The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, or DSNI, is a nonprofit, community-run organization based in Roxbury, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1984 by residents of the Dudley Street Neighborhood, along with members of the Riley Foundation, as an effort to rebuild the poverty-stricken community surrounding then-Dudley Square (now Nubian Square). It is known as the first and only community-run grassroots organization to gain "the power of eminent domain" by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, meaning the community controls its own development and the use of the land.[1] Today, 35 board of directors help to govern the more than 3,000 active members of DSNI. The board of directors are elected by locals every two years, and must represent the community's four major ethnic groups: African American, Cape Verdean, Latino and White, as well as the local youth, businesses, nonprofits, churches and CDC's that support the initiative.[2]
- ^ Hernandez, E. (1991, Sep 17). "Becoming good neighbors one step at a time, residents of dudley street are establishing their own rules of the game." Boston Globe. Grants Management Associates Records, 1974 - 1999. (M178) University Libraries Archives and Special Collections Department Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts. Box 4, folder 1.
- ^ Soifer, Steven et al. (2014). Community Economic Development in Social Work. New York: Columbia University Press.