Jan 22, 2025 | Economic Security & Outreach Blog, Resource finding
In the event that you are called upon to help people in your community find a place for emergency shelter or a warming center, I have compiled a current list. This is not a comprehensive list, but it covers all regions of the state.
Boston Emergency Shelters and other services for people experiencing homelessness
Berkshire County’s Servicenet Shelters
Cape Cod: Barnstable warming stations are available at the Hyannis Youth and Community Center, 8 AM-8 PM, Mon-Fri, and Barnstable Adult Community Center, 8:30 AM-4:30 PM, Tue-Fri.
Central MA: The Worcester Senior Center and the Worcester Public Library are warming centers. Open Sky Community Services operates a winter shelter. Families experiencing homelessness can contact Catholic Charities Worcester County for emergency shelter.
Martha’s Vineyard has daytime warming centers and emergency shelters.
Metrowest: Common Ground Resources, run by SMOC, runs three emergency shelters. Metrowest Care Connection provides a comprehensive list of shelters with phone numbers, addresses, and other details.
Nantucket: The Warming Place
Northshore: Mystic Valley Elder Services as compiled a list of overnight warming centers. Lifebridge Northshore provides shelter at several sites.
Southeast MA: South Shore Elder Services compiled a list of emergency shelters. The Acushnet Community Senior Center operates a warming center.
Western MA (Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden Counties): The Western MA Network to End Homeless has created a newly updated directory of shelter and warming sites across the four western counties here.
Warming center guidance from the state can be found here. Is your Senior Center also a warming center? It’s never a bad idea to review the best practices and take the time to get the word out to your community.
Sep 6, 2024 | Grants & Funding Resources, News, Resource finding, State
Many MA artists, performers, and other cultural program-creators routinely partner with senior centers to apply for Local Cultural Council grants. These grants, offered yearly, provide funds for arts programming that might otherwise be inaccessible to Councils on Aging with limited budgets.
The application deadline for Mass Cultural Council’s Local Cultural Council Grants is October 16.
If this is news to you and you’re interested in learning more about the kinds of programs that these grants support, you can look up any community’s LCC on the MCC website and see the list of recent grant recipients, the titles of their projects, and the amount they received. If you or the artist you’re working with are interested in offering a program to residents of more than one city or town, the applicant (usually the artist devising the program) may submit applications to more than one LCC.
Each LCC has its own set of funding priorities, so be sure to read up on your particular community’s LCC profile, which will also provide local contact information.
Jul 5, 2024 | Housing, Mental Health, News, Resource finding
Some may remember that in March of this year the US Senate’s Special Committee on Aging distributed an RFI, seeking written testimony from people with lived experience and other stakeholders on the effects of hoarding. Committee members have finished their report, and responses from Massachusetts were strong. You can read or download the report here:
The Consequences of Clutter: How Hoarding Disorder Affects America’s Older Adults, First Responders, and their Communities
The report is long; one way to dip in is to start with the statements from people in Massachusetts—all of the pieces of the report are conveniently hyperlinked in the table of contents, and you can search for any word using ctrl/F on your keyboard. You will probably recognize some names of well-known hoarding disorder advocates and experts from MA. The statement written by members of the MA Hoarding Resource Network Steering Committee can be found on page B-106.
There are several statements from task forces around the country, and federal support for hoarding task forces is the top recommendation in the report:
SAMHSA and ACL should provide training, guidance, and technical assistance
regarding HD. Although HD is relevant to the mission of the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Administration for
Community Living (ACL), neither agency identified programs specific to the con-
dition. SAMHSA and ACL should develop training, technical assistance, and other
guidance for social service providers, health care providers, and first responders
on how to respond to HD. Technical assistance should include tips and training for
professionals likely to encounter people with HD. Technical assistance should also
include guidance for communities on establishing a coordinated, evidence-based
response to HD – including best practices for forming and sustaining hoarding task
forces (page 43)
The statements from people living with hoarding disorder are particularly powerful and support the idea that with consistent, skilled assistance, people living with this disorder can make meaningful change in their lives.
May 3, 2024 | Economic Security & Outreach Blog, Resource finding
Since 2019, western Massachusetts has been served by 413CARES.org, a database of resources in several important categories including, but not limited to: food, housing, transportation, caregiver support, mental health, substance use, reentry, digital resources, and mentoring.
In 2023 they launched a campaign to grow awareness and invite organizations and agencies to create accounts and enter programs (or, for agencies with programs already listed, to “claim” them and manage their information regularly).
This effort has been working, and they have seen significant increase in engagement from both organizations who contribute their program information and users who search the database and make referrals.
Their community education campaign, funded by a grant from Baystate Health, is still active, and they have collected data on how the database is being used.
COA staff in W. MA can use this and ensure that their COA’s programs are listed so that residents of their regions can learn about them when needed! I suggest giving it a whirl to see how many programs come up when you type in a key word!
There are many ways to learn more about this resource, including video tutorials and scheduling a training.
Give it a whirl!
