West End mom takes on new school, community

By Sandra Miller
Regional Review

A local mom can tell you – all politics is local. Chiara Rhouate was a stay-at-home mom of two, whose convictions about good education and a solid community activated her organizational skills. Within two years, she became one of the driving leaders behind the idea for a new area public school, and the leader of the West End Community Center. Last month, she and other area parents met with city councilors Michael Ross and Sal LaMattina, and last week, Rhouate and other members of the Coalition for Public Education parents met with Mayor Thomas Menino to officially present their petition that proposes building a new school at the current site of the Government Center Garage, currently under consideration for development. "The meeting was good," said Rhouate. "We achieved the goal of demonstrating that a school in our area is wanted by the coalition, the families of the West End, North End and Beacon Hill. He said a group like this had never come together before.

While the school superintendent and the mayor see the need for a new school in the area, the economy is upstaging their concerns. "They are in the midst of closing schools," said Rhouate, "but the conversation will continue with a follow- up meeting next month." Rhouate has two children who will attend public schools soon, and like many parents, she's unhappy that their chances of attending a local school – the Eliot or the Quincy – are only 50 percent, because of the Boston schools lottery system. Another school would give the area parents a better chance at attending a school within walking distance, they said.

Rhouate and her husband, Mustapha, are the parents of two little girls, Sara, 5, and Sabrina, 4. They live in one of the West End towers, at Whittier Place. Her parents were both “Old West Enders” - her mother lived on North Anderson Street. Her grandfather's photo is part of the exhibit at the West End Museum.

Rhouate had lived in the Back Bay since 1997, with her grandfather, William J. Dullah, another West Ender. They moved to the West End in the summer of 2005, looking for something slightly more affordable. They were also looking for something that was more of a neighborhood, and thought of all the stories her family had told of the old West End. "My grandfather was living then. He was 92, and it was a nice thing that we were moving back to the West End," she said.

When she became a mom, she made good on wanting a neighborhood and helped form a parents group with a few other mothers, in 2006, the West End Parents Group (WEPG).

"When the weather is nice, you run into kids and their parents walking along the path, or at one of the playgrounds, but during the winter, when we all know each other's children's name, but don't have a name or number of the parent, we are stuck inside by ourselves," said Rhouate.

So they started monthly playgroups. Through donations, they rented rooms, brought snacks and toys to share, and the kids were able to play together. "And the parent's would get a little adult conversation, a place to ask advice, and a community of neighbors," said Rhouate.

When the West End Civic Association started talking about creating a community center, Rhouate and another WEPG mom became involved. In turn, they found a permanent space for their playgroup and began meeting weekly.

"That was huge for us," said Rhouate. "We didn't have to keep asking for donations to pay for the rooms, and we could offer a more regular play date."

Because she was organized and fairly vocal, she was soon asked to join the board of the new West End Community Center, led by Duane Lucia. She learned about programming, and her parent group started to grow in numbers. She impressed everybody there and recently succeeded Lucia as president of the West End Community Center.

Thanks to Rhouate's efforts, today there are 132 families who are members of the community center, and the parents group now meets twice a week, along with a monthly weekend play date in the colder months. The families with younger children seem to use the center more, since the older kids have school activities and other groups outside of the West End, but that doesn't stop Rhouate from coming up with ideas that can also involve older neighborhood children.

The challenge of creating an active community center is to bring residents out of their tower apartments and into forming a community where people are looking out for each other, for them to know their neighbors’ names.

The West End was once a tight working-class neighborhood of mostly Italian and Jewish residents, until in the late 1950s a Boston urban renewal project razed the 46-acre neighborhood, displacing almost 3,000 families. The city erected five residential high rise complexes that attracted many of the old neighborhood, or their children and grandchildren. And a new group of transplants has also taken hold. Like years before, many are from around the world, but now they are Italian, Russian, Pakistani, Indian, French, Irish, Canadian, German, Japanese, Chinese, Colombian, and Venezuelan. Rhouate was born in Korean, adopted by Irish American and Italian-American parents. Her husband is Moroccan. "I think exposing people to these different cultures will only make us stronger," she said.

But many of the new residents are busy professionals, some of whom work at the nearby medical facilities and government buildings. Families, professionals, seniors – they all keep busy schedules that can make socializing difficult. Unlike the old neighborhood, there's no stoop to sit on, it's hard to have a barbecue in the back yard, and there's no front yard to hold yard sales. It's harder to get to know your neighbors.

But she's up to the challenge. Rhouate is planning open poetry readings, showing episodes of "Don't Retire, Inspire,” meetings for community seniors, family music classes, an enrichment drop-in program for children ages 10-16, a real estate workshop on March 3, and a WECC international bake sale fundraiser in May "to share some of the cultures and stories of our community," she said.

They have genealogy classes returning in the spring, a softball team, self-defense classes, dance classes and Qui Gong in the works. She's also thinking about a twice-a-year yard sale that will not only clear apartments of clutter, but provide another chance for neighbors to socialize.

A lot of West Enders are planning their fourth Annual West End Children's Festival August 15, led by new director Augusta Alban. And if there's anything else residents want, they can let Rhouate know via the Web.

"It's through these community-based fundraisers that we hope to unite the community, and raise funds for more programming," said Rhouate. "My goal now is to fill the community center with as many programs and workshops for as many West Enders as I can. We are a diverse community, in both age and ethnicity. I want to have them all in the community center."

Ambitious? Yes, she admits. And following in the shoes of her predecessor, the energetic Duane Lucia, is a little daunting, she said, but she's up for the challenge. "I enjoy being at the beginning of the process of building the community center. I think seeing it full will be a great thing. It's a physical accomplishment because I can see it being accomplished."

For someone who gave up a job in the food industry – she was a manager at Morton's and Carberry's Bakery -- to become a full-time mom, she admitted, "I'm a lot busier than I expected. It's a lot more fun that I thought it would be. I miss the restaurant world in a lot of ways, but I'm happy where I ended up."