Village 14 is inviting all candidates for mayor, city council or school committee to submit a single guest column between now and Aug 1.

My name is Brenda Noel and I would like your vote to serve as the next Ward 6 City Councilor.

For over four months I have been knocking on doors and listening to voters. I hear many of the questions you would expect, but the one that comes up at the majority of doors is,

 “Why are you running?”

From 2000-­‐2004 I worked at the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance.  I managed a federal grant ($11 Million annually) that funded services for victims of crime. The grant was a result of the 1984 Victims of Crime Act enacted by President Reagan. It supported rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, child sexual abuse services, and homicide bereavement programming. 

I was in this position on the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a crime that directly impacted more than 200 Massachusetts families who lost husbands, wives, children and parents on the hijacked planes and in the Twin Towers. Our country -­‐-­‐ our government and the people it serves-­‐-­‐was thrown into crisis mode, and at the core of it were those families. They needed help navigating systems and services while shouldering the trauma of grief and loss, exactly the kind of expertise we’d been funding across the state.

But we had a problem. As we worked to identify providers and experts in the field to serve the impacted families, we were prevented due to well-­‐intentioned regulations and confidentiality requirements of a variety of public agencies from connecting the families to the providers. Where did the solution come from? Senator Edward M. Kennedy and his staff.

Senator Kennedy was committed to seeing that every one of those families got the support they needed, and we partnered with his staff to create a system of advocacy that assigned a professional trained in trauma and advocacy to any family that wanted one. His leadership allowed us to quickly identify and connect with those families, and also brought Massachusetts an additional two million dollars from the federal government to fund those services.

As with so many challenges—including those we face today-­‐-­‐the solution was out there, but it took the leadership and connections of an elected official who could track down the people with the right expertise and partner with them to break through the bureaucracy, getting people what they needed without delay. 

It was a defining moment in my career. I saw first hand that to truly impact change and affect people’s lives in a positive way, the capacity lies with our elected officials.  This kind of  “get it done now” attitude-­‐-­‐with no excuses for people not getting what they need-­‐-­‐should be the rule, not the exception.

In Newton, we are facing an opioid crisis, a significant budget deficit coupled with a responsibility to follow-­‐through on our financial commitment to our retirees. We are in dire need of repairing and replacing our roads and fortifying our infrastructure, and we are at a defining moment as a community in responding to our current diverse housing and transportation needs. The solution to these challenges is within our reach, but it will take leadership, courage and a willingness to collaborate.

As your Ward 6 City Councilor, I will continue to knock on doors and listen to your questions and concerns. If elected, I promise to provide leadership and, inspired by how I have seen government work for the good of the people, find and partner with those who can help address our most pressing issues and make Newton even stronger than it is today

Please visit my website to learn more about my platform. www.brendafornewton.com

Thank you for your time, and your vote on November 7th. Best,

Brenda