Chelsea Public Schools, Superintendent Dr. Abeyta Play Pivotal Role in ENOUGH Act Development in Massachusetts

From left to right: Senator Sal DiDomenico, Mayra Balderas, Superintendent Dr. Almi G. Abeyta, Dr. Aaron T. Jennings, Clary Covas Caraballo, Dr. Tamara Blake-Canty, Dr. Christine Lee

CHELSEA, Mass. – In a culmination of years of strategic work, advocacy and relationship building by Chelsea Public Schools, Superintendent Dr. Almi G. Abeyta testified today at the State House to support The ENOUGH Act, legislation filed by Senator Sal DiDomenico that will bring significant funding to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to support community-driven, place-based strategies aimed at reducing poverty and supporting youth from cradle to career.

The ENOUGH (Engaging Neighborhoods, Organizations, Unions, Governments and Households) Act is a “transformational approach to end concentrated poverty”. Inspired by the place-based approach to breaking intergenerational poverty utilized by the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) and a reflection of Harvard Graduate School of Education’s EdRedesign Lab place-based, whole-child, whole-family approach to education and child development, this act will provide individual communities in the Commonwealth with the support and resources needed to identify root causes of poverty in their neighborhoods and begin to address them.

Chelsea has been the Massachusetts model for this place-based and cradle-to-career philosophy, and the school district’s work was the genesis of the ENOUGH Act’s development in the Commonwealth. In 2024, Dr. Abeyta served as a fellow in the inaugural cohort of the Place-Based Education Leaders Design Fellowship (ELDF) launched by the William Julius Wilson Institute (WJWI) at HCZ. Dr. Abeyta was one of 23 superintendents and school district leaders nationwide to learn about how to adapt HCZ’s and WJWI’s nationally recognized cradle-to-career and place-based model to catalyze student success. She learned directly from HCZ’s founder Geoffrey Canada on how the power of this model creates support for youth from birth through college and career.
She brought this learning and experience back to Chelsea and CPS, in particular elevating the work of the Chelsea Children’s Cabinet - a working group created by CPS in 2021-22 that embodies the community-aligned and cross-sector representation that the ENOUGH Act champions - to focus on this model and work. The Children’s Cabinet, led by the school district, brings together representatives from Chelsea from education, health care, social services, community leaders, the municipal sector and others to focus on a collaborative effort to best support youth success. 

Chelsea Children's Cabinet members who attended the press conference about the ENOUGH Act at the State House on Thursday, May 7, 2026

That work spurred a pivotal visit to HCZ in 2025 where Dr. Abeyta and the school district gathered a group of Children’s Cabinet members to visit HCZ in New York to see the organization’s model first-hand. This group included Senator Sal DiDomenico, who left HCZ inspired to bring the place-based and community-focused model back to the Commonwealth. Collaboration with various entities including CPS and Harvard Graduate School of Education’s (HGSE) EdResign Program’s Paul Reville helped lead to the development of the legislation presented today.

“This is about more than policy. It is about building systems that match the scale of the challenge and the potential of our children. Our students are ready. Our communities are ready. Now we need the Commonwealth to meet this moment,” Superintendent Dr. Almi G. Abeyta said. “Thank you to Senator Sal DiDomenico for their work to file this important and transformative legislation.”

The group of Children's Cabinet members who visited the Harlem Children's Zone in 2025, a pivotal moment in the development of the proposed ENOUGH Act in Massachusetts

“The Harlem Children’s Zone is a striking example of community, government, and philanthropy working in unison to radically improve thousands of people’s lives for the better and it was inspiring to visit and learn about this seminal project with Superintendent Dr. Abeyta and all my Chelsea colleagues,” said Senator Sal DiDomenico. “I am proud and excited to bring this innovative framework here to help combat poverty in my district and all over the Commonwealth. The reason an initiative like this works is because they include holistic and community-driven programs that address the root causes of poverty and offer wrap-around high-quality services across every aspect of life from education to health care to childcare to community building and so much more. I am grateful for leaders like Geoffrey Canada and Kwame Owusu-Kesse who are spreading these ideas across the country and creating opportunities for countless scholars."

The proposed ENOUGH Act in Massachusetts will deepen the work already happening in Chelsea. The act will establish the ENOUGH Fund, which will award partnership development grants, planning grants and implementation grants to support the efforts to eliminate generational poverty, increase economic mobility and strengthen cradle-to-career education and workforce development. The targeted demographics for these grants are communities in Massachusetts that include census tracts with more than 20% of children living in poverty, high concentrations of low-income residents, and indicators of distress such as chronic absenteeism, juvenile justice involvement, and health disparities.

The potential of students in Chelsea Public Schools is limitless. The ENOUGH Act will support building the systems that best support the children and youth in Chelsea and throughout the Commonwealth. The resources provided will align all community entities to come together around the shared outcomes of cradle-to-career support, ensuring that CPS youth meet and exceed the potential they all have.