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Images from/can be found on The Fairmount Indigo website.

Fairmount Indigo (FICC)

The Fairmount Indigo CDC Collaborative (FICC) is an organization that seeks racial, climate, and health equity and justice in our communities through increased affordable housing, excellent public transit, pathways to good jobs and financial resilience, sustainability innovations, expanded green space and opportunities for active living, and vibrant public places. To see these objectives through, they organize local residents and businesses and coordinate action with neighborhood partners, public agencies, and social investors.

The organization itself is made up of three Community Development Corporations (CDCS), one of which includes Dorchester Bay.

Their Story:

Fairmount Indigo CDC Collaborative (FICC) was founded in 2004 around a transit equity campaign to improve the Fairmount Line and the need to purchase vacant properties for sustainable, affordable development near the rail line. Most of FICC’s service area is considered an environmental justice community (as defined by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts). Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation (DBEDC) is a founding member of the FICC, an umbrella organization comprised of three community development corporations (CDCs) in the city of Boston whose communities are served by the MBTA’s Fairmount Commuter Rail Line. Of those CDCs, two of them are Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation and Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation.

Three staff members were hired by FICC, with DBEDC as the fiscal sponsor, to support the three-member CDCs in this work: Kendra Beaver (Climate Justice Coordinator), Felicia Richard, and Andrealis Martinez (Climate Justice Community Organizers). This initiative aims to bring climate justice and health equity to the Fairmount Corridor neighborhoods (and beyond!) through community organizing efforts and policy advocacy for specific legislative priorities.

Their Mission & Initiative:

The FICC organized work requires coordination with and across the three CDCs. They engage grassroots constituents concerned about environmental and health issues in their communities. Their broad-based efforts also help mobilize support for the new city and state legislation, policies and initiatives focused on climate justice, health equity, green space conservation, and green jobs. Organizers also work with residents to engage city and state officials and their staff, non-profit partners, and other key stakeholders to support resident-led efforts to create stronger communities by helping to build a strong community voice and create opportunities to exercise and engage that voice.

The goals of the FICC include the following: 

  1. Collective political power
  2. Economic and wealth-building opportunities
  3. Transit-oriented affordable housing development
  4. Sustainability, climate justice, and health equity
  5. Equitable public transit

Community Conversations Meetings:

Take a look at some of the photos from the Community Conversations sessions!

FICC held a series of meetings this past October and at the beginning of November called “Community Conversations.” The series aimed to discuss climate change and how it affects the environment, our health and well-being, as well as our wealth. Staff and other community members all came together to address the importance of climate change, recapping the learnings of the previous sessions, and providing information and resources about how you can take action with us moving forward. FICC usually holds monthly meetings addressing these same issues.

To learn more about the FICC and how climate change may affect you and your community, visit Fairmount Indigo for more information or contact Kendra Beaver directly.

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