Letter: Allegra Clark Has Worked Tirelessly for Equity and Justice

I am writing this letter to communicate my support for Allegra Clark. She has been steadfast in her commitment to anti-racism diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. Allegra is a graduate of Amherst Regional High School.  During her time there, she was involved with the dance program, a social-justice based performing arts group called AWARE that formed after the 9/11 attacks, and various groups organizing against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Following college in California and graduate school in Boston, she returned to Amherst in 2018 with her growing family.  In 2020, she began organizing with local abolitionists to re-allocate funding from the Amherst Police Department into social services that would help prevent crime and provide fulfilling opportunities for community members. 

She became formally involved with a town committee in 2021 when she joined the Affordable Housing Trust.  During her time with the Trust, she has served on the Homelessness and Rehousing Working Group; voted for increased funding to the East Gables project; motioned for funding to the Amherst Community Homes (Ball Lane) project; advocated for increased funding allocated to affordable housing under the Proposed Special Act on Residential Property Transfer Fees; and questioned the impact on affordability of housing of the 2023 proposed zoning bylaw changes.

In 2022, she was appointed to the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, which she has co-chaired since its inception.  This committee has continued the work of the Community Safety Working Group, with a particular focus on the incident which occurred July 5, 2022 between youth and the Amherst Police Department.  This incident highlighted both the need for CRESS to exist and respond to non-violent calls, and the need for a youth empowerment center.  Allegra has continued to advocate for the full funding support of both these programs.  She has worked with community members to center the voices of those most impacted by the incident.  She has advocated for meetings with the Town Council, and for the voices of CSSJC and the Human Rights Commission members to be prioritized in the joint May meeting between the committees and Town Council.

As a councilor, she would continue to reach out to the most marginalized members of the community so that policy decisions don’t further exclude these groups.  She would push for equitable language access for our multilingual community, as she has in the June affordable housing forum and the upcoming CSSJC forums.  She would value public input, as she has in CSSJC meetings offering two opportunities for public comment.

Debora Ferreira

Debora Ferreira is a resident of Amherst’s District 2 and Co-chair of the town’s Community Safety and Social Justice Committee