Transportation for Massachusetts is pleased to award grants to twelve organizations around the Commonwealth working to improve mobility for underserved populations. Thank you to the Barr Foundation for their ongoing support! This is the fourth grant cycle for Transportation Justice grantmaking. More information is available at t4ma.org/tj_rfp.

Grants have been awarded to...

• Action for Equity
• Bikes Not Bombs
• Coalition for Social Justice
• Community Economic Development Center
• Greater Four Corners Action Coalition
• GreenRoots
• Groundwork Lawrence
• Institute for Human Centered Design
• Mattapan Food & Fitness Coalition
• The Bike Connector
• The Welcome Project

More information about each grant follows.

• Action for Equity, Dorchester. The grant will support the work of an organizer to rebuild and maintain a dynamic A4E Transit Committee and speak to the needs of riders within environmental justice communities as well as support for educational community events. Action will work to educate and organize local riders to support electrification of the Fairmount/Indigo Line.
• Bikes Not Bombs, Jamaica Plain. The grant will support four priorities: organizing for transportation equity by engaging in public discourse to gauge community needs around equitable mobility; launching a new BNB Roxbury Bike Shop and Bike School in partnership with Children’s Services of Roxbury; providing over 10 free community bike repair events; Ride for Black Lives, partnering with Coalition for Black Lives to run 7 community rides in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
• Coalition for Social Justice, New Bedford. The grant will support continued work with statewide members and partners to move away from farebox based funding and move towards viewing transportation as a service, which will allow for lower/free fares for those who need it most. CSJ will host community engagement events and conduct bus stop outreach.
• Community Economic Development Center, New Bedford. The grant will support CEDC to mobilize bus riders in the SRTA area to provide meaningful input as direct stakeholders in efforts to improve SRTA service in New Bedford. CEDC will engage riders at bus stops to collect data about service needs and to invite bus riders to public meetings, while working to mitigate language barrier challenges.
• Greater Four Corners Action Coalition, Dorchester. The grant will support GFCAC in continuing their Connected Communities Campaign, which works to increase ridership of Fairmount Line riders by increasing awareness of transit options, promoting accessibility enhancements, and safety improvements for a higher quality service.
• GreenRoots, Chelsea. Funding from T4MA will support a full-time transit justice organizer to engage the community more deeply and robustly while also having funds to provide stipends to riders who are connected to the work, to support their time and energy and help them rebuild post-pandemic.
• Groundwork Lawrence, Lawrence. GWL will work with stakeholders including the City of Lawrence, MVRTA, MVPC, CLF, and Lawrence Pa’lante – a resident-led task force focused on the intersection of transportation, climate, and equity - to achieve safer, cooler streets with the goal of encouraging Lawrence residents to walk, bike, and ride public transit.
• Institute for Human Centered Design, Boston. This project will utilize ‘mobility as a service’ (MaaS) as a framework to study micromobility as a component of shared mobility. The institute will conduct an equity analysis of disability, race, age, and economic status relative to micromobility, focused on Dorchester, Mattapan and Roxbury, Chelsea and Revere, plus Quincy and Brockton.
• Mattapan Food & Fitness Coalition, Boston. Funding will be used to continue the Transportation Talk (T-Talk) Series to engage more residents in regards to the transportation projects happening in the Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, and explore how transportation plays a role in their quality of life. Funding will be allocated to provide stipends to the partner organizations and to event speakers.
• The Bike Connector, Lowell. This grant strengthens The Bike Connector’s capacity to provide the Lowell community with safe, affordable bicycles and offer a community do-it-together bicycle shop to help people stay on their bikes. Funds will support a part time shop assistant to manage the shop, providing continuity in day-to-day operations and a manageable experience for volunteer mechanics.
• The Welcome Project, Somerville. The grant will help TWP continue building on larger intersectional environmental justice projects within the immigrant and the BIPOC communities; they will focus on 1) safe streets and increased bus service for Mystic Public Housing and East Somerville residents and 2) cleaner air quality for residents living closest to I-93 and Routes 38 and 28.
• Western Massachusetts Transportation Advocates Network, Hatfield. Funding will enable the hire of an intern or contract worker to implement several pending projects including: generating archives of previous work, creating written timeline/story, conducting GIS mapping of existing bus and microtransit routes in the four counties to see where gaps exist, creating a helpful guide for people to travel across RTA zones and anticipate the length of a trip, as well as create a website for the Network.