In 1985 a group of women on welfare organized Arise for Social Justice to support the rights of low-income people in Springfield, MA. Twenty-seven years later, Arise continues to work to provide direct services to people in need and to organize Springfield residents—especially poor, homeless, at-risk, unemployed, and otherwise marginalized people—to tackle the deep-rooted causes of poverty in their city.

Arise is currently focusing on three areas, all of which would benefit from the assistance of committed student interns: housing and homelessness; environmental health and climate justice; and reforming the criminal justice system. In tackling these three inter-related issues Arise is helping to create a vision of what a just, sustainable Springfield would look like.