Category: ABCD History Timeline

The Embrace memorial is unveiled and ABCD co-founder Melnea Cass and former President/CEO Robert M. Coard are among 69 local civil rights leaders featured as part of the 1965 Freedom Plaza.

John J. Drew retires and Sharon Scott-Chandler, Esq. becomes the first woman to serve as ABCD President & CEO. ABCD celebrates its 60th anniversary at the Community Heroes Celebration. John J. Drew is inducted into the ABCD Hall of Fame.

The MassHire Metro North Workforce Board (MNWB) selects ABCD as the operator of the MassHire Metro North Career Center.

COVID-19 poses unprecedented challenges for ABCD and the world, but ABCD turns adversity into action by scaling up emergency services, using technology to meet people where they are, and providing direct relief to community members who need it most.

ABCD renovates an historic building on the ABCD Roxbury/North Dorchester campus and names it for community activist, educator, volunteer and health champion and longtime ABCD board member Thelma D. Burns.

ABCD expands to serve the Mystic Valley region, receiving federal Community Services Block Grant and other funding and successfully providing vital services and programs.

Grammy award winner Natalie Cole performs at the ABCD 50th anniversary gala! Sargent Shriver, first head of the War on Poverty programs, is inducted into the ABCD Hall of Fame and his son, Mark Shriver, accepts the award.

ABCD dedicates its main building at 178 Tremont Street, Boston, to Bob Coard, renaming it the Robert M. Coard building.

ABCD holds its first Hoop Dreams fundraiser with 10 corporate teams paying to play in a basketball tournament on the famed TD Garden parquet floor.

ABCD takes statewide leadership role in massive weatherization initiatives funded by ARRA and utility partners including 35 “green” solar hot water heating projects in public and subsidized housing developments across Massachusetts.