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Access Strategies Fund Appointed to Co-Chairperson of the Civic Engagement Initiative
Foundation Hires New Executive Director to Build the Civic Engagement of Massachusetts Communities
From City to State: Honoring Laura Younger
Photos from the Access Strategies Fund event to honor
Laura Younger
Access Strategies Fund Appointed to Co-Chairperson of the Civic Engagement Initiative
Kelly Bates, Executive Director of Access Strategies Fund was appointed Co-Chairperson of the funding collaborative of the Civic Engagement Initiative (CEI). Access Strategies Fund will share the leadership with the Boston Foundation, a long-time collaborator of Access Strategies Fund and the initiator of CEI.
The Civic Engagement Initiative was established in 2002 as a non-partisan effort to increase voter participation in Boston and Chelsea’s most disadvantaged communities. Since its inception, the CEI has funded community-based organizations to register, educate, and turnout voters as a vehicle for creating change on issues such as affordable housing, quality public education, job creation, and city services. Funded organizations have increased voter participation rates in almost every election in the last six years.
MassVOTE, a leading voter rights organization provides voter mobilization training and technical assistance to funded organizations. In addition to Access Strategies Fund and the Boston Foundation, the CEI is also funded by the Herman and Frieda L. Miller Foundation, Hyams Foundation, and New Community Fund.
Kelly Bates, Executive Director of Access Strategies Fund said: “We are pleased to work with all five funding partners, MassVOTE, and the funded organizations to strengthen the voting infrastructure of disenfranchised communities in Boston and Chelsea.”
Visit www.thecei.org for more information.
Foundation Hires New Executive Director
to Build the Civic Engagement of Massachusetts Communities
Access Strategies Fund has announced the hiring of its new executive director, Ms. Kelly Bates, Esq., after an extensive search. Ms. Bates, an attorney and well-known, Boston-based management and political consultant, joins the Fund after several years as head of a national consulting practice, and after serving in various executive positions with the Women’s State-Wide Legislative Network, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, and the Healthworks Foundation.
Founded in 1999, Access Strategies Fund is a philanthropic foundation dedicated to using the democratic process to improve the lives of disenfranchised communities in Massachusetts. To date, it has provided community based organizations with more than $2 million in grants to promote non-partisan voter mobilization, civic reform, and civic participation among people of color, immigrants and low-income residents. For close to ten years, Access Strategies Fund grant recipients have made sustained increases in voter turn out in communities throughout Boston.
Board Chairperson Maria Jobin-Leeds said, “Kelly Bates clearly has the passion, leadership and demonstrated success that we were looking for. Her background in law, politics, philanthropy, and organizational development is what we need to grow our organization’s work.”
Offering her vision for the future, Ms. Bates said: “As a foundation, Access Strategies Fund will double its efforts, double its dollars and multiply its impact by funding grassroots organizations that inspire people to speak, vote and improve their communities. We can overcome the hopelessness that makes so many powerless people sit on the sidelines during elections. We need these voices in our democracy.”
Ms. Bates was recently appointed Co-Chairperson of the Civic Engagement Initiative, a funding collaborative that has funded organizations that have made history in Boston and Chelsea by increasing voter participation rates of disenfranchised communities in almost every election in the last six years.
Ms. Bates was the chief lobbyist and organizer of a powerful lobby of women’s organizations that passed landmark anti-sexual harassment legislation in Massachusetts. A graduate of the Boston University School of Law (1994) and the State University of New York at Albany (1991), Ms. Bates is a member of the bar in Massachusetts. She and her husband Paul, an attorney specializing in labor law, have one son, and live in Roslindale, MA.
From City to State: Honoring Laura Younger
On
December 6, 2007 the Access Strategies Fund honored former board member Laura Younger at the historical
Omni Parker House Hotel for her many accomplishments as a leader. Laura
Younger has played a pivotal role in bringing the voices of the most disenfranchised
into the political process at both the city and state level. Laura Younger
is currently the Assistant Director of Appointments for Governor Deval Patrick.
Prior to her work in the administration, she worked for the City of Boston,
Department of Neighborhood Development as Assistant Director, Policy Development
and Research Division. Laura is a resident of Roxbury and an active participant
in her community. She was the founding director of Project Right, Inc.,
the Grove Hall anti-violence collaborative.
The Access Strategies Fund would like to express our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Laura Younger for her years of service as a member of the Board of Directors. We wish Laura much success within her new position in Governor Patrick’s Administration!
Photos from the Access Strategies Fund event to honor Laura Younger for her many contributions “From the City to the State” at the Omni Parker House December 6, 2007:
