Dear friends,

Since our founding in 2003, the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities (MCHC) has proven that citizens can be powerful when they are well-informed and when they stand firmly upon their highest principles.  

MCHC was founded with the belief that people concerned with different aspects of our current economic, environmental, and democracy crises should work together on the fundamental issues that are impeding progress toward the readily available solutions.  Coalition work provides an antidote to the divide-and-conquer process that forces deserving constituencies to compete for crumbs, and settle for slightly less-harsh-defeats,  instead of achieving the real solutions that are within reach.

MCHC believes achieving healthy communities requires that all key components of such communities be realized:  a healthy environment, a healthy economy, and access to essential services such as health care and education.  And long experience has led us to conclude that these essential requirements will elude us if key decisions affecting our communities are placed in the hands of unaccountable power brokers or persons attempting to bend the public agenda to their personal advantage.  So an overarching goal we must pursue is to build a healthy grassroots democracy that allows people to come together to exercise more control over the conditions under which they live.

To fulfill our mission, we have reached out to many grassroots groups fighting the daily battles to protect their communities and their neighbors against exploitation and neglect.  And to maintain our ability to speak the truth without censure,  we have steered clear of entanglements with the numerous agents and institutions of the prevailing power structure.  We often found ourselves the only voice raising concerns about a deal that was moving forward on Beacon Hill without any questions being asked by incumbent politicians or other public interest groups.  We are proud that we have put the spotlight on some deceptive and exploitative legislation, and forced changes to be made. This is an important role that we hope to continue to fill.

We hope you find our website informative.  And we invite you to join with us to empower the good people of Massachusetts in their ongoing struggle for healthy communities.

– John Andrews,

President, MCHC

[Note:  Our founding President, Jill Stein, has resigned from the presidency of MCHC this spring in order to run for statewide office as Secretary of State.  We thank Jill for all she has done for MCHC, and for the empowerment of citizen voices across Massachusetts and the nation.  We are sure she will continue to be an untiring advocate for all the right causes no matter where her future takes her.]

More information:

* How to volunteer  

[http://www.masschc.org/vol.php]

* How to make a donation to our work [http://www.masschc.org/don.php]

* How to reach us

[http://www.masschc.org/about.php]