"We had the opportunity to sit together, and dream together, and come up with a shared vision of how we wanted to see this neighborhood develop and what we wanted it to look like. . . We've been able to keep that vision in the front of our minds and not let other little things deter us from that shared vision." Ché Madyun

Ché Madyun lives in the Dudley Street community, an area of about one and a half square miles along the Roxbury/Dorchester line in greater Boston. Ché served as the first Board President of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a community-based nonprofit organization working with Dudley residents to create a vibrant, diverse and high quality neighborhood. Projects include reclaiming environmentally damaged sites and revitalizing business and cultural life.

With the initiative, Ché and her neighbors are building an "urban village," realizing a vision for the future based on local empowerment, cooperation and hard work. Progress is visible throughout the community - 300 new units of affordable housing on formerly vacant lots, a town common serving as a gateway to the neighborhood, a mural celebrating the neighborhood's rich, ethnic diversity, and community gardens.