Milagros “Milly” Arbaje-Thomas, deputy director of field operations and director of the Action for Boston Community Development Parker Hill/Fenway and Mattapan neighborhood centers, received an honorary degree from Emmanuel College in recognition of her commitment to and achievements for low-income residents of Boston neighborhoods.

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The nearly $30 million outpouring of corporate and individual giving to the One Fund Boston for victims of the Marathon bombings has been a source of pride for Hub residents, but it’s also starting to raise concerns among representatives of other local charities that prospective donors may be tapped out.

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Seventeen students from many different local high schools doled out a cumulative $20,000 from the Watertown-based Tufts Health Plan Foundation to three Boston-area nonprofits focusing on improving the lives of older adults at a ceremony this week.

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By cutting funds for Head Start, sequestration has sent low-income children in some states home 10 days early. But the federal government's inability to agree on a budget didn't prevent 2,800 Head Start leaders from attending a three-day conference in National Harbor, Md., this week.

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By Sharon Scott-Chandler, executive vice president of Action for Boston Community Development Inc. (ABCD)

At one point In her popular and controversial book "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead," Sheryl Sandberg quotes Ellen Bravo, Director of the Family Values @ Work Consortium, who observes: “…most women are not thinking about ‘having it all’, they’re worried about losing it all – their jobs, their children’s health, their family’s financial stability – because of the regular conflicts that arise between being a good employee and a responsible parent.”

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A charitable foundation established by lawyers at a downtown firm has awarded a two-year college for underserved students with a grant to purchase textbooks for use by students who cannot afford their own.

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It’s not unusual for high school students to take part in philanthropic initiatives, but unlike other programs the Tufts Health Plan Foundation’s Future Philanthropists Initiative gives students the power to distribute up to $20,000 to non-profits making a difference in the community.

Now in its second year, the program brings 17 high school students from Boston and the suburbs together for a 12-week course that teaches them about grant writing, philanthropy, health care for older adults, and community engagement.

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One in five children in America live in poverty. In Suffolk County, which includes Boston, Revere, Chelsea, and Winthrop, the rate of childhood poverty is even worse. That's according to census data highlighted in a recent report by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

If you ask Amanda Currin, a mother of three on welfare, what poverty looks like, she'll tell you it depends on where you're looking.

"Different countries, you think of little kids on TV eating oatmeal or rice out of a bowl, you know, dirty, no clothes," Currin said. "But here, it's this. It's me, it's every other family that I know from South Boston."

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By Katie Johnston |  GLOBE STAFF     MARCH 03, 2013

Acting US Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris has been talking to low-wage workers around the country about President Obama’s proposal to increase the minimum wage to $9 an hour from $7.25 by 2015 — a pay hike the White House estimates would give nearly 15 million people a raise. Katie Johnston of the Globe staff spoke with Harris after he met with workers at the Action for Boston Community Development food bank in Roxbury.

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By Brian Ballou |  GLOBE STAFF     MARCH 03, 2013

Vanessa Dorion has come to rely on the South Boston Head Start program, where her 4-year-old son, Brody, has thrived since he started coming in September. But there's a word that has unnerved her and most of the other parents who have children in the program — sequestration.

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After several failed attempts at negotiations between U.S. President Barack Obama and Congress over the federal budget, across the board spending cuts known as the sequester when into effect Friday, and some Massachusetts agencies are bracing for the negative impacts.

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Several New England lawmakers re-introduced legislation Tuesday to increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a system that helps thousands of families in Massachusetts each year.

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey is one of four house democrats trying to increase the annual funding before the sequester slashes aid to such services.

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By Emily Sweeney |  GLOBE STAFF     MARCH 04, 2013

As local human service agencies grapple with potential layoffs, pay cuts, and service reductions from sequestration, several agencies from Massachusetts plan to directly appeal to lawmakers in the nation’s capital this week.

The National Community Action Foundation’s legislative conference, scheduled to start Tuesday, will draw hundreds of advocates from all over the country to Washington, D.C., where sequestration promises to be a dominant topic.

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(NECN: Peter Howe, Boston) As acting U.S. Labor Secretary, Seth Harris spends a lot of time these days arguing for President Obama’s push to raise the U.S. minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9, the first increase in the minimum wage since 2009, when a two-year phased-in increase brought it from $5.15 to $7.25.

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If approved by Congress, President Obama’s proposal to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 by the end of 2015 would benefit 234,000 Bay State workers, acting U.S. Labor Secretary Seth Harris said yesterday. 

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Mary Moore, Reporter-Boston Business Journal

Acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris is making the rounds in Boston today to drum up support for President Barack Obama’s minimum wage proposal.

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John MacPherson is an 86-year-old World War II veteran with a problem, one that Washington isn’t helping one bit this week.

While his six children raise families of their own across New England, he lives alone in his home in Dorchester, not far from his childhood home in South Boston. His problem: The fact that he receives fuel assistance probably means he is about to become a victim of the so-called sequester budget cuts.

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Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation spoke out passionately this morning against upcoming automatic federal spending cuts, portraying them as potentially devastating to children, the elderly, and the poor.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren called the automatic cuts in federal spending slated to take effect Friday “just plain dumb,” but the Bay State’s newly minted, but still senior, senator said it’s largely up to congressional leaders to reach a compromise.

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The state’s top Democratic politicians will speak out Monday morning at a rally opposing the automatic budget cuts referred to as “sequestration.”

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Senate hopefuls Edward Markey and Stephen Lynch, both sitting members of Congress, all plan to speak at a Boston rally sponsored by the human services agency Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD). U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano will also speak, as will representatives from a number of area social service agencies.

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