Boston Green Scoop Profile: Joel Wool, GreenDorchester

Joel Wool is an organizer at GreenDorchester. GreenDorchester’s recent and/or seed projects include DotBike, a summer farmers’ market, the Dorchester Community Co-op, the Dorchester Winter Farmers’ Market, the TNT Greenspace Master Plan, and urban agriculture.

How did you become involved in working with GreenDorchester?

I did an Americorps position in Dorchester with an organization where my supervisor was the executive director for GreenDorchester. I was doing the community events, web development, [connecting with] local resources… I transitioned from that generic work into environmental advocacy.

How is your experience working as an environmentalist in a multicultural, class-diverse community different from how it might be in another neighborhood?

One way I entered the topic is by thinking of public health, global health, environmental health, [and] global warming… There’s a lot of parallels in the ways people talk about global health and local environment… There’s a lot of issues of media [about] whose voices are heard.

The fact people have categories of global North and South [also applies to Boston]… In downtown Boston, people are healthier. In Dorchester, it takes longer [to get] things like Hubway… and there’s a media justice issue. There’s inequity in resources and in public amenities.

It’s harder to get things that are positive on people’s radar because violence has got everyone worried… You don’t read about community relations. There’s very serious local civic engagement in Dorchester and Mattapan. Neighbors really know each other. You don’t get that in other parts of Boston.

It takes different strategies to reach out to each community… A lot of it’s personal and trust-based.

What are some of the things that you do to be inclusive of people of different cultural backgrounds and income levels?

With extremely limited capacity, trying to get things multilingual, we use community partners to translate. If we have a Creole flyer, [we use] the Haitian listserv. Ethnic radio [is] a big one. Affordability, working to make that possible. [It’s] a huge issue, making sure the food cooperative and farmer’s market are promoted multilingual and multichannel.

When possible, we’ve given away bike lights and bike locks so safety is a free thing. We’ve given away free reusable tote bags and helped promote Renew Boston. All of these are things the city has money for.

Do you think that the environmental movement in Boston could do more to address these concerns? If so, what would you recommend that they do?

I would say that looking to local partners is essential and that does require financial help. City, state and federal groups need to find groups with established connections in the local community. [Local] groups have collapsed due to lack of funding… There’s this constant struggle for operational money. It’s very hard to get the money to pay people.

In the case of outreach to multi-ethnic communities, that’s very essential. [It might mean volunteering] to do the translation for a community meeting. It might mean spray painting… to do outreach.

Physical presence is a big thing. I’ve tried to make it there and introduce myself. To really believe you’re committed to everyone, people have to see you in person.

If you were going to introduce environmentalists from the rest of Boston to Dorchester, what places would you recommend they visit?

There’s a couple green space development projects – Nightingale Community Garden and the Talbot Norfolk Triangle. The Ashmont T station and the square around it [have] been redone. There’s public art, there’s a farmer’s market there in summer, and there’s a historical clock.

We did a multimedia historical tour with smartphones and [numbers you could call] at one site [in 2010 and 2011]. It’s called My Dot Tour. You could also leave your comments about what you were doing there. Last summer it was less theatrical but very multimedia.

Projects like that are great in areas that have a lot of history but people don’t really know. Dorchester is the largest, oldest neighborhood in Boston. Part of the economic development is the history.

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