(English translation below)

Mercado de Agricultores en Egleston

Ofreciendo alimentos saludables, cultivados localmente, para todos en jamaica plain y roxbury

Abierto los Sabados 10 am – 2 pm

Del primero de Junio al 12 de Octubre 2013

Y del 2 de Noviembe 2013 al 22 de Febrero 2014

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Hall 45 Brookside Ave (al lado del Brewery)

Detalles del Mercado:

• Carne fresca, pescado y queso • Comida artesanal y local • Productos agrícolas cultivados localmente • Eventos para toda la familia • Artistas de la comunidad de Boston • BOUNTY BUCKS – duplica el valor de tu tarjeta SNAP/EBT usando Bounty Bucks!*

*Un total de $10 Bounty Bucks por el uso de $10 EBT

ACEPTAMOS: WIC, SNAP/EBT y TARJETAS DE CREDITO

www.eglestonfarmersmarket.org

Egleston Farmers Market

Making local, healthy food available to everyone in Jamaica Plain & Roxbury

Saturdays 10 am – 2 pm

June 1 – October 12

November 2 – February 22, 2014

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Hall 45 Brookside Ave (next to the Brewery)

Market Features:

• neighborhood food makers • locally grown produce • meat, fish & cheese • local artists • family friendly events • BOUNTY BUCKS -DOUBLE YOUR SNAP/EBT SPEND AT THE MARKET WITH BOSTON’S BOUNTY BUCKS! *

WIC, SNAP/EBT & credit cards accepted

*UP TO $10BB FOR $10 EBT SPEND

www.eglestonfarmersmarket.org

A 350MA Boston Node Meeting: Getting Ready for Summer Heat!

July 16, 6:30 pm to 9pm

First Church in JP, Unitarian Universalist

Join the new 350MA Boston Node, a group of climate activists convening in Jamaica Plain on a monthly basis. We are developing campaigns to work on stopping the KXL Pipeline, urge divestment from fossil fuels in universities, churches and public institutions, promote clean energy in our city and state, protest natural gas fracking and more. All are welcome to join at anytime. Please come see what we’re about!

Our July meeting will focus on the 350.org and 350MA “Summer Heat” actions happening in July and August. There will be food, music and speakers. We’ll organize ourselves to get to these critical demonstrations and motivate our friends to join us.

Please bring a dish to share for the potluck.

(English translation below)

Queridos vecinos y amigos:

En nombre de JP NET, quiero invitarte a participar en una conversacion sobre como esta cambiando JP, demograficamente, culturalmente, economicamente. Cuentanos que significa este cambio para ti, para tus vecinos, y para JP.

Esta Reunion Vecinal es la segunda de una serie de reuniones bilingues que JP NET esta organizando para fortalecer y crear enlaces a traves de raza y clase. Durant la primera reunion – Mayo 16 en Bromley Hall – varios vecinos se contactaron con lideres locales y lideres de iniciativas de adaptacion de JP NET. La conversacion inspiro a una vecina a liderar una iniciativa en el tema de Salud de la Mujer.
Esta segunda Reunion Vecinal se llevara a cabo el Jueves 20 de Junio a las 6:30pm en Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth St., JP, a unas cuadras de la estación Stony Brook.

La reunion se conducira en ESPANOL & INGLES. Merienda y bebidas saludables serán servidas.

Espero verte,

Carlos

=============================================================================================
Dear neighbors and friends:

On behalf of JP NET, I’d like to invite you to participate in a conversation about how JP is changing, demographically, culturally and economically. Come tell us what this change means to you, to your neighbors and to JP.

This is the second of a series of bilingual meetings that JP NET is organizing to bridge across race and class. During the first meeting – May 16 at Bromley Hall – neighbors connected with local leaders and neighbors leading JP NET initiatives. The conversation inspired one neighbor to lead an effort addressing Women’s Health.

This second Neighborhood Meeting will be held on June 20 at 6:30pm at Sponteanous Celebrations, 45 Danforth St., JP, a few blocks from Stony Brook T Station.

The meeting will be conducted in SPANISH & ENGLISH. Healthy snacks and soft drinks will be served.

Hope to see you there,

Carlos

RSVP on Facebook
RSVP by Email

(En Espanol abajo)
JPNET & Bikes Not Bombs Present:

The success of bicycle-based businesses in Boston and beyond demonstrates that it is possible to create environmentally conscious jobs that employ local folks, enhance cardiovascular health, reduce carbon emissions and strengthen our relationships with our neighbors, streets, parks and landscape; in other words, create real wealth.

Would you like to learn more about the bicycle-based movement? Connect with movement leaders?

Come to our June Potluck on Jun 27 at 6:30pm at Nate Smith House in JP. A few blocks from Stony Brook T.

=============================

JPNET & Bikes Not Bombs presentan:

El exito de los negocios ciclistas en Boston y en el mundo demuestra que es posible crear trabajos ecologicos, que emplean gente local, mejoran la salud cardiovascular, reducen emisiones de dioxido de carbono y fortalecen nuestra relacion con nuestros vecinos, calles, parques y paisajes; en otras palabras, crean verdadera riqueza.

Quieres aprender mas sobre el movimiento ciclista? Quieres conectarte con sus lideres?

Ven a nuestra comida de traje este 27 de Junio a las 6:30pm en Nate Smith en JP. A unas cuadras de Stony Brook T.

To apply, please email info@jamaicaplainforum.org with the name of the internship in the subject line. Please include a resume and cover letter detailing relevant experience.

Requirements:
- Ability to work on a team of progressive thought leaders and change-makers
- Ability to commute to Jamaica Plain, MA office (5 min from Orange line Stony Brook Station), unless otherwise noted
- Passionate commitment to progressive issues, especially inequality, climate change, and the Transition to a just, sustainable, humane economy.

Strongly recommended:
- At least 2+ years of post-secondary (college) education or equivalent experience
- Ability to work some evening hours (5-9pm, 2-4 nights per month)
- Ability to work on Thursdays and/or Tuesdays a plus

Benefits/Perks:
- We are a small organization: get real-life, valuable work experience (we won’t ask you to get us coffee!)
- Work in a vibrant office with passionate, smart, dedicated people
- Participate in ongoing intern-development “brown bag lunch” discussion seminar series
- Modest living stipend & Transit benefits available with some internships

Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition (JP NET) – Community Organizing Intern
(Full Time)

JP NET, a neighborhood effort to create a local economy that works for everyone in harmony with the planet, seeks a community organizing intern to support local projects such as a “new economy” bike tour, development of Spanish-language potlucks highlighting the work of local entrepreneurs and community innovators, door knocking campaigns, community meetings, street art and murals, and much more.
Additional Requirements:
- familiarity working in cross-cultural environment
- Passion and understanding of sustainability, economic justice, and “new economy” themes of community resilience
- Spanish language a plus

Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition (JP NET) – Research Intern
(Full Time)

JP NET, a neighborhood effort to create a local economy that works for everyone in harmony with the planet, seeks a Research Intern to support the re-launch of the Boston Bean, a local currency pilot project. Work would include investigating how other local currencies have been implemented and writing up best-practice case studies of community currency projects in the US and Canada. Depending on progress made over the summer other research assignments into Food Forests, Curbside Compost pick-ups, and other visionary community level initiatives might be pursued.
Additional Requirements:
- Passion and understanding of sustainability, economic justice, and “new economy” themes of community resilience
- Ability to write concise memos summarizing research
- Confidence tracking down information on the Internet and getting on the phone for interviews when needed
- Self-starter and good team player

IPS – Policy Mapping Intern to support launch of regional pilot initiative
(Full Time)

IPS seeks a graduate level intern to help map policy initiatives in the New England region relevant to the New Economy, with a specific focus on trans-local and multi-state policies. The ideal intern has a background in urban planning, can work independently, and can help evaluate strengths and weaknesses of policies, and identify critical gaps that could support the burgeoning New Economy movement.

Additional Requirements:
- 1+ years graduate experience in a policy, planning, or government program
- Passion and understanding of sustainability, economic justice, and “new economy” themes of community resilience
- Ability to write concise memos summarizing research
- Confidence tracking down information on the Internet and getting on the phone for interviews when needed
- Self-starter and good team player

IPS is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women, people of color, LGBT people, and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
For more info: info@jamaicaplainforum.org

Click here for PDF version:
JPNET Community Organizer Job Description 

Overview

Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition (JP NET) brings together neighborhood residents to address the ongoing challenges of a hurting economy, climate change, and the rising costs of healthcare, food, and energy. JP NET aims to create a local economy that works for everyone in harmony with the planet.

JP NET is a project of the Institute for Policy Studies, based out of our New England office in Boston. (See below for more information about IPS.)

Position

JP NET seeks to hire a dynamic and creative organizer to engage a diverse set of communities within JP and promote the transition to a new economy. The Community Organizer will conduct outreach to Jamaica Plain residents, coordinate neighborhood events, supervise youth interns, liaise with community-based groups, connect with the full diversity of Jamaica Plain, mobilize JP NET participants and support leadership development for volunteer-led initiatives. This is a full-time, salaried position with benefits. The Community Organizer will work out of the Boston office and report to the New England NET Director.

Responsibilities

Community Engagement

• Organize monthly potlucks featuring local examples of New Economy Transition projects and entrepreneurs (e.g., past events featured Forest Hills Housing Cooperative, Red Sun Press -a union and cooperative printer in Jamaica Plain, Dorchester Food Community Co-Op, JP Green House, Egleston Community Orchard, Festival Garden, Bootstrap Compost, Plaza Meat Market, New Lands Farm in Worcester, MA, among many others).
• Organize monthly film screenings and discussions on New Economy Transition topics (e.g., previous film nights screened The Economics of Happiness, Gasland, Growth Busters, and Fixing the Future).
• Coordinate joint events with the Jamaica Plain Forum on New Economy Transition themes – bringing in big name speakers such as Annie Leonard and Bill McKibben, as well as featuring local leaders and activists.
• Participate in the core organizing team for the State of Our Neighborhood annual community forum, bringing together more than 250 neighbors and the JP elected representatives in state and city government for visioning discussions on the future of the neighborhood.
• Engage in additional activities such as flyering, door-knocking, blog posts, calendar updates, email newsletters, photos, website updates, other outreach, and general project support as needed.

Leadership Development

• Identify and engage community members as volunteers and partners through one-to-one meetings, supporting new volunteers in their efforts to build community resilience and catalyze new initiatives.
• Provide support and coaching to community residents who want to start new initiatives.
• Identify and inspire residents to take action and become involved in a variety of ways in JP NET and related efforts.

Partnership / Alliance Building

• Identify, build relationships, and liaise with existing neighborhood organizations and community-based group.
• Represent JP NET at neighborhood events and meetings and build partnerships as appropriate.

Program Development and New Initiatives

There is potential for growth in this position, involving greater engagement in the development, support, and management of new initiatives. New efforts include:

• Wealth Building and Enterprise Strategies: linking volunteer-led initiatives, entrepreneurs and seed funds to support development of sustainable livelihoods in the New Economy.
• Community Land Trust: cultivating neighborhood leaders who would join a coalition to create a land trust for urban agriculture, commercial space, and affordable residential units.
• JP Bike Tour and Youth Engagement: supporting a younger generation to engage with the New Economy Transition while raising awareness of the interconnections that already exist within the neighborhood.
• Boston Bean: Developing a local currency to support independent locally owned businesses in JP and throughout Boston.
• Neighborhood Transition Center: organizing cultural events and connecting local initiatives to a local New Economy neighborhood hub.
• Regional Hub: outreach to other community resilience efforts throughout New England, sharing lessons, and being part of regional leadership

Qualifications

The ideal applicant will have the following characteristics and experience:

• Passion for building community resilience and a proactive, solutions-oriented approach towards deepening ecological and economic challenges
• Familiarity with Jamaica Plain community and Boston organizations
• Minimum two years experience working as an organizer in diverse, urban communities
• Excellent interpersonal skills (one-on-one and in a group format), cultural competency, strong listening skills, patience, and humor
• Experience organizing successful events involving multiple constituencies
• Ability to work individually and as part of a team in a fast-paced work environment
• Bi-lingual Spanish/English fluency (spoken and written)
• Self-motivated, resourceful, and creative
• Strong follow-through and attention to detail
• Capacity to think strategically and analytically about social, economic, cultural, and political issues affecting a community
• Demonstrated capacity to inspire others to engage in community issues
• Strong collaborator, able to adapt quickly to changing situations
• Ability to work nights and weekends as needed
• Experience updating and maintaining websites, using databases, sending out electronic newsletters, creating flyers and utilizing social media
• Applicants should have a demonstrated passion for social justice

Compensation and Benefits

This is a full-time position that will begin in February 2013. Yearly compensation is $35-40,000, commensurate with experience. IPS offers excellent benefits, including generous vacation time, 403(b) plan upon hire, fully paid dependent health insurance, fully paid life insurance, fully paid long-term disability, optional short-term disability, and flex time.

To apply: Please send a cover letter, resume, and three references to Samantha Wechsler at jobsneips@gmail.com by January 15, 2013. Be sure to include “Organizer” in the email’s subject line. Qualified candidates will be contacted for an interview.

Please complete the IPS demographic survey at SurveyMonkey.com.

Click link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JPNETorganizer2013

IPS is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer and encourages applications from people of color, women, and other groups that have historically been subject to discrimination.

IPS is a community of public scholars and organizers linking peace, justice, and the environment in the U.S. and globally. We work with social movements to promote true democracy and challenge concentrated wealth, corporate influence, and military power.

As Washington’s first progressive multi-issue think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) has served as a policy and research resource for visionary social justice movements for over four decades — from the anti-war and civil rights movements in the 1960s to the peace and global justice movements of the last decade. Some of the greatest progressive minds of the 20th and 21st centuries have found a home at IPS, starting with the organization’s founders, Richard Barnet and Marcus Raskin. IPS scholars have included such luminaries as Arthur Waskow, Gar Alperovitz, Saul Landau, Bob Moses, Rita Mae Brown, Barbara Ehrenreich, Roger Wilkins and Orlando Letelier.

Come find out more about JP’s holiday experiment in local currency, the Boston Bean! RSVP on Facebook or RSVP by Email

This holiday season, support local businesses in JP - the first 100 people at this potluck will receive a $5 Boston Bean which can be spent at participating local businesses through the end of January 2013.
We will also hear more about how to support our local economy from:

• David Warner - City Feed owner and co-founder of JP BUY LOCAL, will share what we’ve done to date to promote independently owned local businesses in JP.
• Michael Kanter - co-owner of Cambridge Naturals (a fixture in Cambridge for 39 years), founding member of Cambridge Local First, and promoter of Slow Money, will share stories from across the river about what they are doing to promote a local economy.
• Dakota Butterfield - of Legalize Chickens fame, will introduce JP’s own experiment in local currency, the Boston Bean.

This holiday season, you can spend your Boston Bean at any participating local business in JP – participating businesses will have the JP BUY LOCAL logo in their window. You can also get a free $5 Boston Bean at the Egleston Square Holiday party on December 1st, First Thursday on December 6th, and the Holiday Stroll on December 8th.

Buy Local for the Holidays and spread the word!

Orion

New England Transition and Resilience Gathering
October 20, 2012
Boylston Congregational Church, 207 Amory Street (map)
Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA
Contact Sarah Byrnes for more info: sarah@localcircles.org

Join people from Transition and resilience efforts across New England for a day of learning, story-sharing, connecting, and organizing.

Thanks to the excellent work of activists and organizers across the region, New England is home to many thriving grassroots efforts to create economic and environmental justice by transitioning away from fossil fuels towards sustainable food, energy, and transportation systems.

How might we increase the effectiveness of our work by connecting with one another? Please join us as we consider this exciting possibility. You’ll have the chance to meet folks from across New England, share stories, think systemically about the region, and consider next steps. There will be plenty of opportunities for informal conversation and connection.

Together, we will:

• Hear stories and lessons from other Transition and resilience efforts, and share your own!
• Identify possible training needs your group may have, from group development to community organizing to small business planning. Dialogue with capacity-building trainers from NEGEF and the expanded team of certified Transition Trainers in the Northeast about what learning modules might be helpful for your initiative.
• Discuss how we might increase the resilience of our region as a whole in terms of food, energy, transportation, and more. Learn about regional planning that is already underway and consider how our efforts might link to such planning.
• Discuss how we might jointly benefit by creating a way to connect and communicate with one another going forward, and what shape that might take.

Travel stipends and some in-home hospitality are available for those making the trip. Please contact Sarah Byrnes for more information.

Please also join us for a potluck with members of the Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition on the evening before the gathering. We’ll hear stories from Transition Initiatives around New England. Please indicate in your RSVP if you plan to attend.

The second category of focus in the Better Future Project’s 2011 The State of the Movement report is sustainable food systems or the innovative ways that local residents in the New England region keep our production and consumption practices accountable to our communities.  From CSAs, community gardens, and farmers markets to restaurants that source local produce (e.g. Centre Street Café in Jamaica Plain), projects across the region are focused on re-centering food production and consumption at the local level.

Sourcing local-level knowledge is key.  Valuing cultural diversity is a core tenet in the Transition Town Movement, which aims to shift our communities away from our dependence on fossil fuels and towards community resilience.  But what is community?  Who is included?

Ask Nuestras Raices in Holyoke, MA and they’ll tell you that creating community means supporting immigrant populations in their transition to sustainable “agri-cultural” livelihoods in the U.S.  Nuestras Raices, founded by migrant farmers from Puerto Rico in 1992, rents small farm plots on La Finca/The Farm to mainly Puerto Rican immigrants so they can use their cultural cultivation techniques to live off the land like they did in their home communities.  They also provide small loans, training, and market assistance so farmers can graduate onto their own farms someday.

In Worcester, MA, at New Lands Farm, Lutheran Social Services launched a refugee farmer collective in 2008 after assisting many refugees who had agricultural backgrounds and asked to have a place where they could work on farming their own land.  New Lands Farm now provides refugees with individual and communal plots where they grow produce for their families and communities.  They also provide site-specific training so the refugees can learn about the local environment including: the seasons, native plants, pests, and seed sourcing.

To include the largely Somali-Bantu population of resettled refugees in the area, Cultivating Community, based in Portland, Maine and also active in Lewiston, provides farm plots and farmer trainings.  They also provide opportunities for the refugees to cultivate and sell produce at local farmers markets and work towards developing their own “farm-based enterprises.”

Valuing cultural diversity and including immigrants and refugees in sustainable livelihood development creates a richer, more stable food system that is relevant to all residents.  For more information on these programs and how you can be involved, check out:

Nuestras Raices, www.nuestras-raices.org

New Lands Farm, www.lssne.org/NewLandsFarm.aspx

Cultivating Community, www.cultivatingcommunity.org

Yard Sharing is a simple idea that is sweeping the country. It goes like this: many of us have yards but don’t have time to garden them. Others of us live in triple-deckers or apartment buildings and have no space to garden.

Enter Andree Zaleska of the JP Greenhouse who is making matches between gardeners and yard owners. Each transaction is individual, but the aim to is connect gardeners without yards, with homeowners who would like to volunteer their gardens to an urban grower, in exchange for a share of produce. If this sounds intriguing, fill in the form here at JP New Economy Transition, and we’ll try to make you a match!

Andree writes: “Four other families will be joining us in our garden this year, each taking a plot, and making JP Green House into a community garden. We range from ‘regular’ urban gardeners with hankerings for fresh tomatoes and strawberries, to a professional garden consultant experimenting with native pollinator plants, and an artist creating seed-sculptures. ”

Sign up  before June to participate: http://jptransition.org/jp-yard-sharing/

Andree says that many more Gardeners are wanted – there’s lots of unused land!

Here is what happens, Andree will suggest you get in touch with each other because you are nearby and share common interests, then you plan a visit at the site of the proposed garden, and discuss your needs and plans for the space. Consideration should be given to the following areas: Who provides? Is there a cost, and if so, who pays?

• Water
• Compost
• Mulch
• Fertilizer
• Tools
• Weeding, watering and general maintenance
• Soil Testing (you can send samples to UMASS, alternatively you could build raised beds with non-pressure treated lumber)

Whether or not money changes hands, or a deal is made about how much produce the landowner receives, it is good to lay out all expectations beforehand, and even draw up a contract for the arrangement. Here is a good article you might look at, to remind you what to consider in your arrangement: http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-share-vegetable-garden

If you have a really large yard and want to be part of an innovative farming start-up, then you should really reach out to Angela and Brian of Yardbirds (and on Facebook). They are working with urban clients with clean soil to plant out vegetables as part of a scattered-site urban CSA.

Keep track of these and other innovations with Transition Stories (our new blog on JPtransition.org, we will continue to cross-post these to JP  Patch too). And “like” Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition on Facebook to keep up with the conversation on all things Transition and find out about future events in JP (Movie Screening May 30th: Gasland).

Meanwhile, have you heard about natural bee keeping? Super cool: http://beenatural.wordpress.com/tag/bee-shelter/