The following is a list and brief descriptions of the Outreach programs supported with contributions from the First Parish Church in Weston. The budget which funds these programs is raised each year through contributions to the Church through the Stewardship drive.

Parishioners are invited to volunteer their time with any of the organizations listed. If you would like to volunteer your time, we encourage you to review the list and descriptions below and contact the liaison named under the organization listed.

Victims of Violence

Renewal House (Jean Masland)
Partakers (Leila Hooper)
The Second Step

Development Needs - Infants and Children

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee -UUSC (Jim Dana)
Stand High-Stand United (Elise Rockart)
Kasiisi (Cristy Ballou)

Homelessness & Affordable Housing

Bristol Lodge (Jack Sins)
Community Day Center of Waltham (Leila Hooper)
Newton-Weston Wellesley Committee for Community Living (NWW) (Jim Dana)
Shelter Legal Services Foundation, Inc.
Waltham Alliance To Create Housing (WATCH) (Sean Cotton)

Disaster Relief and Miscellaneous

METCO Scholarship Fund
Artists for Humanity
Americares - Japan Disaster Relief
2011 American Tornado Relief

Renewal House:

Under the leadership of its Director, Rev. Susan Chorley, Renewal House is almost 30 years old. It is the second oldest shelter in Boston for victims of domestic violence and their children (victims themselves as well). It is a small, intimate shelter whose residents are from disadvantaged areas of Boston and beyond. Five families at a time live there. The primary goal of the shelter is to provide an atmosphere of healing so that the residents, who live there up to four months, will be able to leave the shelter at least partially healed from the trauma of domestic violence and abuse, prepared and eager to create independent, self-sufficient lives for themselves and their children.

In addition to the fundamental service to its current residents, there are additional programs. One consists of a group for former residents entitled "Beyond Shelter," a self-esteem and wellness group. In addition, the spirituality group has been extended to include children in programs on Sunday afternoons. Another program is an Outreach and Education Coordinator who has created an interactive educational curriculum for middle school children on healthy relationships and good communication, leading workshops in the immediate area. For further information and volunteer opportunities, please contact Rev. Kate Wilkinson.

Current Volunteer Opportunities:
Fall Volunteer Training – This fall we will be offering a 25 hour volunteer training for all those interested in volunteering at Renewal House. If you are interested in going through this required training, please fill out the UUUM's online volunteer application.
Thursdays 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 10/27, 11/3, 6-9 pm and Saturday, 10/15, 9am-5pm

Second Step

Founded in 1992, The Second Step is local Massachusetts organization that offers a comprehensive program for survivors of domestic violence. The Second Step offers transitional housing, advocacy, safety planning, mentoring, children’s programs, legal case management, and an array of supportive services for families transitioning away from abuse. For more information visit their web site.

Partakers, Inc.

Partakers strives (for) reconciliation between prisoners and society. It breaks down the walls that separate prisoners from others by bringing them together, and fostering accountability and responsibility towards one another.

First Parish took the first step in sponsoring a prisoner in 2008 who was enrolled in the College Behind Bars Program. Currently, five members of First Parish are volunteering to mentor a prisoner as he studies for a BA degree that will lead him to a productive and lawful life after he returns to society. Partakers presently has 55 prisoners enrolled in the program with 40 sponsoring groups.

The College Behind Bars program has earned tributes from all who participate in it its activities. One person has put it this way:

“. . . Partakers empowers the College Behind Bars scholars to be all they can be. The spirit of compassion with which the Partakers sponsoring groups support their prison scholars breaks down the traditional misconceptions and leads to transformation of all who are involved. That’s what is so brilliant in the program model---it captures the power of relationship as a force for transformation and change. “

For more information, please contact the Outreach Committee, Leila Hooper or Partakers.

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)

Through a combination of advocacy, education, and partnerships, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) protects and promotes programs and policies that empower women, defend the rights of children, and support the struggles of oppressed racial, ethnic, and indigenous groups. Their programs are based on Unitarian Universalist principles affirming the worth, dignity, and human rights of every person and the interdependence of all life. UUSC works for long-term solutions through partnerships in the U.S., South and Southeast Asia, Central Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

First Parish Church provides financial support to UUSC. Additional support is provided when parishioners become individual members, by the sale of holiday cards, and by participation in programs such as “guest at your table” and the “Coffee Project.”

Currently, UUSC is sponsoring Reverse Trick-or-Treating, providing kits for children to use when trick-or-treating. They include Fair Trade chocolate to give to homes the children visit. The purpose of the program is to raise awareness of child labor abuses in the cocoa industry and to promote protection of the environment. Over 250,000 kits were handed out.

Guest At Your Table (GAYT) and Holiday cards will be available the beginning of November. It is suggested that GAYT boxes be included in your Thanksgiving celebration. They are available for everyone, whether children are involved or not.

The Coffee Project involves the sale of Fair Trade coffee, tea, cocoa, and chocolate bars. Parishioners and visitors to First Parish can usually purchase or order these products on Sundays in the breezeway or Parish Hall or by contacting Lee Engler.

Finally, UUSC has established the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Fund, the proceeds from which go to help fund youths working in Gaza to repair homes and to conduct community trauma workshops to increase young people's resiliency during the on-going stress of daily life under the blockade.

For more information go the web site: http://www.uusc.org.

Stand High - Stand United (SHSU)

Stand High/Stand United (SHSU) is the middle school youth enrichment program of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry, located at The First Church in Roxbury. It is run in conjunction with the Explorers Club, in which some of its members also participate.

Volunteers are continuously recruited to work as chaperones or mentors for elementary school-aged youth in the Explorer's Club program. The Explorer's Club provides fun educational workshops on the second or third Saturday morning of the month and this is linked to periodic monthly field trips as well. Volunteers can assist occasionally or more regularly and those who make a commitment to mentoring are trained and supported in a team mentoring program. Volunteers can also assist through donations of in-kind food or supplies or tickets for field trips or through fundraising activities/events.

SHSU also runs a Coming of Age program for urban middle schoolers on other Saturdays of the month and a full-time summer program of field trips and summer camps.

Current Volunteer Opportunities:
Lead/Sponsor an Explorer's Club – 10 a.m. - 12 noon on any of the following Saturdays: 12/10, 1/14, 2/11, 3/10, 4/14, and 5/12
Think about the kind of fun enrichment activities your congregation, youth group, committee, or small group ministry could offer a group of 25-30 elementary school aged children! We welcome your ideas. In particular, we would love to have science-, craft-, and health-related Explorer's Clubs. And maybe a fun field day next spring! Want to do something, but not sure what? E-mail Rev. Kate Wilkinson for suggestions. or call 617-318-6010 x214.

Roxbury Youth programs – SHSU is integrated with a middle and high school after school program which takes place during the week. It includes tutoring and homework help, enrichment programs and mcas tutoring as well as a college support program. The young people come in the afternoon and the older ones remain after the middle schoolers are driven home. The highschoolers stay for dinner and additional activities until 8:00pm when they are taken home in the van. All this takes place at the First Church in Roxbury.

Current Volunteer Opportunities:
Many Ways to Engage – We have many different ways for you to volunteer with RYP. There are one-time commitments and group opportunities as well as weekly roles for those of you who want to be more deeply involved. If anything on this list interests you, please contact Rev. Kate Wilkinson for more details and fill out our online volunteer application.

– Tutor a middle school or high school student one afternoon or evening a week (Monday-Thursday 3:30-6pm or Thursday evenings from 6:30-7:30pm).
– Cook dinner one night for Roxbury Youth Programs teens and tutors (grocery shop and cook for ~30 people on a Wednesday night. Dinner is at 6pm.).
– Help get us tickets for a Fun Friday Fieldtrip (for 25 middle school or 25 high school students).
– Lead an art activity with 10 middle school students on a Wednesday afternoon (5-6pm).
– Become a college coach (meet twice a month with a high school junior or senior to help them navigate the college application process).
– Lead a resume workshop for our high school students.
– Join us for our weekly game night on Wednesdays from 6:30-7:30pm.
– Help lead our weekly learning circles for middle school students (Math circles are Tuesdays from 4-5pm; English Language Arts circles are Thursdays from 4-5pm).
– Be a guest on one of our career panels (January and February dates).
– Interview students during our mock interview series (phone interviews and in person interviews during the month of March).
– Buy pizza and popcorn for our middle schoolers and join us for an in-house movie on a Friday afternoon.
– Lead a nutrition workshop and teach our kids how to prepare a healthy snack (one Wednesday or Friday afternoon).
 -Spend an hour being a computer lab chaperone (Monday-Thursday 5-6pm).

Kasiisi/Kanyawara School

First Parish Church began supporting the Kasiisi Project in western Uganda in 1999. Through the efforts of Elizabeth Ross and her husband, Richard Wrangham, parishioners of First Parish, and with the help of generous support from the Outreach Committee and the First Parish congregation, the project funds classroom construction, scholarships for students and teachers and academic support at two rural primary schools in Western Uganda. Recent projects include supplying sanitary pads and special latrines for girls, clean water, and a lunch program.

In 2010, The Kasiisi Project is working on the renovation of eight nearly-derelict classrooms at the Rwetera School. The Rwetera classrooms were built in the 1950s by a British tea planter named Price. His grandson now owns a nearby safari lodge and he is collaborating with the Kasiisi Project on the renovation. The school, with 11 teachers, services almost 700 children in Grades K-6. The entire project is expected to cost about $20K and a $7K matching grant was promised by a generous donor. The First Parish Outreach Committee voted to make an extra $600 donation towards that matching grant.

Rewetera School Before	Rewetera School After	Rewetera students perform chimp conservation play with student-made masks and models

For more information, visit their website (www.kasiisiproject.org) or contact Elizabeth Ross (wrangham@comcast.net).

Bristol Lodge

The mission of Bristol Lodge is to provide shelter, food, advice and counseling to homeless people in the Waltham area.

Specific facilities include a family shelter accommodating 6 families, a women’s shelter with 15 beds, a men’s shelter with 45 beds, and a Soup Kitchen. The Bristol Lodge Soup Kitchen provides a hot, nutritious dinner, prepared and served by volunteers to 60 to 110 people daily. In addition, the kitchen prepares sandwiches and take-out lunches.

Besides the living accommodations and the Soup Kitchen, Bristol Lodge provides case management, counseling groups for women, housing advocacy, AA meetings, employment counseling, crisis intervention, therapeutic group meetings, family life advice, and referrals to other social agencies.

Bristol Lodge is part of the Middlesex Human Services Agency, Inc, a nonprofit organization. It is funded by donations from individuals, groups, and churches such as First Parish Church in Weston. Funding also comes from the State Department of Human Services.

Many parishioners have contributed many hours cooking as well as serving our monthly dinner at The Bristol Lodge Soup Kitchen. In addition, food prepared and served by our parishioners is paid for by parishioners. Money is also contributed to Kitchen shortfalls.

Food providers and soup kitchen volunteers are needed on the fourth Wednesday every month. Contact Mary Menino if you would like to participate in this much-needed ministry.

Community Day Center of Waltham

After opening its doors in 2003, the Community Day Center (CDC) of Waltham has become a "life-line" that provides many practical resources to help people in need find assistance in making the necessary next steps to improve their life situation. CDC serves the homeless and low-income members of the greater-Waltham/Metro-West area, and provide a safe place for people to come each weekday afternoon.

A primary service of the CDC is to provide a welcoming and nurturing shelter during the weekday afternoon hours when there is no alternative place to go for many in the community. In this manner CDC serves as a community "drop in" center where anyone can come in to get warm, find fellowship, be nourished and find specific assistance.

CDC has telephones with free-long distance, a high-speed Internet café with 6 terminals and printers, anonymous answering machines, and an anonymous P.O. box (especially vital for the homeless). CDC provides critical information on available social services in Waltham and beyond to its guests. The staff and interns from a local counseling center offer crisis counseling and traditional counseling to those in need. Through helping guests write resumes, locate resources on the Internet, find available jobs and housing, CDC offers its guests direct next steps out of homelessness or other challenging situations.

The Community Day Center is strategically located directly between the Salvation Army (serves breakfast and lunch each day) and the Bristol Lodge Soup Kitchen (serves daily dinners). The Center is open Monday through Friday, 1:30-4:30 pm year-round and 7:30- 9:00 a.m. in the winter in the community hall of First Presbyterian Church, 34 Alder Street , Waltham , MA 02454. First Parish has supported CDC since 2005. For more information contact CDC’s Director, Marilyn Lee-Tom at (617) 960 7793 or visit their web site.

Newton, Weston, Wellesley Committee for Community Living - NWW

Waltham Alliance to Create Housing (WATCH)

Waltham Alliance to Create Housing (WATCH) is a non-profit community development corporation in Waltham, MA. Their mission is to build, preserve, and promote affordable housing and to enhance economic opportunities, civic participation and leadership of low- and moderate-income families in the Waltham area. They also help low-income families change society, find a better place to live, learn English, and find better employment.

• Renovations – WATCH has renovated 26 units of affordable housing in Waltham. Each of these properties was a building in disrepair that WATCH purchased, renovated, and, in many cases, resold to a first-time home buyer.
  
• New Construction – In 2003, WATCH completed its first new construction project: three two-family homes that were sold to three families who are below 80% of the area's median income
  
• In 2005, WATCH completed its first housing development outside of Waltham. In partnership with the Town of Belmont and working closely with the Belmont Housing Trust, WATCH built four condominiums on town-owned land on B Street near Waverly Square. Three of the units are permanently affordable and have been sold to three very lucky and very ahppy low-income families.
  
• Rental Housing – WATCH owns ten units of rental housing and is currently seeking out additional opportunities to purchase and then manage affordable rental housing in Waltham.
  

WATCH is a unique developer in its consistent efforts to involve community residents in every phase of their program. They expect to keep the jobs local, to involve tenants and neighbors in planning and policy, and to involve community residents in improving their neighborhood through sweat equity. For more information, visit http://www.watchcdc.org/

Shelter Legal Services Foundation

Shelter Legal Services Foundation (SLSF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to pro bono legal services by the poor of the Greater Boston Area. SLSF combines the strength of the private bar with the eagerness of future attorneys in a volunteer effort to address the legal needs of our community's homeless and poor people. In 2004, over 60 local attorneys and 80 law student advocates participated in the program through SLSF's weekly clinics at Rosie's Pace, The Multi-Service Center for the Homeless and three other Boston/Cambridge locations. SLSF provides civil services in a wide array of fields, e.g., family law, housing, Social Security, unemployment, welfare, etc. The First Parish Church in Weston provides financial support for Shelter Legal Services, and has done so for several years.

For more information contact the Outreach Committee or go to SLSF's web site.

Metco Scholarship Fund

The Metco Scholarship Fund, Inc. was formed in 1976 for the purpose of raising funds to provide financial aid to students who attend the Weston public schools through the METCO program. Over the years, it has provided financial aid to more than 200 students. For the academic year of 1999-2000, the Fund awarded scholarships totaling $25,400 to 12 students. It is expected that the number of students applying for financial aid will increase in the coming years as Weston’s public school enrollment increases. Fund raising efforts are made each year in Weston and Boston. Students seeking aid must demonstrate acceptance at an institution of higher learning and evidence of financial need. Over 40 colleges and universities throughout the United States have accepted Weston Metco students. Several members of First Parish were instrumental in organizing the Fund and several are serving as Trustees of the organization today. First Parish in Weston has been a proud contributor to the Fund for many years.

Currently, there are between 8,000-16,000 adults learners on waiting lists in Massachusetts; the majority are immigrants and refugees waiting for ESOL classes.

Artists for Humanity "Artists For Humanity's mission is to bridge economic, racial and social divisions by providing underserved youth with the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in the arts." Teens go to AFH after school to create a wide range of products and services – including paintings, photography, screen printing, graphic design and furniture made from recycled materials - that are marketed throughout the greater Boston area. AFH operates as a micro-enterprise where the student artists work closely with mentors and are paid an hourly wage for their work. AFH is located in Fort Point Channel, in one of Boston's first "green" buildings known as the EpiCenter. Teenagers from Boston exhibited their paintings and furniture in The Gallery at First Parish from Mary 6-April 24, 2009, courtesy of a grant from the Outreach Committee. For more information, visit www.afhboston.com

AmeriCares - Japan Disaster Relief

AmeriCares is a nonprofit disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization which provides immediate response to emergency medical needs – and supports long-term humanitarian assistance programs – for all people around the world, irrespective of race, creed or political persuasion. The outreach committee, and the church membership through a plate collection, extended our support to disaster victims in Japan following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami there. For more information visit their web site.

2011 American Tornado Relief

The Outreach Committee has responded to the unusual number of catastrophic and deadly tornados this spring in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee by contributing to the 2011 Severe Storm Fund of the Mid South District Unitarian Universalist Association (MSDUUA) to help UU congregations provide relief to their members and communities throughout the area, but particularly the Unitarian Universalist Congreation of Tuscaloosa in Alabama, an area in which nearly 200 people died in late April. The Committee encourages individuals who want to offer additional help to do so through the MSDUUA or the American Red Cross.

In addition, a recent rare tornado roared through western and central Massachusetts and sheared off the steeple of the Unitarian Universalist Parish of Monson, Massachusetts. In addition at least one family in each of the UU congregations in Brookfield and Sturbridge suffered catastrophic damage to their homes, and a staff member of our Springfield congregation also experienced serious property damage. If you would like to financially support our UU neighbors efforts get back on their feet, the UUA has set up a Massachusetts Tornado Relief Fund. Please click here for more information about giving online or by mail.