A female Dorchester leader will receive first-ever Pope Francis Social Justice Award at BC High

Janine Carreiro, co-director of the Dorchester organization Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN) is the recipient of the first annual “Pope Francis Social Justice Award: Faith in Action,” sponsored by the Archdiocese of Boston Social Justice Ministry.

Carreiro will be honored at the 11th annual Archdiocesan Justice Convocation on October 5th at Boston College High School (150 Morrissey Blvd, Dorchester, MA 02125), where she will be featured as the Keynote Speaker on “Interfaith Community Organizing to Promote Social Justice.”

Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Human Services, Archdiocese of Boston, will deliver the award. Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, who will be in Rome to participate in the Synod for the Amazon, will extend his congratulations via a pre-recorded video.

The inaugural “Pope Francis Social Justice Award: Faith in Action,” honors a Latin Catholic who demonstrates the words of the Prophet Micah: “Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly with God.” According to the Archdiocese of Boston, Carreiro is awarded to recognize her young leadership in fighting poverty and injustice in Massachusetts and worldwide through community-based solutions.

Carreiro, 38 years old, fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, a daughter of immigrants from the Azores and a former missioner in East Timor, has over ten years of experience fighting for racial and economic justice. In Boston, she began working with a local MCAN affiliate in 2008 and quickly took over leading that effort as they tackled issues on local, state, and federal levels.

Her work has led to the training and engagement of hundreds of residents around issues that profoundly impact family life including foreclosure prevention, crime reduction, family division due to deportations, a focus on prevention versus prosecution, and prioritizing youth and their success. She has also been in a leading position for the accomplishment of two increases in the minimum wage, the passage of paid family medical leave and earned sick time, the passage of the “most progressive criminal justice” reform bill in recent history, as well as the creation of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, according to the Archdiocese.

Currently, Janine Carreiro is working on campaigns to support Immigrants and local funding for education. She is married and raising three boys aged 7, 4, and 1. On the academic level, she received a B.A. from the University of Connecticut, and a Masters in Social Work, MSW from Boston College. In 2010, she was the recipient of the Cardinal Bernardin new leadership award from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.