston area civic and community leaders from every neighborhood with the purpose of having an open discussion on how we can strengthen the vitality of the city life by promoting greater civic engagement and fostering dialogue between community groups. The event will be held the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center on Saturday, May 3rd from 8:15-3:45 pm .

THE PURPOSE
We can build a better city but only by working together. The foundation for this future is our diverse civil society groups and their leaders whose partnership with the city sustains and improves the quality of life in our communities. But increasingly, the ranks of these groups is thinning, growing older and operating in isolation from other organizations.

This summit will start a conversation on how we can strengthen the overall vitality of city life by promoting greater civic engagement and fostering dialogue between community groups. It will also provide current and prospective community leaders with tools, training and support to better exercise their important civic responsibility.

THE GOALS
1.To begin a conversation on city-wide strategies to improve and expand overall civic engagement and foster better cooperation and communication between communities and neighborhood organizations.
2.To provide current and prospective community leaders with tools, training and support to make their exercise of civic responsibility more effective for city residents.
There will be opportunities to build your social networks, learn and share best practices and find ways to get better involved in your community.
For more event information or to register visit www.bostoncivicsummit.org

Dorchester resident Keyna Samuel was honored by Social Capital Inc. (SCI) as a “Community Social Capitalist” for exemplary service to her community.  Ms. Samuel was joined by four other Community Social Capitalist winners at the Social Capitalist Luncheon, which drew over 200 business and community leaders to the Holiday Inn Beacon Hill.  Dain and Constance Perry of Charlestown were presented with the SCI Idealist Award at the event.    Keyna Samuel exemplifies the type of quiet community activist that is making a real difference in Dorchester, the community in which she lives and works. First, this single mother of three is active close to home in her children's parent-school associations.  As a long-time Dorchester resident, she is also treasurer of her local civic association.  This role builds on her staff position with the Codman Square NDC’s financial literacy initiatives.  Ms. Samuel is also a stand-out volunteer with the Boston EITC Coalition at the DotWell free tax sites. In addition to lending her strong financial skills and MPA credentials to the volunteer team and tax clients, she has leveraged her social capital to recruit other volunteers for the program.  "I told them it was a lot of fun and it was a lot of work as well. But volunteering really makes you feel good." She juggles all of this activism with parenting by “doing laundry between 9 p.m. and midnight." Others recognized as Community Social Capitalists were: 

• David Abromowitz, partner at Goulston & Storrs;
• Cathy Downs, Manager of the Boston Globe Foundation;
• Kevin Noyes, Community Reinvestment Officer, Danversbank;
• Jennifer Price, Principal of Newton North High School;

 “We were pleased to shine a spotlight on these very worthy individuals like Keyna Samuel who are making a difference in local communities,” commend SCI President David Crowley.  “Holding up such stellar examples of active citizenship is one way we encourage others to participate in their communities.” Ms. Samuel was nominated for the award by DotWell, which as a major event sponsor and serves as SCI’s lead partner in the Dorchester community.  DotWell is the partnership between Codman Square Health Center and Dorchester House Multi-Service Center.  The health centers founded DotWell in 1998 to provide state-of-the-art and enterprise wide mangement support for information Technology, including clinical applications and programs, research and evaluation, development, chronic disease prevention and public policy advocacy.  In recent years the health center partners have charged DotWell with cross-site coordination and management of non-clinical programs, including health education and outreach, Civic Health, Youth Services, Public Health, Wellness Services and most recently the Diabetes Initiative. SCI was founded in 2002, and opened its first expansion site in Dorchester in 2004.  SCI’s mission is to strengthen communities by uniting diverse individuals and groups through civic engagement initiatives.  Major funding for SCI Dorchester comes from the Boston Globe Foundation.  For more on SCI Dorchester and to connect with other Dorchester community resources, visit http://mydorchester.org.   

For a more freindly printing version see the press realease attached.