We organize for power and to win.
Since our founding in 2002 we have had many victories.
 
"UMN is a dynamic organization that empowers people to advocate for social justice, equality and community power".
Nadine Cohen, Senior Attorney, Greater Boston Legal Services

What we’ve won

• Successfully organized for comprehensive CORI (criminal record) reform resulting in 2008 when Governor Patrick enacted an executive order to make substantial changes in the way that CORI’s are kept, accessed, and used. The executive order, which was originally drafted by MARC, requires that CORI’s be acquired only after a candidate has been deemed qualified for employment, and a criminal records check is specifically relevant to the duties and qualifications of the position. It also converts CORI records from a name-based system to a fingerprint-based system, requires training for businesses to accurately use CORI reports, includes stiff penalties for employers who abuse CORI laws, and ends discrimination against individuals with criminal records in state hiring. In 2009 the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services extended the Governor's executive order to affect all social service agencies in the Commonwealth.
• Organized thousands of people and coordinated a successful campaign to reform criminal records laws (Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI): Changing state hiring policies, drafting an executive order which now stands, passing anti-discrimination resolutions in 13 cities and towns and ordinances in Boston, Cambridge and Brockton.
• Formed and coordinated the campaign that forced Gov. Romney to restore Affirmative Action as an employment policy for the state through our Massachusetts Alliance to Save Affirmative Action (MASSA) -- saving 34 years of civil rights policy. Responsible for the passage of city council resolutions in favor of Affirmative Action around the state including Boston, Arlington, Cambridge and Medford.
• Advocated for and organized the legislative Black Caucus hearing on Affirmative Action. Over 350 people turned out.
• Coordinated the campaign leading to the creation of the Massachusetts Office of Access and Opportunity.
• Formed and coordinated the Many Voices One Message Coalition of 60 organizations of color and organizations serving people of color that fought and restored critical state budget funding for people of color.
• Designed and coordinated the organizing strategy for faculty, parents and students that kept open the BenFranklin Institute, a 110-year old technical college whose student body is 80% minority.
• Working with SEIU local 509 and community activists, we delayed the Warren Center DSS office from closinginsuring people’s abilities to get to the new center in their community.
• Organized a series of tours for Boston city councilors and community leaders on housing and education garnering major press attention and resulting in:
  * $500,000 emergency funding to replace a sorely needed new roof at the Dearborn School in Roxbury
  * $4 million in repairs to English High School
  * 8 new Inspectional Services housing inspectors hired
  * Boston City Council hearing held on substandard living conditions at Whittier Street Development.
  * Boston Housing Authority and Inspectional Services officials were held accountable for issues such as improper garbage disposal, unacceptable rodent and insect populations and inadequate security
• Formed a coalition of Black/Brown organizations (Justice Alliance of Massachusetts) that, through public education, successfully worked with others to defeat a ballot question that would have killed the state income tax & decimated poor neighborhoods.

And what we’ve done

• Our criminal justice anti-discrimination ordinance has been copied and passed in Philadelphia, Honolulu, San Francisco, Baltimore and dozens of cities across the nation.  It was highlighted as path-breaking in a New York Times editorial.
• Developed a network of organizers of color and support group through our Organizers of Color Sip & Chew and co-founded the Organizers of Color Collective, a network of 70+ black and immigrant organizers. 
• 11 city councils in Massachusetts passed resolutions and orders for hearings on issues ranging from increased funding for non-profits to affirmative action to accountability from private institutions to the reform of the Patriot Act.
• Provided technical assistance to various neighborhood groups and campaigns including the organizers and students at Fenway High School (fight to keep a teacher from being deported), SEIU locals 509 and 2020, Project HIP-HOP, the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus Teen Empowerment, ACE, Massachusetts Jobs for Justice, Service Employees International Union,  AJJOI, Haitian Multiservice Center and scores of small neighborhood groups.
• Nationally UMN has provided technical support to the Peace Development Fund, the American Bar Association, the AFL-CIO, All of Us or None, and the Blackfoot Nation, and provided support on criminal justice reform to the cities of New York, Trenton, Baltimore, Honolulu, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Portland (ME), Portland (OR), Seattle, Chicago, and Minneapolis, the Council of City Governments, and the State of California.
• Organized the Non-Profit Task Force, a coalition of over 65 participating non-profit organizations to address the technical assistance, funding, and advocacy needs of the sector. Our objective is developing legislation to create the Commonwealth Community Fund that will provide small grants and technical assistance to non-profit organizations with operating budgets under $750,000.
• Created The Brotherhood, a network of black men committed to community leadership and dealing with class, political, and economic issues that have divided black men in the city of Boston.
• Held the first ever Black Advocacy Day at the Massachusetts State House in May 2004 – over 360 blacks from around the state, attended, 90% of whom had never talked to elected officials before. They were briefed before speaking to their elected officials.
• Trained over 1,000 people of color since 2002.  Some have found work as organizers, all are more savvy activists and several are emerging leaders of color.
• Organized the Justice Alliance of Massachusetts  an ad-hoc coalition of black organizations that included the NAACP, Access Strategies Fund, Urban League, Jobs with Justice and Oiste to mobilize the black/brown community on the Question One.
• JAM coordinated a pre-election rally on election eve to educate public about the importance of defeating Question 1, emphasizing the importance of voting in order to build power in our communities and attended by over 500 people.