North Shore Coalition (NSC)

The North Shore Coalition (NSC) is a collaborative initiative between MAPC and the mayors, managers and town administrators on Boston's North Shore. Established in 2006, the group currently consists of 14 active members who attend meetings and work together on regional issues and initiatives. MAPC staff played an important role in establishing NSC and continues to provide staff support and financial administration. MAPC organizes the bi-monthly NSC meetings where municipal leaders exchange information and formulate solutions to common problems facing municipalities and the North Shore region as a whole.

Membership in the coalition includes the mayors and town managers or administrators of Beverly, Danvers, Essex, Gloucester, Hamilton, Ipswich, Manchester, Marblehead, Middleton, Peabody, Salem Swampscott, Topsfield and Wenham. Municipal leaders from Lynn, Nahant and Rockport have also been included in the group's discussions and collaborations on regional problems and issues.

Since its inception, NSC has worked on regional solutions to issues such as a regional emergency communications and dispatch center in Essex County, the merger of the Essex Agricultural School with the North Shore Vocational Technical School and the Peabody School's vocational program, crimes related to youth violence and gang activity, traffic and the potential for regional delivery of municipal services on the North Shore.

NSC highlights from the 2009 year:

• Due in part to the efforts of the Coalition, the steering committee of the Essex Regional Emergency Communications Center (RECC) received a $5 million grant from the Massachusetts Division of Emergency 911 to establish a new regional dispatch center that will serve approximately 13 communities when it is completed.
• Plans to merge the Essex Agricultural School with the North Shore Vocational School and the Peabody School Department's Vocational programs moved ahead with grant awards totaling nearly $80 million for the construction of a new, joint facility to house both schools in Danvers.
• Through an MAPC district local technical assistance project, NSC is also working on a plan that would allow several school districts in the region to collaborate on certain services such as the delivery of professional development offerings for teachers, consortium purchasing of goods and supplies by the schools and sharing resources for attracting and hiring highly qualified teachers and staff across the region.

NSC is funded by member municipalities and in-kind contributions from MAPC.

Questions?

Contact Deputy Director Joel Barrera at (617)451-2770, ext. 2019 or via email at jbarrera@mapc.org .

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