DSNI Board Member Fabienne Eliacin wins the Myra Kraft Community MVP Award

Congratulations to Fabienne Eliacin for winning the Grand Prize at the Myra Kraft Community MVP Awards for Volunteerism, hosted by the New England Patriots Foundation. Thanks to Fabienne’s exemplary service to the Dudley community, DSNI received $25,000.

Left to right: DSNI Resource Development Director Joceline Fidalgo, Fabienne's mother, Fabienne Eliacin, and DSNI Executive Director Juan Leyton

Fabienne has been a DSNI leader for 9 years, serving on the Board of Directors, Sustainable Development Committee, Education Committee, and the School Readiness Roundtable. She also participates in Fair Chance for Family Success and farms in the community gardens on the Dudley Neighbors’ Inc community land trust. She has been a key parent voice in the implementation of the Boston Promise Initiative, a strategy to improve neighborhood educational outcomes by strengthening the health of the community as a whole. Fabienne regularly brings delegations of parents to Boston Public Schools meetings to raise awareness about the needs of young children, especially those with learning disabilities. Outside of DSNI, she volunteers for St. Stephen’s Church, Union Capital Boston, and the Haiti relief organization “Boston Mothers Care”.

As co-chair of the Sustainable Development Committee (SDC), Fabienne co-leads a team of about 20 residents who collectively influence the quality and affordability of  new construction in Dudley. They monitor projects for their impact on surrounding neighbors, and reach out directly to developers or city officials when they have concerns. This means that Fabienne often serves as an intermediary between those decision-makers and the community, either through one-on-one meetings with developers or by facilitating public meetings of 75 or more attendees.

Fabienne Eliacin and Juan Leyton

Throughout Dudley, Fabienne is known as “Ms. Resources”: She has the knowledge, connections, and relationships to link her friends and neighbors with support, whether they have questions about finances, housing, health care, healthy eating, education, jobs, arts, or social justice. Through Fabienne’s leadership at DSNI, our entire community is more aligned, empowered, and ready to confront the challenges facing our neighborhood.