MassHousing Named Finalist for Two Rosoff Awards
MassHousing has been named a finalist for two Rosoff Awards for the Agency's programs that foster the use of minority and women-owned businesses and for a school mentoring program in Boston.
The awards—which are presented by The Ad Club to companies with meaningful diversity, mentoring and inclusion programs—are named after Arnold Worldwide founder Arnold Z. Rosoff, who made it his mission to increase the focus on workplace diversity after he founded his company in 1946.
MassHousing was a finalist—along with Google and Babson College—in the External Diversity Initiative award category for the Agency's Minority-owned Business Enterprise (MBE) and Women-owned Business Enterprise (WBE) utilization program, which gives minority and women-owned firms the opportunity to benefit from MassHousing-generated business opportunities. Babson College was named the winner in this category.
MassHousing works with real estate developers, general contractors and property managers to establish goals for MBE/WBE participation. In fiscal year 2012, MassHousing had 18 projects under construction, representing $250 million in total awards. Of this, $53.6 million (21.4%) were awarded to MBEs and $37 million (14.8%) were awarded to WBEs. The more than 500 developments in MassHousing’s rental housing portfolio expended a total of $187 million for supplies, equipment and services. Of this amount, $37 million (19.6%) were attributed to MBE expenditures and $23 million (12%) to WBE expenditures.
MassHousing was also a finalist for a Rosoff Mentor Award for the Agency's Striving Toward Academic Recognition and Respect (S.T.A.R.R.) Mentor Program, a unique 23-year-old partnership between MassHousing and the Quincy Dickerman Elementary School in Dorchester. The program originated in response to a school administrator's call for role models and volunteers for the students, many of whom live in or near MassHousing-financed developments in the neighborhood. In 2009, the S.T.A.R.R. Mentor Program moved to the Martin Luther King Middle School, which merged with the Dickerman School. MassHousing staff mentor students beginning in the third grade until they reach the fifth grade.
Since its inception, more than 300 students have participated in the S.T.A.R.R. Mentor Program and MassHousing mentors come from all levels and departments in the Agency’s organization. Each school year, eight to 10 mentors volunteer to work one day a week with students in the classroom to raise their levels of aspiration and academic achievement. An additional eight to 10 MassHousing mentors also volunteer on weekends to take students on field trips and provide special learning projects to augment students’ learning and social skills.






