BOSTON – Eastern Bank Foundation honored Gladys Vega, executive director of La Colaborativa ― an organization that empowers the Latin community in Greater Boston ― with the 2021 Social Justice Award.
“Gladys has inspired us all through her grit, determination, resilience and leadership, especially as she was working at the epicenter of the worst COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts and New England,” said Nancy Huntington Stager, president and CEO of the Eastern Bank Foundation. “She is an extraordinary leader and community trailblazer who leads by example and continues to be a social-justice champion. She empowers individuals to realize they can affect change and make the difference they seek, and achieves so much because of her deep and trusting connections to the people in the communities she serves.”
La Colaborativa is a Chelsea-based organization that provides social services that foster security, stability, and empowerment in the Latino immigrant community in Chelsea, East Boston, Everett, Lynn, Revere and Malden. It partners with residents to drive policy and system changes that benefit Latino communities in such areas as food and housing security, economic advancement, cultural celebration and community leadership.
Vega joined La Colaborativa in 1990 as a receptionist and worked through the ranks as a community organizer and assistant executive director until becoming the organization’s executive director in 2006. She believes that empowering individuals leads to empowering communities, and that an empowered community can use social action to achieve its goals, Vega said.
Vega created nearly all of La Colaborativa’s programs, initiatives and community organizing campaigns that address food distribution, emergency housing, legal aid, youth employment and development, education, job training and other needs of her clients.
When the COVID-19 pandemic created overlapping public-health, unemployment, housing and hunger crises in Chelsea and surrounding areas, Vega’s leadership positioned La Colaborativa at the forefront of state and local efforts to meet the needs of Latino residents across Massachusetts. La Colaborativa was able to facilitate high rates of COVID-19 vaccinations in its communities through its model of community health distribution through local leadership and grassroots outreach. Its team went door-to-door to reach individuals and families with information about resources available to them and the importance of getting vaccinated.
Vega also hosted a pop-up food pantry on her front porch that distributed over 10,000 pounds of food.
“During the pandemic, immigrant communities became hot spots for the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, revealing gross inequities in our safety net systems, and the team at La Colaborativa does all that we can to ensure families and individuals are not left behind or left alone,” said Vega. “We continue to help people get through this pandemic ― to keep families and children fed and safely housed, and to provide the medical care and vaccines to protect them and the workers’ rights to sustain their livelihoods. We are especially honored to receive the 2021 Social Justice Award from the Eastern Bank Foundation because it understands all too well that relationships and trust in the community are always necessary to create justice, equality and opportunity and especially during a pandemic.”
For the last 33 years, Eastern Bank Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Boston-based Eastern Bank, has recognized community leaders who have made an outstanding impact in addressing critical social-justice issues with the annual award. This year’s Social Justice Award was presented during a virtual Celebration of Justice event attended by more than 500 community leaders.
Since the start of the pandemic, Eastern Bank Foundation has provided more than $15 million in local COVID-19 relief.