October 1, 2019 - Janine Carreiro is Winner of the 2019 Pope Francis Social Justice Award: Faith in

Janine Carreiro, Co-Director of Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN) is the recipient of the first annual 2019 Pope Francis Social Justice Award: Faith in Action, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Boston Social Justice Ministry. She will be honored at the 11th annual Archdiocesan Justice Convocation on October 5th at Boston College High School, where she will be featured as the Keynote Speaker on “Interfaith Community Organizing to Promote Social Justice”. The Award will be presented by Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Human Services, Archdiocese of Boston. 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 Catholic who demonstrates the words of the Prophet Micah: “Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly with God.” It is named for Pope Francis in light of his exemplary demonstration of faith in action. And it is awarded to Janine in light of her young leadership in fighting poverty and injustice in Massachusetts and worldwide through community-based solutions.  
Janine, 38 years old, fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, a daughter of immigrants from the Azores and a former missioner in East Timor, has over 10 years of experience fighting for racial and economic justice. Her work has placed her at the center and forefront of some of the most crucial fights of our day. She began her work with a local Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN) affiliate in 2008. She quickly took over leading that effort as they tackled issues on local, state, and federal levels.  
Her organizing work has led to the training and engaging of hundreds of residents around issues that deeply 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. The work she’s been a part of has led to two increases in the minimum wage, the passage of paid family medical leave and earned sick time, passage of the most progressive criminal justice reform bill in recent history, as well as the creation of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. She is currently working on campaigns to support Immigrants and local funding for education, She sees it as a moral imperative to elevate the dignity of each person and to build the world that makes that possible.  
She does all of this while also raising three socially conscious and justice minded boys aged 7, 4, and 1. Mrs. Carreiro-Young received a B.A. from the University of Connecticut, and a Masters in Social Work, MSW from Boston College. She was the 2010 recipient of the Cardinal Bernardin new leadership award from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.