Blogs

GenUnity is thrilled to announce a $150,000 Implementation grant from Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s (MassCEC) EmPower Program! This funding allows GenUnity to launch an inaugural 10-week Environmental Justice (EJ) Fellowship cohort in Fall 2025 - connecting 33 new fellows across race, class, age, and sector; developing their civic leadership; and catalyzing new collaborations across GenUnity’s current program issue areas (Health Equity and Housing Justice).

‍

Prior to this Implementation grant, GenUnity received a $25,000.00 Innovation and Capacity Building (ICB) grant from MassCEC’s EmPower Program in 2024. With support from project partners Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN), Browning the Green Space (BGS), and Solar United Neighbors, GenUnity’s ICB grant was focused on gathering community leaders and residents to better understand pain points and aspirations for cultivating community leadership in the EJ space, ultimately informing its EJ program design and curriculum.

‍

“Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's EmPower Program is proud to support GenUnity’s efforts to convene their inaugural Environmental Justice Fellowship program with community leaders across Greater Boston,” said Lisa Dobbs, Senior Program Manager at MassCEC. “This innovative project is a powerful example of how fostering local collaboration and dialogue can create pathways to help residents secure equitable and impactful climate solutions.

‍

About this new partnership, Executive Director of GenUnity, Ilona Rabovsky, says, “The magic of GenUnity’s model is in who we bring together and how we create space for their collective wisdom to flourish. The ICB grant from MassCEC’s EmPower Program gave us a unique chance to better understand the relational dynamics at play in the EJ ecosystem, and which partners can best come together using our program model to deliver a dynamic, comprehensive learning experience for fellows. The follow-up Implementation grant is allowing us to make this new program a reality. This is exactly the kind of thoughtful, trust-based funding partnership that organizations like GenUnity need to test new ideas, iterate on processes, and grow.”

‍

About MassCEC’s EmPower Program

MassCEC’s EmPower Program offers multiple stages of investment in communities and community-based organizations so that they can explore, develop, and implement program models or projects that provide access to the benefits of clean energy for previously underserved populations. This EmPower Program crowd-sources new and innovative ideas, then helps put them into action. Learn more about their funding opportunities and upcoming grant application deadlines at https://www.masscec.com/program/empower-massachusetts

‍

About GenUnity

GenUnity is a Boston-based nonprofit, whose mission is to foster collaboration between community residents closest to critical issues and cross-sector institutions working to tackle those issues - catalyzing the trust, learning, and innovation necessary for systemic change. Through our community leadership programs, residents come together around a shared issue (e.g., Housing) - from those directly experiencing the issue to those working in institutions to address it. They deep-dive into how the issue is impacting their local community and its connection to systems and power structures and identify how to build and use their power to drive positive change. After the program, fellows join our Lifetime Community of Practice (LCOP) where they translate their learnings and relationships into community impact - from introducing new legislation or changing business practices to launching new social enterprises or securing critical resources for themselves and their families. Learn more at www.genunity.org.

‍

And to learn more about the critical work GenUnity’s ICB grant partners are doing in their respective fields, see here: 

Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN): Learn more at https://bostonclimateaction.org/

Browning the Green Space (BGS): Learn more at https://www.browningthegreenspace.org/

Solar United Neighbors (SUN): Learn more at https://solarunitedneighbors.org/

‍