Stories of Impact
Featured Stories
Serving up job training
Staffed by homeless youth, Breaktime Café prepares, delivers meals to vulnerable amid pandemic.
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From hands-on to virtual
A group of area high school students spent the past year learning how to be scientists through the Harvard-MIT Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP).
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Local students explore street art and community
Though students in the Harvard Ed Portal’s Mural Club: Street Art & Community began the semester in person, they quickly transitioned to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and were still able to create their own personal works of art.
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27 Allston-Brighton nonprofits awarded emergency response grants from Harvard
Harvard University recently announced that 27 Allston-Brighton nonprofit organizations and community groups have been awarded emergency response grants for their continuing efforts in responding to COVID-19 related community needs.
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Exploring from home
Virtual field trips through the Harvard Ed Portal have taken youngsters to five of the 10 wonders of the world—all without leaving their home.
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Helping to feed the community
Harvard continues to donate food for distribution in Cambridge and beyond.
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Profiles in Community Support
Allston Brighton CDC
It was not unique for businesses to overhaul their work structure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; but while the experience was stressful for all, John Woods, executive director of the Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation, points to the positives that came out of the sudden change.
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Allston-Brighton Substance Abuse Task Force
Since 2004, the Allston-Brighton Substance Abuse Task Force has been marshalling community resources and working closely with neighborhood residents to help bring evidence-based education to the fight to prevent substance abuse.
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Allston-Brighton Neighborhood Opportunity Center
Put simply, the Allston-Brighton Neighborhood Opportunity Center (ABNOC) is a place where people can go and get help. But more than the help they receive, it’s where they can go to see a friendly face, someone they know is there to look out for them and help them during difficult times.
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Allston Village Main Streets & Brighton Main Streets
As Allston-Brighton small business owners navigate day-to-day operations, a web of complex policies and opportunities grow daily. These businesses and their employees often turn to two organizations for guidance: Allston Village and Brighton Main Streets.
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Brazilian Women's Group
The Brazilian Women's Group is committed to promoting political and cultural awareness throughout the Brazilian community in Boston. Since COVID-19 hit, the group’s commitment to its work has only been amplified.
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Brighton Allston Congregational Church
Houses of worship often offer more than just weekly services. They are community centers, a place to see friends, learn something new, and increasingly, a place where you can get a healthy meal. The Brighton Allston Congregational Church knows this well.
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Brighton Marine
Since 1983, Brighton Marine has provided services to veterans, members of the military and their families, specifically in the neighborhoods of Allston-Brighton.
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Gardner Pilot Academy Adult Education Program
Over the course of 32 weeks, the GPA Adult Education Program provides 62 lessons to English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learners from Allston-Brighton to help improve their English language skills.
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Oak Square YMCA
At its heart, the YMCA is a microcosm of the community in which it exists. The Oak Square Y in Brighton is no exception.
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The Presentation School Foundation Community Center
When the Our Lady of the Presentation School closed over 15 years ago, the community rallied to maintain the neighborhood institution and created the Presentation School Foundation Community Center, a hub for organizations and individuals committed to the Allston-Brighton neighborhoods.
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St. Anthony's Parish Food Pantry
Located in Allston, just around the corner from the Harvard Business School Campus, the parish of St. Anthony’s Church looks like the neighborhood in which it exits.
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West End House
The West End House is an organization rooted in history and community. For over a century it has been committed to helping young people achieve their full potential in academics and the arts while maintaining a healthy life and preparing for a career.
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Local Partnerships
An Asylum in Allston
Harvard University welcomed Artisan’s Asylum, a local nonprofit arts collaborative, to Allston, where it will make medical gowns used as personal protective equipment (PPE).
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Harvard's Chef Hayde Cooks for the Community
Harvard's Chef Akeisha Hayde has turned her culinary skills towards feeding some of Boston’s homeless community.
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Harvard Chan students connect with isolated local seniors
Amid the pandemic, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health students are connecting with seniors at Roxbury Tenants of Harvard.
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COVID-19 Dispatch: Karen Mills
Harvard Business School Professors Bill Kerr and Joe Fuller talk with HBS senior fellow and former Small Business Administration director Karen Mills, about the effects of COVID-19 on the future of work.
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A Joyful Sorrow
Rev. Erica Rose Long, MDiv ’16, and Sarah Byrne-Martelli, MDiv ’02, discuss being on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, partnering with doctors and nurses, and providing comfort and support both to Coronavirus patients and those who care for them.
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Helping to feed the community
Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) continues to donate food for distribution in Cambridge and beyond.
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A time of need and a desire to help
The COVID-19 crisis has brought disruption, loss, and jarring change, but it has also fired in many students the desire to help and inspired creative ways to make a difference. New initiatives include Feed the Frontlines NYC, CovEducation, and Bike Harvard.
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Research & Impact
7 million face shields and counting
The Wyss Institute produces face shields at a pace of up to 400,000 per day, and over 7 million face shields have been shipped both locally and nationally for use in the health care, food service, manufacturing, and academic research communities.
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$16.5 million awarded to projects to fight COVID
A scientific consortium formed to fight COVID-19 has awarded $16.5 million to 62 research projects focused on aspects of the pandemic ranging from vaccines and treatments to explorations of immunity to divining its still-unknown reach across society.
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Volunteers juice COVID testing at Beth Israel
An outpouring of volunteers and equipment from the Harvard medical community have helped a Harvard hospital testing lab meet COVID-19’s challenge.
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How MBAs are bringing PPE to Boston Hospitals
PPEople First—a group of Harvard Business School students who are bringing critically needed PPE to Massachusetts healthcare workers—has successfully connected the PPE supply in China with the demand in Massachusetts.
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GSD begins PIH design & fabrication alongside ongoing PPE efforts
As of May 7, the Harvard Graduate School of Design's Fabrication Lab was able to produce 2,200 face visors via 3-D printing, and 3,194 shields via laser-cutting for Mass General Hospital.
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Pilot Project for COVID-19 Testing in Nursing Homes
The City of Cambridge announced a partnership with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard on a pilot project to test for COVID-19 in nursing facilities.
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Design School turned 3D printers into PPE producers
With more than 100 3D printers, fabrication technologies, and expert guidance, the GSD is creating PPE for frontline medical personnel.
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Harvard to
help track
the virus
Students from Chan School are helping to boost the volunteer public health workforce.
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Organized to fight the pandemic
To stem the coronavirus crisis, Harvard Medical School scientists forge ahead on six key fronts.
Alumni Making a Difference
A COVID-19 battle with many fronts
Alumni spearhead public health campaigns, data visualization maps, and outbreak plans for Native American tribal leaders.
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In the trenches
Harvard alumni Judy Salerno, S.M. ’76, M.D. ’85, S.P.H. ’85, Tony Dajer ’78, and Mallika Marshall ’92 are among the thousands of medical professionals working nonstop to care for patients as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the nation.
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Global race to a COVID-19 vaccine
Harvard's coronavirus vaccine efforts by alumni and beyond join the race to develop a vaccine that could help end the coronavirus pandemic.
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From a care of souls to the care of bodies
Kevin Cranston, M.Div. ’86, and his team of epidemiologists and lab scientists are working hard tracking cases of COVID-19 and helping advise local and state officials on policies to best mitigate its spread.
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University Community Rallies to Deal with COVID-19 Crisis
Harvard faculty, students, researchers, and staff are working alongside hospitals, first responders, state and city leaders, and many more across Greater Boston to support the response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Gazette recently spoke with some professors and administrators about the research, projects, and collaborations the University has undertaken amid the unprecedented global health crisis.
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Harvard and MIT donate $500,000 to Cambridge
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have made matching donations of $250,000 each to the city of Cambridge to cover costs associated with the creation of a temporary emergency shelter at the War Memorial Recreation Center, Field House, and garage.
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How Can Law Students Help in the Midst of COVID-19?
Harvard Law School's Lee Mestre discusses the opportunities for students, other members of the Harvard Law community, and the Commonwealth to be of service during COVID-19.
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HLS Clinics Fight for Most Vulnerable Amid COVID-19
The Harvard Law School's Clinical Program has moved to working remotely with new urgency and challenges.
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Free-Cycling from COVID-19
Harvard students made thousands of donations of non-perishable food, supplies, clothing, and household goods to nonprofit organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Furnishing Hope, the YWCA, and the Allston Brighton Food Pantry.
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At Harvard Graduate Schools, Reinvention on the Fly
Harvard School of Dental Medicine is providing emergency dental care to patients, and also seeing patients via teledentistry virtual visits, alleviating ER cases that might otherwise go to hospitals.
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Harvard School of Dental Medicine: Faculty Q&As
HSDM Faculty have participated in Q&As offering expertise on a variety of topics such as Putting Public Health First and Weighing the Risk of Smoking during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
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Mobile Clinics Finding Their Place in Pandemic
Although Harvard Medical School's Family Van is temporarily grounded, it is hosting call-in hours, contacting clients directly, and distributing pamphlets and other handouts put together by the COVID-19 Health Literacy Project.
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Waste Not, Want Not
Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic steps up its efforts in time of pandemic.
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Harvard Guarantee Workers' Pay, Benefits Amid COVID-19 Disruptions
Harvard announced it would guarantee pay and benefits through May 28 to its employees and contract workers who have experienced job disruptions since March 10.
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Facing a Pandemic, Broad Does a Quick Pivot
How the institute converted a clinical processing lab into a large-scale COVID-19 testing facility in a matter of days.
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Option to Serve
This year's graduating Harvard Medical School students have been given an early degree option to help in COVID-19 fight.
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Labs Donate Protective Equipment to Healthcare Workers
As University facilities have shut down, faculty and staff gathered gear to pass along amid a nationwide shortage.
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Harvard Gazette: In the Community
Explore more stories in The Harvard Gazette about lifelong learning, shared achievements, and opportunities on Harvard's campus and surrounding communities.