Unsung Hero Interview: Maria McKnight

Keith Arnold
By Keith Arnold

In December of 2022 Maria McKnight was awarded the Unsung Hero Award for her exceptional service to the Boston community to promote child and family wellbeing. 

Maria McKnight is a Boston native, mother, and former corporate worker turned curator of joy. She had a hobby of making art pieces such as fairy gardens in public parks. This passion grew during the peak of Covid due to having more time stuck inside and a child with severe anxiety who found peace and joy working with his mother to create these nuggets of joy and inspiration for the community. During this time, Maria transitioned to focus full-time on her organization 2 Birds No Stones where she organizes and develops public art installations, education stations, community sensory playdates, healing sessions, and more. Maria has set up mini outdoor yoga studios and violin play stations for locals to come and enjoy, learn, and heal. She has developed wellness trees full of free seed packets with information pamphlets on agriculture, recipes, and SNAP application instructions. She has transformed parks to host community-wide sensory playdates to bring together families with children on the autism spectrum. Where we might see a simple tree stump, Maria sees an opportunity to create something new to bring the community together around her beacons of joy. With her focus on community harmony, collective growth, and drawing people to the outdoors, Maria is using her creative passions and leadership skills to improve the Boston community.

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Children's Librarians: Community Champions for Children’s Mental Health Storytimes

Camelia Garrick, AmeriCorps VISTA Community Mobilization Coordinator and Desiree Hartman, Senior Program Coordinator
By Camelia Garrick, AmeriCorps VISTA Community Mobilization Coordinator and Desiree Hartman, Senior Program Coordinator

Being a librarian these days goes beyond wandering among stocked books and beyond the library walls. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Children's Librarians across Boston Public Library neighborhood branches have dedicated their time and efforts to creating an outlet for children and families to come together for book readings, songs and activities focused on Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) with Children's Mental Health Storytimes

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Reimagining Funding Partnership

Ronda Alexander and Camilia Beiner
By Ronda Alexander and Camilia Beiner

Vital Village Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) is built upon pillars of equity, dignity, and community-centered leadership. As NOW’s work has grown over the last several years, there has been an intentional focus on how to build and support local capacity to drive the transformation they want to see in their community. In the late spring of 2021 NOW partnered with 15 community champions from across the country to embark on a journey of reimagining funding structures to center, honor, and uphold the values of local communities and coalitions. The group began to explore cooperatives as a model for restructuring funding in a way that uplifted partnership rather than power. The practice of self-determination is a core principle of cooperatives movements and structures, which makes room for autonomy, while also celebrating the wide array of wisdom, knowledge, and talents that exist within our communities.

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Strengthening Families to Support Children: Joelle Auguste, Boston, MA

Camila Beiner
By Camila Beiner

A blog series profiling the work of community leaders across the country working to address the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice in their local communities. The series amplifies diverse leadership and the impact on communities, partnerships and members.

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VVN’s Social Media Goal: Fuel Collective Community Power

Tiffany Rodriguez & Camelia Garrick
By Tiffany Rodriguez & Camelia Garrick

Is your organization already using social media to lift up community voices and resources? What tips and tools do you have to share with organizations who are looking to begin using social media? Learn more about how Vital Village Networks is using social media to empower the communities with whom we work.

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