Profile

Originally from Chile, Rene Mardones came to Boston in 2000. He recalls being interested in community building from an early age, since his mother was highly involved in local activism through her church. He remembers helping low-income families with literacy and bringing first aid kits to farmers in rural areas a young child, and becoming involved in activism for Indigenous rights and educational reform as a high schooler.

Rene began his community building career in Boston with two years of AmeriCorps service for Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) working with the Small Business and Tenant Associations. He recalls that this period was especially important for him, because they helped him discover and learn the “institutionalized” nature of community organizing in the United States. Right after his AmeriCorps service, Rene transitioned into parent organizing with Sociedad Latina in Mission Hill. He recalls a prominent initiative he worked on was pressuring

"the Boston Public School [system] to create parent liaison positions, something that at that time didn't exist. We were able to implement a pilot program with 15 schools that created this position where parents with limited English [who] were having trouble engaging in those schools [were finally able to]. At that time, my daughter was also part of Boston public school, so it really helped me to not just advocate for this position, but also to learn how to become more involved in in the education of my daughter."

After five years of work primarily with Boston’s Latinx community, Rene wanted to learn more about and work with the Boston’s Black community. He explains, “I was very interested in learning more about the African American community. So, the idea for me was ‘how I could become a bridge between the African American community and the immigrant community?’” This prompted him to move to Roxbury and start working with Alternative for Community and Environment (ACE) in Nubian square. During his time at ACE, Rene was primarily an organizer with the T riders Union, “a group of T riders fighting for better access to public transportation.”

Rene went to Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) to work on community engagement and affordable housing following his seven years at ACE. At SCC, he helped create First Source. During a time of increasing cost of living, gentrification, and displacement, this program was designed to help Somerville residents gain access to jobs in higher-paying industries through free career coaching.

The Mel King Institute discovered Rene during his time at SCC after he and a colleague co-developed a successful Leadership Development Institute (LDI), which teaches basic community organizing skills to around 25 Somerville residents a year. He explains that the LDI “was a way to provide a perspective on how we can make changes in our community and how people can get involved. I think Mel King Institute realized that this could be replicated in other communities.” Concepts from the LDI courses Rene originally co-wrote and taught, are now available in Planning 103: Putting the Community into Planning, the third and final session of our Planning Series.*

Since 2021, Rene has been the Director of Community Organizing at Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), and looking forward, he is excited to create a framework for climate resiliency. He explains that DSNI has "been doing some community mapping [and] meetings to identify issues that are important for the community like, heat island effect, pollution, noise, [and] trash… we're taking the lead in trying to figure out how we can address those community issues."

He stated that another one of DSNI’s main goals is to secure funding for expanding the community land trust model.

When he’s not at DSNI or working on his Master of Public Policy at Tufts University, Rene enjoys camping, gardening, spending time with his two grandkids, and making silver and gold jewelry.­­

*We are proud to announce that we are offering Planning 103: Putting the Community into Planning on October 29, 2024! Rene will co-facilitate this upcoming session with Sarah Horsley.