The spirit of community was alive on June 18 at our annual celebration of nonprofits and changemakers. We missed seeing you and wanted to share some highlights of this magical evening.
Althea’s patio felt like Starlight Square with great people, great food, and soulful music. Every corner was filled with nonprofit staff and community members relaxing and connecting and our 6th annual Imagined in Cambridge! Award winners were presented to the crowd and warmly welcomed to the CCF family.
The evening was a reminder that, despite the challenges we face, we as a community are stronger together. As our President Geeta Pradhan said: “We’re navigating a period of tremendous instability and uncertainty. The scale of change is significant, and we are only beginning to understand how these shifts will affect our community. But we know we can work together. We know we can reimagine. And we know our shared commitment to Cambridge will carry us through.”
Thank you to everyone who joined us and to our Making Good corporate supporters and community partners who made such a vibrant night possible—including Althea who warmly hosted us and Central Square BID and Harvard Square Business Association who generously donated gift cards to our raffle. Above all, thank you to the nonprofits and the people meeting this difficult moment with passion and purpose!
In case you missed it: President Geeta Pradhan's remarks
Hello everyone. Welcome!
I see a few of our local leaders: Councilors Sumbul Siddiqui, Jivan Sobhrihno Wheeler, Ayesha M. Wilson, and Catherine Zusy and School Committee members José Luis Rojas Villarreal and Richard Harding, Jr., thank you for joining us. I'd also like to recognize the individuals and organizations that support CCF and help us support you all in your work. In particular, I'd like to recognize our annual corporate partners, who empower our work year-round, including – Our presenting sponsor: Eastern Bank; Our champions: Coldwell Banker Cares Foundation, Bank of America, PNC Bank, MIT, Gail Roberts, Ed Feijo & Team; and our patrons: Appian Way and Hemenway & Barnes…and the many individuals and families who support our work…. We thank you for your commitment to community.
Welcome to our sixth annual celebration of you – the extraordinary staff and leaders of Cambridge's nonprofits – and to the announcement of our newest Imagined in Cambridge social innovators.
Tonight is all about community. About the power of people who show up every day, stay focused, and continue to imagine what's possible.
We all know well that we're living through a period of profound instability and uncertainty. And we can be pretty certain about the devastating impact it will have on our communities – especially our most vulnerable neighbors.
But you – our nonprofits – don't back away from tough challenges. You never waver from your missions. You meet the moment. You find a way to do the work. You innovate to improve when your back is against the wall. You find ways, always, to protect those who need you most. And it's your resilience, your creativity, and your fierce commitment that keep Cambridge strong.
The moment we must meet today is different, the challenges more intense. And while we are part of a caring City, we don't have the backing of our federal government; and there is a general slowing down of corporations and overall giving.
But we have our networks, our ingenuity, our resilience, and our adaptability.
This moment calls upon us to not only seek our own individual survival – but rethink how we can thrive together, how we can be stronger together!
Reflecting a bit on the shift CCF has made, — when we announced that the Cambridge Community Foundation would take on bigger challenges, find solutions to big systemic problems, tackle economic mobility and social cohesion, we came to it understanding that as an individual entity, we were too small in comparison to the scale of issues we wanted to solve…and the only way we could make a meaningful impact was by joining forces.
We recognized that a meaningful role for CCF was to be the best partner we could be. We needed to help others amplify their impact in the community, form powerful coalitions, leverage resources, uncover and nurture innovation and bring disciplined research to understanding problems and developing solutions.
We didn't reimagine ourselves but reimagined how we'd do the work. I guess this was the moment we were built for — more than 100 years ago.
We know that like you, we're needed now more than ever. And we will be there for Cambridge, just like you will be there for those you serve.
At yesterday's CNC annual meeting the reimagining theme was front and center. Nonprofit leaders brainstormed ideas about how we can pivot — to do more with less. – They discussed joint purchasing, sharing spaces and expertise, advocacy and engagement in the City's budget process, different ways of delivering services. There is power in pivoting, innovating, pulling together in the same direction.
Which brings us to the second goal for tonight — celebrating ideas sourced from our Cambridge community. The spirit of Imagined in Cambridge is rooted in this very idea: That bold solutions start locally, close to the ground, and close to community. We can reimagine together….and when we do so, we will prevail!
Tonight, I have the distinct honor to announce the five winners of our Imagined in Cambridge Social Innovation Award. They all embody this idea of coming together for community.
These grass roots innovators saw the fraying of the social fabric in our community and proposed solutions to bring people together. Just like all of you – they are meeting the moment with passion and purpose.
You can see images of these wonderful people along the wall (point to left) and learn more about their projects on our website.
- Tamene Tedla imagines a Cambridge where multilingual learning reaches every neighborhood. His organization S-Cube Diplomacy creates joyful learning spaces for children with special needs, immigrant families, and adult learners thought adaptive play and storytelling to build bridges across cultures.
- Kimm Topping imagines a Cambridge where queer youth see themselves reflected in the city's history. Through Mapping Queer Cambridge, LGBTQIA2S+ students become public historians, researching, documenting, and sharing queer history through walking tours that make Cambridge itself a living classroom.
- Patti Russo imagines a Cambridge where teens and older adults connect across generations. Her program, Partners in Rhyme, brings people together to read, write, and share — turning creative expression into an antidote to loneliness and isolation.
- Samadhi Simmons and Matthew Keane imagine a Cambridge where youth have safe spaces simply to be. Their initiative, SHADE, creates pop-up teen hangouts in city parks, free of judgment, free of surveillance, and offering belonging for youth who are often left without public spaces of their own.
- Olf Mouyaka imagines a Cambridge where every voice in our schools is heard. His project, Community Stories for Change (Humans of PAUS), empowers students to interview school community members whose experiences and voices aren't always known — from custodians to cafeteria staff to nurses — building empathy and connection through shared stories.
These five innovators remind us that the solutions to our challenges already exist within our communities—in the creativity of our youth, the wisdom of our elders, and the connections we forge across differences. They show us that when we trust each other with our stories, when we make space for joy and rest, when we honor every voice in our community, we don't just imagine a better Cambridge—we build it together.
To each of our five winners: welcome to the CCF family. You are joining a community that is values-driven, resilient, collaborative, and unafraid to take on big challenges. We are proud to stand alongside you.
This is what it means to Imagine Together. To believe in our collective power. To meet hard moments not with resignation, but with resolve.
We are Making Good together. Thank you for all you do.
