Website, 2018-Present

The Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) records consist of administrative records, staff and program files, communications materials, audiovisual recordings and photographs, born-digital materials, and reference items. The records date primarily from the organization’s founding in the early 1990s to the 2010s. The collection documents regional environmental justice activism through legal strategy and community outreach. It also documents the operations of a small non-profit organization.

Series 1. Administrative records consist of board of directors materials, grant development files, strategic planning materials, and other files such as human resources and staff meeting materials. These records are primarily from the directorship of Charlie Lord and Bill Shutkin (1993-1998), and Penn Loh (1998-2009).

Series 2. Staff files document many aspects of the organization’s administration and programs through the records of individual staff members, including directors, staff attorneys, community organizers, and program directors. They also document relationships with other individuals and environmental or community organizations, and conferences, workshops, or other outside events that staff attended. Staff members whose files are represented are Charlie Lord and Bill Shutkin; Veronica Eady; Penn Loh; Kalila Barnett; Warren Goldstein-Gelb; Gene Benson; Michelle Alvarez; Khalida Smalls; Jodi Sugerman-Brozan; Dave Jenkins; Marlena Rose; Staci Rubin; John Rumpler; Quita Sullivan; and Lee Matsueda and Rene Mardones. The content of these files overlaps at times with records found in Series I. Administrative and Series 4. Programs. Lord and Shutkin’s files also document the environmental law classes they taught at Boston College. Dates of records are 1993-2015.

Series 3. Communications contains ACE’s “Alternatives Press” newsletter, annual reports, flyers and other materials made for distribution. It also contains press clippings collected by staff, highlighting local environmental issues, news pertinent to ongoing legal cases, and community involvement in environmental justice initiatives. The series also contains general communication-related files. Dates of records are 1993-2014.

Series 4. Programs is the largest series within the collection. It documents core ACE programs such as Environmental Justice Legal Services (EJLS), Massachusetts Environmental Justice Network (MEJN), Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project (REEP), and T Riders Union (TRU). Services to Allies and the Community Representation Project appear to be earlier iterations of Environmental Justice Legal Services; these materials are arranged as two separate subseries, but both document ACE’s legal environmental justice work with community groups. The Programs series also documents Brownfields, Clean Buses for Boston (CBB), Neighborhoods Against Urban Pollution (NAUP), Right to the City (R2C), and the Transportation, Development and Environment Initiative (TDE). Dates of records are 1993-2014.

Series 5. Audiovisual recordings and photographs document ACE programs, events, activism and staff. The audiovisual materials include interviews of ACE staff and media coverage as well as recordings of conferences and meetings attended by ACE staff. The photographs document events such as Environmental Justice in the 'Hood and the Healthy Hair Show, activism such as protests against the Silver Line and against air pollution in Chinatown, and programs such as REEP and TRU. Dates of records are 1984-2012.

Series 6. Born-digital contains floppy disks, Zip disks, and compact discs that were loose in boxes (additional floppy disks and compact discs filed in folders along with textual records by ACE staff were left where found in other series). They contain electronic files related to ACE administration and development, legal cases, and transportation advocacy. The On the Move program is well documented, as are the early years of ACE. Dates of records are 1992-2013.

Series 7. Reference contains published or grey literature, or conference materials that couldn’t be associated with a particular series of subseries by the processing archivists. Dates of materials are 1991-2009.

Series 8. Website contains captures of ACE’s website from 2018 to the present.