Community Service

Through our service projects, we spend time helping children with special needs, young female scholars, families in crisis and the elderly and we teach kindergarteners about tolerance and acceptance. As women, we know the power of the connections we’re making can be life-changing.

Family Promise Metrowest

Family Promise Metrowest (FPMW) is a family shelter that accommodates about 2-3 families at a time. The organization assists families with a range of professional, personal and financial development. Their goal is to move families to sustainable independent living. During the day, families relocate to the Day Center in downtown Natick, which is their home base and mailing address while in shelter. This is where families store their belongings, take showers, wash clothes, and commute to and from school, day care, and work. It is also where they meet with professional staff to set goals in areas of health and safety, finances, parenting, and transportation. The Day Center is staffed by FPMW employees during the week but during the weekend, WHJWC assists with tasks that range from answering the phone at the front desk to reading stories to kids.

A Better Chance (ABC)

The scholarship organization, A Better Chance, has provided many students of color with the chance to attend college-prep private schools and public schools across the country. Their mission is “to increase substantially the number of well-educated young people of color who are capable of assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in American society.”

The Wellesley ABC program houses six female scholars at the ABC house in Wellesley so that they can attend Wellesley High School. They have a residential director, but without cars their participation in extracurricular activities often depends on securing rides. WHJWC volunteers drive the scholars to and from activities, events, and/or classes.

JUNIORS CARE

WHJC volunteers participating in Juniors Care help with a variety of opportunities with our community. Partnerships include; The Second Step, The Walker School, Family Promise Metrowest and Elizabeth Seton Residence. A few examples of things Junior Care volunteers may be helping with are: providing sheets while caroling at Elizabeth Seton Residence, wrapping presents for children at the Walker School, gathering new home supplies for survivors of domestic violence or walking to raise awareness and funds to support families facing homeless in and around our community.

Seniors

WHJWC volunteers with agencies that serve the senior community, which include Wellesley’s Council on Aging (COA) and the Sisters of Charity’s Elizabeth Seton Residence (a skilled nursing facility). We orchestrate several activities and events at ESR each year–a regularly scheduled bingo game for residents and a celebration of some kind at each holiday. We also provide programming and activities for seniors at the COA Tolles Parsons Center.

Kids on the Block

Kids on the Block is a program started in 1977 in response to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which required that children with disabilities be given the opportunity to be educated with their peers. The Kids on the Block program uses puppets to engage with school age children to open a dialogue on physical and learning differences, such as cerebral palsy, autism, feelings, visual impairment, intellectual disabilities and mental health. Kids on the Block operates in all 50 US states and in 30 countries around the world. WHJWC puts on performances for kindergartners in all Wellesley Public Schools as well as Saint John School and Tenacre.