Luli Alvarez

Background

About Luli Alvarez

I'm the Communication and Community Outreach Manager with the City of Chelsea, a 1.8 square miles city located in the Boston Metro Area. With over residents identified as Hispanic or Latino (predominantly immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua), nearly 80 percent of Chelsea’s population identified as People of Color, the second-largest percentage of any city or town in Massachusetts.At the height of the pandemic's first wave, in the spring of 2020, Chelsea was considered the epicenter of COVID-19 in the Commonwealth. In my role, I supported city-wide strategic planning of the COVID-19 pandemic response and assisted in Chelsea Eats, an over $6 million project that became the country's most extensive universal basic income program. In 2021-2022, I was also part of the team that led a novel community engagement process to allocate American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funds. The City of Chelsea is now committed to dedicating $15 million to the community initiatives identified during decision-making with residents, small businesses, and community leaders. Prior to working in Chelsea, I was with the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, an independent, non-profit organization promoting news and information access in Puerto Rico.