Boston City Council Adopts Resolutions Honoring NECAT and Higher Ground Boston

BOSTON — April 8, 2026 — Boston City Council honored two workforce and community organizations with formal resolutions at its April 8 meeting. Councilor Miniard Culpepper presented citations to the New England Center for Arts and Technology, a tuition-free culinary training nonprofit founded in 2013, and to Higher Ground Boston, a collective impact organization that has housed 625 students and families over 16 years. NECAT founder Martin Hemsley announced the organization will relocate to a new building in Nubian Square in the coming year. Higher Ground Executive Director Dr. Brandi Brooks, accepting the citation with colleague Darian Johnson, said the organization has built a coalition of more than 65 partners including hospitals, universities, and government agencies to address educational equity and family housing. The council also photographed with representatives of the Lewis D. Brown Peace Institute ahead of a separate resolution, co-sponsored by Councilors Fitzgerald and Worrell, scheduled later in the same session. The meeting's sole formal vote was unanimous approval of the April 1 meeting minutes; the session had not moved to mayor's communications dockets 0733 and onward when the transcript ended.