Peace Making and Social Justice Groups

Women Together/Mujeres Unidas (currently an affiliate of Pleasant St. Neighborhood Network Center)
Contact:  Jo Massarelli jo@srvip.org
Purpose/Mission: Women Together is a network of 30-50 women in the Pleasant/Piedmont Streets area. The group’s primary mission is to build strong relationships with one another for the purpose of creating a safe neighborhood.

Worcester Immigrant Coalition
Contact: Matt Feinstein (508) 335-7783
http://Worcesterimmigrantcoalition.org
Worcestercoalition@gmail.com
Purpose/Mission: Worcester Immigrant Coalition, a member of the Stone Soup cooperative, is a grassroots group working on popular education, know your rights training, immigration reform and worker justice. The coalition is also part of the Resist the Raids Network.

Abby’s House   http://www.abbyshouse.org
Contact: (508) 765-5486
52 High St., Worcester
Director: Tess Sneesby   tess@abbyshouse.org
Associate Director: Julie Komenos  Julie@abbyshouse.org
Purpose/Mission: The mission of Abby’s House is to provide emergency and long-term affordable housing, as well as advocacy and support services to homeless, battered and low-income women, with or without children. We empower women to lead self-directed lives filled with dignity and hope. In naming the oppression that exists in women’s lives, we strive to create change.

Social Justice Circle
Contact: Carlton Watson
Fran Manocchio
Mission/Purpose:

Ex Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement (EPOCA)
Contact: Steve O’Neill (508) 410 7676 or steve@exprisoners.org
Purpose/Mission: EPOCA  is a group of ex-prisoners,  along with allies families and friends, who are coming together to create resources and opportunities for those who have paid their debt to society.  Projects include assisting ex-prisoners with employment needs and working on CORI-reform.

Food Not Bombs
Contact: worcesterfoodnotbombs@lists.riseup.net
Purpose/Mission: Food Not Bombs sponsors free community meals in public venues on a weekly basis, and at special events, demonstrations, and festivals. Our community meals aim at reclaiming public spaces from state and corporate control and ensuring that these places are open and safe for community use. In addition to vegetarian nourishment we offer informative literature and work in solidarity with other groups dedicated to radical change, locally and internationally.

Worcester Peace Works
Contact: Richard Schmitt: richard_schmitt@charter.net
Gordon Davis: hellowithfire1@aol.com
Purpose/Mission: The group’s focus has consistently been opposition to war and militarism. Past projects include working on bringing an anti-war resolution before City Council and organizing local rallies calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan.

Dismas House
Contact: (508) 799-9389 Fax: (508)767-9930
Purpose/Mission: Dismas House is a supportive community that provides transitional housing and services to former prisoners, and real-life educational opportunities to students from area colleges, and from throughout the US and the world. The men and women of Dismas House live and work as a family, helping each other grow towards the goal of reintegration into society. Dismas provides a consensus-based, sober alternative to a return to the streets, and a return to incarceration.

SS. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker
52 Mason Street, Worcester, MA
Contact: Claire and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy (508) 753-358
Theresecw2@gmail.com
Purpose/Mission: SS. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker is a lay Catholic community located in the inner-city that provides hospitality to men and women in need. Its mission: to create a society where it is easier for people to be good. The community publishes The Catholic Radical, a bi-monthly journal of opinion, operates the Bread not Bombs Bakery, and organizes a myriad of nonviolent initiatives at the local and international level. It is a member of Consistent Life, a national network of individuals and communities opposed to the violence of abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, poverty, and war.