GBIO
Since 2003, Dorshei Tzedek has been an active member of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO). GBIO is a coalition of area churches, synagogues, mosques, and community groups that work toward social change by organizing people, building power, and developing local leadership. Built on the basis of shared values and a strong commitment to social justice, GBIO brings people together across racial, ethnic and religious lines to work toward common goals, identified through a process of grassroots participation.
Dorshei Tzedek’s institutional commitment to GBIO includes a significant annual financial commitment (1% of our annual operating budget) and an agreement to send significant membership representation to GBIO actions at which key elected officials and/or other leaders are introduced to and held accountable for addressing identified, actionable issues. Over the years, CDT members have participated in a variety of “campaigns” that helped bring about important change. Some of these include, among others, the following:
- Affordable housing
- Nursing home workers rights
- Financial education around debt reduction and asset building
- Access to affordable health care
- Support of the Community Preservations Act
- The rebuilding of the Dearborn Middle School in Roxbury
- The improvement of the Jeep Jones Park in Roxbury
- Substantive criminal justice reform
GBIO’s current agenda (2019-2020) focuses on “Refounding,” an effort to expand its membership to include more faith communities and other organizations representing a broader spectrum of diversity – religious, racial, ethnic, and economic. In addition, GBIO’s Health Care Reform campaign prioritizes three issues: reducing the cost of prescription drugs, insuring parity for mental health care and substance abuse treatment, and limiting the cost of out of pocket, surprise billing. A meeting on November 4 with Senate leadership drew about 850 participants from GBIO membership congregations. Currently GBIO is planning in-district meetings for local communities to affirm with their House representatives their interest in seeing health care reform enacted in the legislature.
CDT has a strong commitment to GBIO. The GBIO team at CDT includes Louise Enoch and Tony Broh, who are the “Co-Liaisons,” Paul Hattis and Rob Saper, who are the “Health Care Co-Captains,” and Alan Epstein, who is a member of the GBIO Strategy Team (which functions like a board of directors). Our clergy participate on a clergy team with other faith community members. And our team, of course, also includes our many interested CDT members who have participated in both our CDT GBIO meetings, as well as attended other large and small GBIO actions and meetings in the Greater Boston area.
Activities
- February – GBIO In-district Meetings for Health Care campaign
- March – First GBIO Liaison meetings in new Refounding organization
- April – Meeting with Governor Baker and Attorney General Healey advocating for COVID-related issues
- May – Public release of “Bound in Love” video. Watch it here.
With questions about any or all of this, please contact Louise (lpenoch@rcn.com) or Tony (c.anthony@broh.com).