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One thing that Adriana Raines believes in is the synchronicity of life. “I’m a believer that we all have a purpose and that if we are observant, life will guide us towards that purpose,” she says. Through thirty years of working in child services and advocating for a better, more equitable Massachusetts for all, Adriana has found that purpose in helping others. 

Adriana grew up in Jamaica Plain, the only child of a single immigrant mother. She says she learned a lot about working for change from her mother: “Since I was 4, 5, 6, my mother was speaking up for others who couldn’t.” She went to protests, helped her community, and instilled in Adriana that belief in a greater purpose. Adriana also began helping her community as a child, acting as an interpreter for people who needed assistance with English. When she graduated high school, she went to Emmanuel College to study Psychology and Sociology, all while working full time in the nonprofit sector.

After college, Adriana spent a few years working in public housing before she transitioned to her work in the child welfare field: “As soon as I started doing that, I found my purpose,” she says. For thirty years, Adriana worked tirelessly to support children undergoing various crises. At the same time, she learned more about the root causes that led to these crises, intersecting issues like food insecurity, housing insecurity, mental illness, and environmental issues. “I’m not the kind of person who just does one thing,” she says, so she began to engage in political advocacy in Massachusetts, especially with grassroots organizations focusing on these barriers to equity. Through working with places like Mass CASA, she “learned a lot about legislative advocacy, what communities need as opposed to the institutions deciding what was needed.”

A few years ago, the time came for Adriana to step away from her line of work, and she dove into activism more fully. She co-founded an advocacy organization for preventing domestic violence, which succeeded this year in advocating for a bill classifying coercive control as abuse, as well as enacting other protections for survivors. She also started her own consulting firm to work with nonprofits on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. And in 2023, Adriana joined YW Boston, where she’s been a member of the advocacy committee for years, as Engagement Manager. She sees her current purpose as “setting fire under people so that they remember something we’ve forgotten: that we are the power…Nothing is going to change unless we organize and push for change.”

When Adriana joined the Housing Justice cohort at GenUnity, she came in with knowledge of the institutions and systems that block housing justice. But what GenUnity provided was a new community and a sense of perspective. “It gave me an opportunity to meet other community members who I wouldn’t have met,” she says, and it “really highlighted for me the fact that we are going through a historical cycle…where people are displaced from their homes.” She saw GenUnity as “fuel” for change work, encouraging fellows to consider how they can use what they have to impact the world around them.

And in all of this, what has Adriana learned about change? First, she emphasizes the importance of educating yourself by engaging with the existing organizations that advocate for issues you’re interested in. Second, you need a network, “partners in this work, people in your corner.” You don’t have to create that from scratch, she points out–there are already wonderful organizations making change that you can connect with. “The world I envision, I might never see,” she says, but change work is an act of trust: trust that if you do your part, others will do theirs, and eventually, that world will be a reality.

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