Maria L. Baldwin Community Center
Maud Morgan Arts is part of the organization Maria L. Baldwin Community Center (formerly known as Agassiz Baldwin Community)
About MLBCC
Formerly called the Agassiz Neighborhood Council, Inc. and Agassiz Baldwin Community (ABC), Maria L. Baldwin Community Center, A Cambridge Corporation (MLBCC) is a private, non-profit, tax-exempt corporation that provides services and programs for Cambridge residents.
In August 2007, the agency changed its name to Agassiz Baldwin Community, A Cambridge Corporation to better reflect our citywide functions and constituency, as well as to honor a neighborhood luminary, Maria Louise Baldwin, first African-American headmistress in New England.
In May 2022, the Board of Directors voted to rename our organization the Maria L. Baldwin Community Center. We’ll continue to do business as our former name while we go through the legal processes to get the name officially changed.
Mission
MLBCC is a place that nurtures individual growth and creativity, builds connections, and serves as a forum for community advocacy.
We believe in:
- Welcoming and including everyone
- Lifelong learning
- Fostering a culture of creativity and cooperation
Our programs and services include:
—The Baldwin Neighborhood Council provides community members with the opportunity to have their voices heard as well as take action on a variety of issues and initiatives. It meets monthly (except for July and August). The Whistler, our community newsletter, includes the minutes from each month’s Council meeting as well as information about ABC’s programs, events, and other items of interest in Cambridge.
—Children’s Programs including afterschool, summer program, parent/child playgroups, and opportunities for middle school students to get work experience through our Youth Employment Program.
—Community events and services include our annual Thanksgiving Potluck Feast, the Kids Only Holiday Sale, and Backyard Block Party. We also offer technical support for community initiatives, resources and referrals on neighborhood issues, and neighborhood archives.
—The Living Well Network, a grassroots, volunteer-supported initiative to help older residents stay in their homes as they age. This network will include contiguous neighborhoods, Porter Square, Neighborhood 9, Mid-Cambridge, and abutting sections of Somerville.
Anti-Racism Work
Starting in 2016, members of MLBCC recommitted to the organization’s long and winding journey of addressing institutional and structural racism through reflection on the programs we offer to our community and the manner in which they are delivered; our own policies and practices as an organization and their impact on our staff and program participants; and the ways we partner with institutions and participate in our wider local community.
To read more about our Anti-Racism work, please click here.
Land Acknowledgement
MLBCC is located on the traditional homeland of the Massachusetts people. We recognize their close neighbors the Wampanoag and the Nipmuc.