Fair Housing Workshop

For Your Information:

The City of Fitchburg is sponsoring a Fair Housing Workshop on Monday, April 9th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the lower conference room of the North Street fire station (located at 33 North Street). The information session is for tenants - a meeting for landlords is planned at a later date. The workshop will be conducted by the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center. You can reach the center by calling 1-800-675-7309 if you have experienced illegal housing discrimination or if you have any questions regarding your rights.

March Meeting Minutes

No Place for Hate® (NPFH) Advisory Committee
Meeting Notes
March 15, 2007

Chairperson Yvette C. began the meeting at 6:15.P.M.

I. Diversify Board Membership: Mary M. mentioned some of the “protected class” categories (race, religion, marital status, disability, gender, etc.) that the committee might want to include in their membership. As a way to increase membership, the committee suggested using the Yellow Pages to develop a list of clubs and organizations to send meeting notices to. Staff will follow up on this and include other organizations on the mailing list. Haywood Hunter suggested asking the North Central Mass. Minority Coalition and other organizations to talk about the NPFH® Program at their regularly scheduled meetings.

Mary said the Neighborhood and You Coalition would like to attend the NPFH® meetings, but can not do it on the third Thursday of the month. The Advisory Committee said they are willing to meet on the fourth Thursday in April, which is April 26th.

II. Select the first of three Fitchburg NPFH® activities: Yvette Cooks suggested that the committee begin with a pot luck dinner. The committee said they would like it to be a community multicultural pot luck dinner. Mike A. said he will talk to his contact at Hotel Raymond to see if a dinner can be held there and Yvette C. said she will speak to her contact at the St. Joseph’s Club for the same reason. Matt D. suggested holding the activity on a Saturday in June, so it would be close to the Civic Days event planned in July. Members thought this was a good idea.

Mike A. said the Montachusett Opportunity Council can donate the necessary paper goods for the dinner. Mark G. said he will call everyone on the membership list and ask if he/she can bring food and a friend. (Mark will call people when a date and location have been selected.) Mark G. will contact the chairperson of the Pot Luck Committee, Vasco G., and fill him in on the plans. Mark will also contact businesses to see if they want to donate food. The committee would like to have the June Advisory Council meeting separate from the pot luck dinner. Matt D. said he will develop a flyer for distribution once the date, location, etc. have been approved by the committee. Mark G., Erica T., Mike A., Haywood H. and Yvette C. said they will help with the distribution of flyers for the pot luck dinner.

III. Subcommittee Membership: (If subcommittees want to meet on their own and report back at the full Advisory Committee meetings, they can do so.)

Erica T. said she would join Glenn F. on the Communications/Media Subcommittee. Glenn is the chairperson of this subcommittee. Erica has developed a NPFH® Web Blog (http://noplaceforhate.blogspot.com). Committee members were asked to review the Web Blog site before the April meeting. The committee needs to approve the format, contents, etc. of the Blog before it can be publicized to the general public. Once approved, it will be made a link to the City’s web page, and meeting notes and agendas will be placed on the Web Blog.

Mike B. said he would help Patrick M. on the Civic Days Subcommittee. Patrick M. is the Chairperson. Glenn F. previously agreed to sit on this subcommittee, also.

David T. previously agreed to sit on the Graffiti Subcommittee. This subcommittee needs a chairperson. This subcommittee will look at ways to eliminate graffiti, create murals and find legal places to do so. Mike B. said he will contact Jennifer J. at the School Department. She is in charge of the Arts Program. Mike will speak to her about possible themes for murals. Glenn F. said he will talk to Chief Cronin about the legalities associated with painting murals.

IV. Fitchburg State College: Jane C. could not make the meeting, so Mary M. reported on the discussion that took place with Fitchburg State College, the ADL, the Worcester Human Rights Commission and Holy Cross College.

(From the Notes):The Worcester NPFH® Committee was established a couple of years ago. Holy Cross College became involved shortly afterwards as a result of student interest. The college selects separate NPFH® activities from the City of Worcester, but works collaboratively with city representatives when it is appropriate to do so. Holy Cross College calls its anti-bias initiative, “Hate: Not Here!”. The college has placed this logo on flyers, posters, pins (in school colors), etc. as a way to get the word out. The “Hate:Not Here!” Program is part of Orientation for incoming freshman students and as part of Employee orientation. The school’s Department of MultiCultural Education spearheads this initiative, but all departments are involved, as well as the College President, upper level Administration, the Student Government Association and the Board of Trustees.

Holy Cross College had a Campus Kick-Off, developed marketing tools to get the word out about the “Hate:Not Here!” Program, promoted the initiative in their campus newsletter and on their website.

The City of Worcester’s NPFH® Campaign included developing a City Manager’s Community Task Force on Bias and Hate Crimes. The task force has worked on a public arts program, sponsored a Bias and Hate Crimes Training for the Worcester Police Department, worked with the public schools in developing a Poster Contest, held the 2nd Annual NPFH® Film Festival and displayed a billboard advertising the city’s NPFH® Program. (A billboard can be donated and run for 3mos.-6mos. )

V. Other Business: Patrick M. can report on the July Civic Days event at the April meeting. Patrick has reserved a booth for the NPFH® Committee. Suzanne B. can report on the Non-Profit Institute at the next meeting. Suzanne attended the Institute’s monthly meeting and spoke about Fitchburg’s NPFH® Program.

Glenn F. said the police department’s new show called, “Our City” airs tonight (3/15/07) at 8:30P.M. Glenn said he could talk about the city’s NPFH® Program on future programs.

Members said they would like Yvette C. to continue as the chairperson of the Advisory Committee. Mike A. has agreed to be the Vice Chair.

The next meeting of the Fitchburg NPFH® Advisory Committee will be held on Thursday, April 26th from 6:00P.M. to 7:30P.M. at Memorial Middle School Library.

Submitted by,


Mary M.HRC Staff Liaison

Save the Date - Next Meeting April 26th

The next meeting of the NPFH® Advisory Committee will be held on Thursday, April 26th from 6:00P.M. to 7:30P.M. in the Memorial Middle School Library. We'll be focusing on planning efforts for a community potluck dinner to be held later this spring/early summer. New members continue to be very welcome!

Reminder: Meeting Tonight

The second meeting of the Fitchburg No Place for Hate® committee will take place tonight (Thursday, March 15th) from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the library room of Memorial Middle School. The school is located at 615 Rollstone Street. Agenda is as follows:

I. Diversify board membership
II. Select the first of three Fitchburg NPFH® activities
III. Subcommittee membership
IV. Report by Fitchburg State College
V. Confirm blog and possible links, select Chair of Advisory Committee and Chair of Graffiti Subcommittee
VI. Other business

As mentioned previously, new members are strongly encouraged to attend. I hope to see many new and familiar faces tonight!

Article in Fitchburg Pride

This week's issue of Fitchburg Pride includes an article outlining our city's involvement with the No Place For Hate® program. Be sure to check it out!

To Readers From Other Communities...

For those of you reading this blog who do not live in Fitchburg or another New England city or town currently participating in the No Place For Hate® program, please consider getting involved! To learn more about NPFH® and how to start up the program in your community, you can contact Myriam Zuber, New England Project Director at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), at 617-406-6300.

Fitchburg's First NPFH Committee Meeting

Welcome to the newly-established blog for Fitchburg's participation in the No Place for Hate Program® (NPFH®)! I wanted to start by posting a re-cap of last night's meeting. Formal meeting minutes will follow in the coming days.

NPFH® is a nationwide effort created by the Anti-Defamation League to foster inclusive community environments. There are approximately sixty cities and towns in Massachusetts participating in the program, including Acton, Leominster, Lexington, Melrose, New Bedford, Northampton, Peabody, Watertown, Wellesley, and Worcester.

Yesterday's meeting was facilitated by Myriam Zuber of the Anti-Defamation League, who is the Project Director for the NPFH® program. Meeting attendees included city residents, a youth sports coach, several religious leaders, a city councilor, and representatives from the Human Rights Commission, the Fitchburg Police Department, Fitchburg State College, Neighborhoods and You, Cleghorn Neighborhood Center, and the Fitchburg School Board. (My apologies to anyone I inadvertently missed on this list...I hope that you will send me an email or post a comment if I failed to include you!)

Fitchburg has declared its intentions to participate in the NPFH® program, and the next step is to begin organizing community activities related to the theme of understanding diversity. The group reviewed existing NPFH® programming suggestions and brainstormed an array of events that would be appropriate to arrange in our city. The decision was made to focus on developing a partnership with the school system to encourage students to interview members of different cultures, a graffiti “paint out” program, diversity-related parade floats and activities in association with Fitchburg’s July Civic Days celebration, and a “pot-luck” ethnic food dinner. At the next meeting, it will be determined to which of these events initial planning priority will be directed.

In addition to discussing future events, the group spoke of the importance of cataloging existing activities within the city that fit within the principles of the NPFH® program. There was also talk regarding options for publicizing NPFH® and related activities. The value of establishing relationships with local media outlets, such as Fitchburg Pride and FATV, was highlighted by many at the meeting. Efforts will also be made to create other communication outlets, such as a newsletter and this blog.

Ultimately, last night’s meeting provided an outstanding glimpse of what our community can accomplish under the auspices of the NPFH® program. However, success is dependent upon the involvement of as many people as possible, and all present agreed that we would love to have additional members of the community attend future meetings. So to anyone out there reading this, I would strongly encourage you to join us at the next meeting, which has been scheduled for Thursday, March 15, at 6:00 p.m. in the library at Memorial Middle School (615 Rollstone Street). Feel free to send me an email (address available in my profile) if you have any questions. I hope to meet many more participants next month!

Anyone who is interested in learning more about the Fitchburg NPFH® program can contact Yvette Cooks at 978-345-8664 or Mary McCaffrey at 978-345-9565.