Sen. Liz Miranda

Roxbury Community College (RCC) recently secured a $12 million investment to restore the David Dudley House and establish the Center for Economic and Social Justice, a space exclusively devoted to education, workforce development, entrepreneurship and long-term economic stability.

The center will also prepare students, particularly students of color, for careers in growing industries such as clean energy, energy efficiency and green technology. It will also be a space to support small business development and entrepreneurship in Roxbury and surrounding communities.

The investment was secured through Sen. Liz Miranda through her amendment to the BRIGHT Act, which the State Senate passed on Feb. 26. The $3.28 billion bond bill will support Massachusetts public colleges and universities, reducing a maintenance backlog for the campuses while improving facilities and laboratories that will support vocational training.

“With $4 million secured by Sen. Markey through HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development), $500,000 our office secured in the FY25 state budget, and now $12 million through the BRIGHT Act, we are finally turning a long-neglected state asset into a space dedicated to education, workforce opportunity and economic mobility for Roxbury,” Miranda told the Banner via email.

The new development builds on years of work to bring the historic Dudley House back to life. Built in 1825 as a private residence, the building was later stewarded by the Archdiocese of Boston and various nonprofit, education and human services providers. It is currently vacant and in need of substantial maintenance.

Miranda also said that this project will help in dealing with one of the greatest challenges of the present day, the workforce crisis, as it prepares to support approximately 100 students each year with pathways to meaningful careers.

“For over 50 years, Roxbury Community College has transformed lives through accessible education and workforce training. …This is about preparing our residents for the jobs of tomorrow while investing directly in our own neighborhoods,” Miranda said in a press release.

More than 60 percent of RCC students live in Miranda’s district, which includes Dorchester, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roslindale, Roxbury and the South End. The area deserves more community-led investment like this, Miranda said.

The project is more than restoring a building; it is about restoring opportunity, too.

“This investment speaks to something our communities have been saying for a long time,” she wrote in her email to the Banner.

“We deserve to be at the forefront of emerging industries like climate tech and green jobs, and we deserve real environmental justice investments that create opportunity right here at home.”

Once the Dudley House is rehabilitated, the space will be dedicated to advancing economic justice, racial equity and environmental sustainability. It is also expected to become the first net-zero historic rehabilitation in Massachusetts.

Salvador Pina, RCC’s vice president of Workforce & Economic Development, said he and the college have gratitude for Miranda and all those who helped to move the BRIGHT Act forward, as it will help foster a new era of economic growth for community college students across the state. The new training and conference space would not have been possible for the small community college to have taken on alone.

He added that establishing a Center of Economic and Social Justice will also enable conversations about what justice can look like and how the college can play a role.

“It’s really exciting to have that kind of support, and we know that we’re going to be able to use [the investment] in a way that supports our community,” said Pina.

“We have a lot of folks in our area who are impacted through poverty and the center’s goal is to help raise those folks up into jobs that will make them economically self-sufficient.”