Jim Boucher | Community Organizer Genealogy Project

Jim Boucher

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Work History

Start Year	End Year	Organization	Position
1979	1980	North Toledo Area Corporation	Organizer
1981	1987	Michigan Avenue Community Organization	Director Lead Organizer Organizer
1987	2000	Hartford Areas Rally Together	Director Lead Organizer

Organizer Profile

What brought you into the work?:

Passion for social justice upon graduating from College of the Holy Cross and deciding to enter VISTA in Toldeo, Ohio. Able to learn how to make a difference through organizing in Toledo; and further in Detroit -- where I met some fiesty, tenacious and passionate community organizers and community leaders -- lead me eventually to Hartford for more of the same. Fortunate to be able to be part of some substantive community change.

Share 3 lessons you have learned through your work in organizing.:

1. Building Community Power through relationship building - relationship - relationships - relationships that leads to public discourse and change

2. Community organizing and community development can be mutually developed only with a common vision and commitment to negotiation and commitment to working at process

Who has inspired you in your organizing?:

Most everyone I have come in contact with in different but meaningful ways. Toooo many to name......

What movements or political moments have most influenced your organizing career?:

The 1970's VISTA/ACTION movement. The IAF/PICO/Gamaliel - faith-based community organizing movement (although never a part of the network -- people who I came to know and provided training/reflection helped me gain the tools to be effective and sustain myself/others. NPA/NTIC and CCC also very valuable. Now the Obama movement sustains and energizes me.

Share an accomplishment or list accomplishments from your career in organizing.:

1. Many leaders developed & successful; 2. improvved community conditions & opportunities where people organized for jobs, modernized & affordable housing, improved educational opportunities, and safer communities and improved quality of life; 3. improved public discource - social capital.

What are the barriers to successful community organizing in this country? How can we overcome these barriers?:

Urban ommunity policies and practices resulting from greed & unabated governmental/unbridled capitalism of past decade -- leading to a depth of pain for middle-class & working families & low income in today's deep recession -- thereby making public/private reinvestments for improved community opportunities leading to improvement thus all the more daunting....must now all the more rely on relationships-community-organizing/development in building renewed communities w/o the capacities of substantive public/private investments that have been depleted....it's a new world where collective activism is a must!!!

Are you still in organizing? If not, in what other fields have you worked? What are you doing now?:

Presently I am on Hartford City Council; and I direct youth services for a workforce investment board (Capital Workforce Partners). However, the bulk of my work in the political arena is a continued use of my community organizing skills, competencies relationships and vision.

Genealogy

Visualize Jim Boucher's organizational relations

Jim Boucher's Trainers

Who developed and/or trained you as an organizer?

Person	Organization
Gaudette, Tom	Michigan Avenue Community Organization
Holler, Tom	Michigan Avenue Community Organization
Trapp, Shel	MACO/HART

Jim Boucher's Coaches

Who has mentored, coached, or consulted with you in your organizing career?

Person	Organization
Beckwith, David	Hartford Areas Rally Together
Mott, Andy	MACO/HART

Jim Boucher's Peers

Which of your peers influenced your development as an organizer?

Person	Organization
Fentin, Tom	Michigan Avenue Community Organization
Holler, Tom	Michigan Avenue Community Organization

Jim Boucher's Trainees

Whom have you developed or trained as an organizer? (Please list people who have stayed in the field or a related field for at least three years.)

Jim Boucher's Coachees

Who did you mentor, coach, or consult with you in your organizing career? (Please list people who have stayed in the field or a related field for at least 3 years.)