Anti-Violence Activist Wins Quinn Award for Outstanding Community Leadership

By Leigh DuPuy

As Boston officials fear a sharp rise in the number of recent homicides signals a new level of street violence, UMass Boston will honor a woman who is dedicated to teaching children about peace and counseling those who have lost family members. For her community activism in Dorchester and Roxbury, Isaura Mendes, a mother, grandmother, and anti-violence leader, will receive the 2004 Robert H. Quinn Award for Outstanding Community Leadership.

"I want to reach out to survivors who have lost family or have had children who are victims of violence," says Mendes in describing her mission. She knows how this feels firsthand, having lost her son in 1995 to street violence. Frustrated and angry by his senseless death, she turned to activism, working with other community leaders to hold the First Annual Parents' and Children's Walk for Peace in July 2000, attracting 300 marchers in its inaugural year. The annual march is now in its fifth year.

Shannon Flaherty, a colleague who nominated Mendes for the award, describes her as a "tireless leader in the fight against violence in the Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods." A list of her achievements includes work co-organizing the Groom/Humphrey's Resident's Organization, which received one of the top Crime Watches award by the City of Boston, completion of the Police Academy's Resident Training Program, and working closely with the Louis D. Peace Institute, an organization that visits families who have lost loved ones. With the help of the Casey Foundations' Family Strengthening Small Grants Fund, Mendes has also helped establish the Bobby Mendes Peace Legacy. For her many projects, Mendes received the 2002 Massachusetts Black Legislative Caucus "Profile of Courage" Award.

Mendes, who immigrated from Cape Verde when she was fifteen, has lived in Upham's Corner for 37 years. Though she struggles to define why the neighborhood changed, she identifies violence as fueling such changes. "The kids grow up and get into trouble," Mendes says. "We have so much murder in the community like we never did before."

The mother of four and a grandmother to six, Mendes knows children and believes in the importance of talking to them about violence and peace. Rewarding positive behavior, she takes the neighborhood children out when they get good grades on report cards. "If they earn A's and B's, I take them to the dinner or to the movies," says Mendes.

Education is clearly important to Mendes, who balances her activism with pursuit of her own education through a literacy program at The Little House in Dorchester.

This is the eighteenth year the university has given the award to an individual who has displayed exemplary community service. The spirit of the award is modeled after Robert H. Quinn and his commitment to higher education and the community. As a member of the House of Representatives, Quinn co-sponsored the legislation that created UMass Boston and has worked for over 38 years to make higher education available to the citizens of Boston. The breakfast will be held at the university on March 16.

Image: Local anti-violence advocate Isaura Mendes will be honored for her activism at the March 16 Community Breakfast, where she will receive the Robert H. Quinn Award for Outstanding Community Leadership. She is seen here with photographs of those who have been victims of violence. (Photo by Harry Brett)

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