Rep. Forry Kicks Off New Mattapan Breakfast Series

Feb

This week, Representative Linda Dorcena Forry hosted the first gathering in a new Mattapan Breakfast Series. The meeting took place at the Mattapan Family Service Center on River Street with a group of Mattapan residents, civic leaders, small business owners, property owners and stakeholders. The stated goal of this new series, according to Forry, is “to increase communication and collaboration amongst the organizations, businesses and community leaders throughout Mattapan.”

Rep. Forry was joined by her colleagues State Senator Jack Hart, State Rep. Russell Holmes, City Councilor Charles Yancey, and Councilor Rob Consalvo as well as staff from the office of Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz. They kicked off the meeting followed by presentations from Darryl Smith, Assistant Commissioner of the City’s Inspectional Service’s Mattapan Neighborhood Response Team (NRT), Mattapan Main Streets and ABCD Mattapan Family Service Center. Each presenter shared information on their current and upcoming work as well as on opportunities for local businesses and civic leaders to get involved. “As the Chair of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business on the state level, one of the key things I work on is ensuring that local businesses and communities throughout the state are simply aware of the resources already available to assist them. Strengthening those key connections and building relationships is similarly critical to advancing the agenda important to Mattapan.” After the presentations, the focus of the meeting turned towards the Mattapan Square business district and ideas to boost economic development in the area. Leaders particularly discussed the importance of improving the appearance of the square.

As the discussion progresed, several residents also noted the importance of communicating to the large portion of residents who are not already actively involved in the community. “In our community, most people don’t have a sense of what is going on. If we are going to advocate for ourselves, we need to involve residents of the community. How can we put our minds together to find a mechanism for broader communication to the 85% who are not involved? ” asked Barbara Fields, Co-President of the Woodhaven Culbert Civic Association. Rep. Forry responded by thanking her for her comment as expanding communication and collaboration is exactly the purpose of the new breakfast series and called on community leaders to help in the effort to build those lines of communication. Of the event, presenter Milly Arbaje-Thomas of the ABCD Mattapan Family Service Center said, “It was evident today that people are looking for a way to have a unified voice in Mattapan so that together we know what is going on in our community and how to become active agents of change. We are hopeful that Mattapan United can serve as a voice.” Nancy Rousseau of Mattapan Main Streets, who also presented, stated, “This was a great start to connecting the Mattapan community with Mattapan Square Main Streets. I am looking forward to collaborating with business owners, property owners and civic leaders as well as Mattapan United and other various stakeholders to advance Mattapan Square.”

The meeting concluded with a discussion on how best to institutionalize such collaborative efforts in the future. The next Mattapan Breakfast Series is scheduled for March 28, 2012. “There is so much incredible work going on in Mattapan,” Rep. Forry said of the event, “and it is important that everyone is aware of that work and communicating on the issues and challenges we face. They are not new. We need a comprehensive and cohesive plan to tackle some of these key issues that, in my view, will only be resolved through strengthening our strategic partnerships. I hope this breakfast series brings us one step closer towards that vision.”