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Creation of an Urban Village: The Journey of the Dudley St. Neighborhood Initiative

Annual Meeting of the Community Land Trust of the Southern Berkshires


On Thursday, February 3rd, 2006, the Community Land Trust of the Southern Berkshires held its annual meeting and hosted John Barros and Jason Webb, two dynamic young leaders of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative.

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) is one of the most innovative and well-respected planning and organizing nonprofits in the country.  Founded in 1985, DSNI has lead the revitalization of Boston’s poor but diverse Dudley neighborhood.

In 1988, DSNI became the only community group in the nation to win eminent domain power to acquire vacant land for development.  Since then, approximately half of the 1,300 vacant lots it took control of have been converted into nearly 300 new homes and 300 rehabbed homes, a Town Common, gardens, urban agriculture, a commercial greenhouse, and parks and playgrounds.  The Fannie Mae Foundation recently selected Dudley as one of the 10 “Just Right” emerging neighborhoods across the country for increasing affordable homeownership while attracting capital investment.

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Event Speakers

John Barros

John Barros was appointed as Chief of Economic Development in February 2014. Before his appointment, he served 13 years as Executive Director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) where he lead a successful neighborhood revitalization effort and the largest urban community land trust in the country, which was founded as a community wealth creation strategy including permanent affordable housing. … Continued

Jason Webb

Jason Webb is the Capacity Building Specialist at Grounded Solutions Network. Formerly he was Community & Capacity Building Associate at the National Community Land Trust Network. Webb worked for 15 years for Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) and Network Member Dudley Neighbors Inc. (DNI), serving in several roles such as Director of Real Estate and … Continued

Sponsors

Berkshire Co-Op Market Berkshire South Regional Community Center Center for Ecological Technology Community Development Corporation of the Southern Berkshires Construct Schumacher Center for a New Economics Friends of the Du Bois Homesite Great Barrington Land Conservancy The Orion Society Railroad Street Youth Project Sheffield Land Trust Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail