Boston, MA Urban Edge has surpassed their goal of raising $25,000 as part of a Crowdrise campaign to fund the building of the Jackson Sq. Recreation Center. The community development corporation is also launching an initiative for the neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury to show support for the recreation center.
The Crowdrise campaign took place during the month of June, with the goal of raising $25,000 for the center. Urban Edge has currently raised more than $28,000 from residents of the community who wanted to show their support. More than 200 individuals and groups that support the project to provide safe and affordable recreational and afterschool opportunities for the youth of the area donated at the organization’s Crowdrise page. Those interested in donating to the project can learn more at http://www.urbanedge.org.
“Residents of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury know how important the Jackson Square Recreation Center is to the kids in the neighborhood,” said Frank Shea, the chief executive officer of Urban Edge. “We were so pleased to see the support from the community, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet. It shows how much they want to be a part of this project, which will transform lives and the community.”
The two story center, which will provide recreational and after school activities for the young people of the neighborhood, will have a regulation-size ice rink on the first floor, a turf field of equivalent size on the second floor, and academic and social service space.
Young people in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain will be able to use the facility year-round for organized and unstructured recreational activities.
The nonprofit affordable housing developer also launched a campaign to show the neighborhood’s support through lawn signs, car magnets, and window posters. The lawn signs and posters will emphasize that 26,000 young people between the ages of 5 and 18 who live in the 1.5 mile radius that is Jackson Sq. and will be served by the Jackson Sq. Recreation Center. Of these, only 10 percent of these students participate in after school sports, arts, or recreational activities, in large part because they do not have a recreation center that is accessible and affordable.
Research shows that a community benefits when young people have access to recreational and afterschool activities. School attendance and grades are improved, incidences of risky behavior decrease, life skills and lifelong healthy habits are acquired.
The idea for the recreation center came from the community, who recognized that the young people in their neighborhood did not have the same access to recreational activities, especially in the winter months, as their peers in suburban communities. In addition to the community support, the $21.5 million project has backing from public officials. A recent state bond issue included $5.69 million in state bond financing to help build the facility. Furthermore, it is likely that the project will qualify for an additional $4 million in net New Market Tax Credit equity. In addition, to date Urban Edge has raised over $2 million in other funds, including a $200,000 Brownfields Cleanup Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Urban Edge needs to raise another $9 million to complete the center.
The campaign committee for the Jackson Square Recreation Center is co-chaired by Morgan Stanley’s Jim Geraghty and City Year’s Charlie Rose, and includes Olympic gold medalist Mike Eruzione, The BASE founder Robert Lewis, Jr., philanthropist Joe O’Donnell, New Politics founder Emily Cherniack, Peter and Stephanie O’Sullivan of the O’Sullivan Hockey Academy, Bob Sweeney of the Boston Bruins Foundation, former Boston Bruin Graeme Townshend, and Wayne Ysaguirre of the Nurtury, to help raise the funds needed to turn the vision of this project into a reality.
For over 40 years, Urban Edge has offered a range of innovative programs that help low and moderate income families in and around Boston become economically resilient, establish homeownership, and access needed community resources. Throughout its history, the organization has developed nearly 1,500 units of affordable housing, making it one of Boston’s largest nonprofit developers of affordable units. Most recently, the agency has been a prime mover in the redevelopment of the Jackson Square neighborhood, creating new affordable housing and commercial space along eight acres of land that border Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.
