Meghan Keaney

The following is Tinisha's testimony for the Massachusetts Asset Development Commission's public hearing on the policies,
programs and practices that can better assist low and moderate income
families to build an retain assets, such as housing, savings and
retirement funds. This was the first public hearing in what will be a series of hearings on the financial stability of Massachusetts Residents. Here' is Tinisha's story...    read more »

I was a million miles away when Jarvis Anderson got shot. In reality, it was closer to 9– Hyde Park to Cambridge, just a quick trip down Melnea Cass then Columbus. But the news coverage I read the morning of the 5th, next to photos of the fireworks, local reactions to the pops and previews of Sunday’s chowderfest made it seem much further. For five days, I carried around the vague headline: 2 killed on the night of the 4th. It was only this morning that I finally learned their names, through a video posted on Universal Hub about the individuals behind the headlines. Jarvis Anderson and Roniel Marc...  read more »

This morning, I read a Globe column, "Green with Idiocy" by Yvonne Abraham that made my stomach turn. It was a diatribe, as it rightly should have been, against the mob of revelers who smashed all of the windows of Greater Boston Legal Services after the Celtics win last week. Next to her column, Abraham attached a video which I've also embedded below (you will only be able to view it if your computer is not behind a firewall). Watching it will make you as red in the face as I am right now.  read more »

Noteworthy: Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy just posted a podcast interview he conducted with United Way of America President Brian Gallagher.  read more »

It's finally warm out in Boston and SpeakUnited has officially been active for 5 months. In that time we've talked about everything from early childhood social and emotional health to what to do if you're going through a foreclosure, to the impact of American Idol on the culture of philanthropy. In the coming months we are going to keep developing the conversation and inviting you in to contribute your thoughts and opinions. I was looking at readership metrics the other day and was really happy to see that over those five months our readership has grown to more than 700 unique visitors and nearly 150 comments. There are a lot of you!

Today I wanted to update you on some changes that will be going on to the site. The next time you visit, you may notice that the appearance of the blog has changed as we fully integrate it into the new United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley Website. As we do so, there is a chance that it may interrupt some of the RSS feeds or email subscriptions.

If you subscribe to SpeakUnited, either through email or through an RSS feed, and you notice you have not received any new posts next week, please come back to the site and sign up again for these subscriptions. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I want to be sure that you don't miss future posts.

If you are getting updates next week and don't notice any change to your subscription... then you are all set and don't need to do a thing.

Thank you all again for reading and contributing. You continue to be the driving force of this blog.  read more »