Announcing the Departure of Nicole Eigbrett, Director of Community Organizing
The Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) is announcing that Nicole Eigbrett, Director of Community Organizing, will be stepping down after almost four years leading this vital program in mid-February 2024. Nicole will be transitioning to the next stage in her career as the Co-Executive Director of the Asian American Resource Workshop this spring, a role we have full confidence she will excel in.
While it is impossible to list them all, to not highlight some of Nicole’s contributions to CAAS would do a great disservice to her time here. Since joining CAAS in the summer of 2020, Nicole has transformed the previously inactive Community Organizing & Advocacy Program into one of the leading voices in the call for housing justice and anti-displacement in Somerville. In the first year under her leadership, the Organizing program mobilized our community to win an extension of the Somerville eviction moratorium in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to June 30, 2022, making it the longest-lasting moratorium in Massachusetts. She and her team launched our first Leadership Development Institute, a tri-lingual workshop series which has helped prepare two cohorts of Somerville tenants to become strong advocates in our city. She laid the groundwork for the Somerville Renters Committee, our multiracial and multilingual group of leaders who have come together to build collective power as tenants and, as seen in the citywide budget campaign of 2023, lead their own calls for local policy transformation.
Nicole has also served as the Co-Chair of the Somerville Anti-Displacement Taskforce Residential Subcommittee, which played a key role in researching and developing the Somerville rent stabilization home rule petition. The petition has since been sent to the State Legislature for consideration after being unanimously approved by the City Council in December. In addition to these campaign accomplishments, Nicole spearheaded fundraising for the program, growing our capacity from two full-time organizers, to now having the funding for seven staff this year, to meet the pressing needs of our low-income community.
"Nicole's commitment to social and economic justice has shone through in everything she has done here at CAAS,” said David Gibbs, CAAS Executive Director. “I know that I have learned a lot from working with her; we will all miss her contributions as a member of our Management Team. Her contributions to CAAS have helped us to become even stronger and more effective in fulfilling our mission to end poverty in Somerville."
Nicole has consistently gone above and beyond the call of service to both CAAS and to the larger movement for housing justice across Massachusetts, and we know that her departure will not be the end of her deep passion and dedication to this work. As we begin our search for the next Director of Community Organizing, her successor will be joining a powerful team of Organizers and tenant leaders, and can continue building on the strong foundation she established for the program. From the entire CAAS team: thank you for almost four incredible years of service, Nicole!