Meet Abbie Allenson of North Shore Community Development Coalition in Salem

Today we’d like to introduce you to Abbie Allenson.

Abbie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I began working at North Shore Community Development Coalition (CDC) as an intern my senior year of college. I worked full time for four days a week during my fall semester and was able to not only learn about how the organization functioned, but the different roles my supervisor had including event management, marketing, graphic design, and grant management. After my supervisor stepped down to pursue her dream of living in Oregon, I was hired part time while I completed my degree. Luckily, the full-time position was saved for me until after I completed my degree at Endicott College and I started my position as Marketing and Development Manager two days after graduation.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have been very lucky in that my path to this position has been smooth. I was fortunate to have four internships before my full-time position, which helped prepare me in many ways for the multitasking and creative thinking that comes with this role.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about North Shore Community Development Coalition – what should we know?
North Shore CDC invests in neighborhoods to create thriving communities. We are primarily an affordable housing nonprofit, but believe that giving people the opportunity to thrive goes beyond providing basic needs. With that, we have many community engagement programs such as ESOL, Tax Preparation, and First-Time Homebuyers courses, voter engagement activities, and free community events to engage with our residents and the people in the communities we serve. We also have a program called YouthBuild North Shore CDC, which empowers opportunity youth who have dropped out of high school for whatever reason to improve themselves and their communities. We do so by helping them obtain their GED/HiSET and providing construction trainings and certifications in order to give them the chance to go to college or join a union.

Our latest project is something that I’m very proud of – the Punto Urban Art Museum. This project recently launched in June of this year with the vision of creating a world class urban arts district in Salem’s Point Neighborhood that embraces its rich immigrant and architectural history and presents a dynamic opportunity for the neighborhood’s future. This open-aired museum will have over 30 murals painted on our affordable housing buildings and buildings of surrounding businesses with the goal of bridging the divide between downtown Salem and the Point Neighborhood.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Working collaboratively with others, I believe, is how a finished product becomes great. Intertwining independent work and the collaborative process, the ideas start to flow and that’s always the fun part of creating a successful project.

Contact Info:

• Address: 96 Lafayette Street,
  Floor 2, Salem, MA 01970
• Website: www.northshorecdc.org
• Phone: 978-825-4004
• Email: abbie@northshorecdc.org
• Instagram: @NorthShoreCDC, @urban.art.museum, @ybnorthshore
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthShoreCDC/ https://www.facebook.com/puntourbanartmuseum/ https://www.facebook.com/YouthBuildNorthShoreCDC/
• Twitter: @NorthShoreCDC, @ybnorthshore

Image Credit:
Jared Charney Photography
Charles Karch Photography

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