A conversation with Congressman Joe Kennedy III

Original Medium Post HERE

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Joe Kennedy III joins Joy Blog and talks about allowing joy in policy, finding joy in community, and the important work this leader and dad is doing today.

Congressman Joe Kennedy III speaks at the East Boston Social Centers Joy:us event in 2022.

This interview is available on YouTube. This written version has been shortened a bit from the video version.

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Please share some highlights of your current work

One of my great pleasures is working deeply in the communities we serve at Citizens Energy, and before this, as a member of Congress. I also founded the Groundwork Project.

Citizens Energy is a nonprofit my dad started 45 years ago. It’s an energy company that we run as a business, but all revenues flow to a nonprofit parent organization.

In Massachusetts, we have a Shelter Heat program, supporting about 120 homeless shelters and food pantries by covering their energy bills during the winter to keep folks warm. We’ve been doing that for years. We are also the largest provider of low-income community solar in Massachusetts, so we’re able to navigate the energy transition we need, but make sure low-income folks don’t get left behind.

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Groundwork Project seeks to support local communities around the country that often don’t get the support and investment they need — places like the Deep South, Appalachia, West Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama. We support issues like voting rights, civil rights, and local environmental justice. This work is incredibly rewarding.

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For anyone needing additional support or help navigating their energy bills, they can call us at Citizens Energy at 617–338–6300. We are happy to provide support or connect people to the right folks.

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The importance of fostering joy in communities

Fostering joy in communities is so important because it is the bedrock, fundamental objective of all the other structures of our life. The point of going to work, keeping a roof over your head, raising strong kids, and being part of a community is to find some measure of fulfillment. And too, I think we want to make sure success can be an achievement, but people don’t deserve to wake up every day terrified wondering whether they’re going to find a way to make ends meet.

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Institutions dedicated to creating the spaces, opportunities, and relationships to bring joy to communities make communities stronger. It’s what makes life worth living. East Boston Social Centers has been at this for so many years, for so many generations of families in East Boston and around Massachusetts.

The fact that this is a focal point of your effort speaks to the extraordinary legacy East Boston Social Centers has built up over its over 100 years of service and to the leadership team here. It’s not just about trying to make sure basic needs are met. It’s about recognizing people deserve to enjoy their lives. People should be celebrated, and families recognized and lifted up. We all deserve to smile and laugh.

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What steps do you think are needed to increase joy in communities and society as a whole?

There is an awful lot we can do to increase joy across our communities, particularly in this moment. A lot of folks are feeling uncertain, many are feeling scared, the future for many is shaky.

There’s a lot communities can do to try to ease some of that anxiety. There are roles for local community organizations like East Boston Social Centers, creating spaces and opportunities for communities to come together for relationships with each other.

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Government and policy

There’s certainly a big role for government to understand the challenges communities are confronting and try to remove those sources of anxiety.

If people can’t afford housing because there isn’t enough inventory across our communities so costs of housing are too high, let’s make housing more affordable. Let’s find ways to build more housing. Let’s find ways to support housing and support renters.

If there’s a problem getting kids high-quality education, let’s work on our schools. Let’s increase access to early education. Let’s address the cost of early education because we know early education for our children is some of the best dollars the government can spend, and it has a multigenerational impact in our communities.

If we’re concerned about the clean air we breathe and clean water we drink, let’s make those investments in addressing the needs of our climate because it’s something we all share. We are all going to breathe the same air. We’re all going to drink the same water.

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I don’t think you can legislate joy. It’s hard to have the government tell people to be happier, but what we can do is understand what’s literally keeping people up at night, those sources of anxiety. Let’s try to address them.

One issue I worked on in office — and sadly we’ve still not resolved — is the challenges of our immigration system: trying to make sure the government is providing a stable, reasonable series of immigration laws, and at the moment, that’s not the case.

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Overcoming social isolation in communities

There was an interesting article that just came out in the New York Times about this study looking at that over the past several decades, the United States has gotten wealthier on a whole, but our quality of our community engagement, quality of life, has actually gone down quite markedly compared to other wealthier nations.

One of the big pieces it points to is social isolation: people are on their phones, not in communities. Particularly post-COVID, people are more isolated; they don’t have the same level of friendships and relationships.

Folks seek companionship through looking at smartphones or stuff online, rather than being out with groups of friends, spending time with kids or families, literally going on dates. All of that has suffered. Humans are actually social creatures.

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What we need to do is find ways to rebuild and restructure and reinvest in that community, to create those spaces that bring people together.

Nobody does that better across Massachusetts, and I would argue around the country, than East Boston Social Centers: an organization that has been grounded in community for so long, that is responsive to community.

There’s a unique role for organizations and institutions like this to be a space that people can come together — from little kids to grandparents, and lean on each other, support one another, address the challenges that we’re all confronting. We’re stronger together when we do so. Through that, we create relationships that create bonds that enable our resilience to get through these challenging moments.

East Boston Social Centers is addressing these concerns. You’ve been way ahead of that curve and know that communities deserve to be able to smile and celebrate and enjoy their daily life. There’s a role we all can play in supporting that or making it to come to pass.

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What brings you joy?

I’m a dad in my mid-40s. Life is very full between work and kids. Our success in some of the programs we do to help all families provides me an awful lot of satisfaction, gratification. But like a lot of dads, what I look forward to most at the end of each day is spending time with my kids.

They’re young enough to still enjoy hanging out with my wife and me. They’re old enough where they’re little people with opinions and perspectives. They bring a lot of laughs and a lot of activity so the chance to be able to play with them and spend time with them is something I very much enjoy.

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Stay joyful, Eastie!

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