The Healthy Soil chapter of Mothers Out Front will host a movie night on September 14 spotlighting climate change issues. — Photo courtesy of Mothers Out Front

By Bella Levavi

Chapters of the national organization, Mothers Out Front, are working in Somerville, devoting their time and expertise to fighting climate change at the local level.

The organization started in Somerville and Cambridge in 2012 when one mother had the idea to include mothers in the climate change conversation. Now there are 20 local chapters in Massachusetts, and the organization has mothers fighting in 20 states across the country.On September 14, the Healthy Soil chapter of the organization will host a movie night showing short films Wild Hope and Marion Stoddard: The Work of 1000 at the Somerville Community Growing Center. This event was moved from earlier in August when it was originally cancelled due to extreme heat. Randi Soltysiak explained that the event is designed to get people inspired to join the movement.

When the organization was in its first year of existence, Soltysiak arrived at a movie showing far after the film had started playing. After putting her children to bed, and arriving at the event in her pajamas, she talked to the organizer and was persuaded to join the group.

Soltysiak explained the group functions on a relational level. Mothers Out Front take time to get to know each other and create a “safe space” before they begin any work.

People at all levels and backgrounds can join the group. The organization is not made up of only mothers despite the name, there are also people without children in the organization. Despite this, the group is women led, and they help with childcare and other barriers that often stop mothers from participating in activism.

The chapters are split into subgroups so people can join at any level of involvement. Some people in Mothers Out Front work with legislatures, some make packets to encourage people to send postcards to their representatives and companies, some run workshops to train members different organizing strategies, some people’s work is concentrated on environmental justice in the organization, and some lead songs during actions.

One long standing project the group is working on is fighting to mitigate the heat island on Somerville Ave. between Porter and Wilson Square. One mother noticed all the trees on the street died. When they asked the city to replace the trees, the city responded they cannot replace the trees because there are gas leaks in the area.

When Eversource, one of the two utility companies of Somerville, refused to acknowledge the gas leaks in the area, Mothers Out Front filed an official complaint with the department of public utilities. “We feel that it’s an important area to prioritize the repair of the gas leaks so that the trees can be replanted to provide shade and air quality mitigation to enable human beings to live and work without serious hazards to health and wellbeing,” Soltysiak said.

Along with these two Somerville actions the group is also pressuring the state to change to more renewable energy sources. The organization is targeting utility companies by approaching them and requesting their plans of switching from gas to wind and solar. “Say tomorrow everybody goes out and buys an electric car,” Soltysiak explained. “The electricity is still coming from gas, so what needs to happen is utility scale development of renewables.”

Mothers Out Front is part of many coalitions locally, state-wide, as well as nationally. In Somerville, Mothers Out Front is part of the Climate Coalition of Somerville, which includes Fossil Free Somerville, Green and Open Somerville, Groundwork Somerville, as well as many other organizations. These organizations work together to increase their power, and they invite each other to show up to their individual actions.

Soltysiak urged anyone to join climate action groups in any capacity, even if it is not Mothers Out Front. “It makes a big difference and it’s not only that it makes a big difference in the world, it makes a difference to you and I think it makes a difference when your kids see you doing that.”