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Metropolitan Interfaith Congregations Acting for
Hope (MICAH)
The organization is working
in the predominantly suburban towns and smaller cities
in the region between Boston and Worcester, about 20
miles west of Boston centered in Framingham, MA.
MICAH includes both middle
class congregations and two Catholic parishes that
have a majority of immigrant members from Latin
American Spanish speaking countries and from
Brazil. It works in the towns of Ashland,
Framingham, Sudbury, and Natick, and is expanding into
additional towns.
Organizing accomplishments
include:
Helping get a new health center sited in
Framingham, getting 4 towns to join and fund a
regional public transit authority, getting $100,000 in
state funds for youth prevention programs, doing
education outreach about the new health care law for
the uninsured.
Currently the organization
is working on health care, a forum on community
issues in a local election, affordable housing, and
the regional transit authority.
MICAH has a two person
staff.
MICAH is part of the Massachusetts Communities
Action Network (MCAN), affiliated also with the PICO
National Network
MCAN is a statewide federation
of six organizations including UIA and BIC. It
additionally includes affiliates named Essex County
Community Organization, Worcester Interfaith, and
Pioneer Valley Project. MCAN was founded in 1985,
MCAN is a growing statewide
federation building itself in the tradition of
PICO-California and LIFT in Louisiana within the PICO
Network.
MCAN provides on-going support to each
of the affiliated organizations through regulare
meetings with the Directors, organizers, and leaders.
We also provide support on fundraising, media, issue
research and strategy development.
MCAN helps coordinate statewide issues
that the affiliates like UIA, BIC, MICAH, etc. want to
work on together. These statewide issues have
produced some real results statewide and increased
resources for the local communities of these
organzations in recent years;
1. Youth violence prevention--Campaigns have
gotten $26 million in new state funding to communities
for teen prevention programs, summer jobs for teens,
and resources for law enforcement strategies on gangs.
2. Job Training--Campaigns have gotten $24
million in funding for job training programs operating
in cities around the state.
3. Health Care--We are part of the ACT
Coalition that led the organizing to pass
Massachusetts’s landmark health care law for the
uninsured and is working now on its implementation.
We have a website with some of
our activities and accomplishments at
www.mcan-oltc.org
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