SPEAKING OF MCAN
Margot Barnet, Leader
Worcester Interfaith
“I first got involved with MCAN affiliate Worcester Interfaith as they were advocating for education equity in school discipline and calling attention to the disregard for English language learners and a lack of respect for cultural institutions.
I was coming into the work as someone who wasn’t impacted by these issues. Getting to know and understand the people that are in the midst of these disparities in order to become a trusted ally meant a lot.
I learned what it meant to stand up and support students who were marginalized and whose life situations were not taken seriously. The real learning experience was learning, in a personal way, what it meant to work in an accountability model and that reinforced the importance of having a deep relationship with the people around me, not a superficial relationship. ”
Eldin Lynn Villafañe
Community Leader
“As an ally who has worked alongside MCAN on various issues impacting our community, I consider the group to be the ultimate model of sustainable community organizing and deft legislative advocacy. Whether it involves criminal justice reform, housing rights, or racial equity, I continue to be impressed by MCAN’s lasting commitment to placing the lived experiences of everyday people in the forefront of public policy.”
Kendra Patterson, Field Director
MA Voter Table
“MCAN and the Voter Table have a strong relationship rooted in achieving an equitable multi-racial democracy. This is the core of our organization partnerships in the Democracy HUBS through civic engagement efforts and now the Delivering on Equity Collective. In my experience, MCAN's grounding in values, narrative and relationships reflect the heart motivations that fuel our work as trusted organizers in the community. These are items that I am more intentional about bringing every time I show up in space.”
Sean Manion
Community Organizer
"I am a community organizer striving to honor my spiritual upbringing, which taught me to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." As long as there are people affected by injustice and violence, and as long as we degrade the ecological systems that allow us to live, we are dishonoring the gift of life, and the gift of being part of the human family. Moral imagination shows us that we can indeed live in peace, and in harmony - we simply have to dare to build that future together. It is righteous, it is just, and for us all to secure a future, it is necessary."