The Wayside Youth & Family Support Network has long struggled to recruit local teachers for its private special education school, relying on a skilled visa program to hire workers from countries like Brazil, Mexico and Germany.

Sara McCabe, the president of the Massachusetts-based nonprofit, said the school has five open teaching positions that it would usually try to fill through the H-1B program. But after the Trump administration attached a steep $100,000 fee to new H-1B visas last fall, Ms. McCabe said the nonprofit could no longer afford to use the program. As a result, the school has turned away a dozen students who have tried to enroll because it cannot hire enough special education teachers to offer more classes.

“The $100,000 fee has closed the door for us,” Ms. McCabe said.

Since imposing the fee in September, the Trump administration has upended the H-1B program, a critical pipeline for a broad swath of employers ranging from big tech companies and consulting firms to hospitals and schools. The result has been a fundamental shift in who gets to benefit from the visa program, which was put in place three decades ago.

Continue Reading —->

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The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) grant accounts for a large portion of the Wayside’s program in Watertown. It is used to support youth with trauma in Watertown and Waltham, and their families.

“It’s over a third of our staffing and budget at the moment, so it was definitely really scary to have it go away so suddenly,” Suarez-Friedman said.

In mid-January, Wayside and other organizations that receive the federal grant received an email in the middle of the night saying that the SAMHSA grant had been terminated, effective immediately.

“There was no warning more than just understanding the current climate that we’re in,” Suarez-Friedman said. “But no actual warning.”

If the SAMHSA grant had gone away, the staff members working at the Multi-Service Center would likely have been able to move to other work within Wayside (which has nine locations in Eastern Massachusetts and served more than 6,800 people in 200 communities in 2024), Suarez-Friedman said, “but we would have lost them here at the Multi in Watertown.”

The grant funds programs to help youth who have experienced trauma. The Wayside Multi-Service Center supports youth ages 6 to 22 in Watertown and Waltham who have experienced trauma, she said. and provides supportive counseling for the youth and their families. Currently, the Wayside Multi-Service Center serves about 45 clients in this area.

“Trauma can be anywhere from the loss of a loved one, it could be witnessing or experiencing a natural disaster or violence,” Suarez-Friedman said. “But we also see trauma as being the negative response that some people had due to the pandemic, and living with hunger — not knowing when you’re getting food — or having uncertainty around your housing. Or immigrating, whether it’s because you experienced something traumatic in your home country or that maybe the process of immigrating was traumatic.”

Wayside often fills the gaps in coverage or services, Suarez-Friedman said, such as treating someone when there is a long wait list for outpatient therapy, working with families whose insurance does not cover therapy, or helping connect people to other resources such as family housing and food assistance.

For about 24 hours, the funding for this program was gone, Suarez-Friedman said.

“It was actually really heartening for me. It was really impressive how much advocacy there was nationally. Because this was a national cut. It’s a federal grant. So it was really far reaching,” Suarez-Friedman said. “And so there was a ton of advocacy with legislators, and amongst the grantees and Wayside. I felt very supported by our senior leadership, our CEO (Sara McCabe) and our VP of Government Relations (Aaliyah Bannister-Batie). And I reached out to (State Rep.) Steve Owens, who connected us to (U.S. Sen.) Ed Markey’s office very quickly.”

Seeing how fragile federal grants can be was a good reminder for Suarez-Friedman.

“I’m always looking for other grant opportunities for continuing our existing programs should they end, or when they end, because they have end dates, and also for new programming,” she said.

Wayside receives some funding from the City of Watertown, and also has some state contracts as well as private funding, such as from the Watertown Community Foundation. Wayside also seeks new grant opportunities.

“I just put in an application for another large, private funder, and so I’m hopeful for that one, but we won’t learn until June,” Suarez-Friedman said. “So we’re always looking for other opportunities because of how, how immediately funding can be taken away.”

Finding private funds often provides more flexibility, Suarez-Friedman said.

“What I love most about the Wayside Multi is how much we are, grassroots social work, a community organization,” she said. “We’re figuring out what the community needs and just doing it. I really think that. When we get private funding, or more flexible funding like that, we get to do exactly what’s needed, versus what a grant is telling us to do.”

The Wayside Multi-Service Center has not done large-scale community fundraising, Suarez-Friedman said, but the people can donate to the organization.

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The post Healey-Driscoll Administration Expands Community-Based Behavioral Health Services for Children and Youth appeared first on Wayside Youth & Family Support Network.

The following piece was provided by the Wayside Multi Service Center:

As the new school year approaches, preparation can make all the difference — and thanks to Addgene, youth supported by Wayside Youth & Family Support Network’s Multi-Service Center (Wayside Multi) in Watertown will be starting the year well-equipped and ready to succeed.

Addgene, partnering with TeamBonding, generously donated backpacks filled with school supplies to the Wayside Multi, which serves local youth and families. These backpacks were distributed to children and teens who will benefit from having the tools they need to start the school year with confidence. Some backpacks were distributed to students through Project Literacy, a program offering free English classes through the Watertown Free Public Library, where they were met with enthusiasm.

One of the staff members from Project Literacy shared, “The kids got to come pick which one they wanted, and the delight in the room was real. All the kids left wearing their backpacks with big smiles on their faces, and the parents were very grateful.”

The Wayside Multi is grateful for Addgene’s and TeamBonding’s generous contribution and its positive impact on the youth and families we serve. Their support, along with the collaboration between community programs, helps to create stronger, more resilient communities.

Thank you, Addgene, for being a thoughtful and impactful part of our work.

Find out more about Wayside’s Community Education and Outreach
here: https://www.waysideyouth.org/community-education-outreach-services/#multiService

Click here for full article.

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Kurman spoke with Watertown News Editor Charlie Breitrose in her office at the house on North Beacon Street that serves as the offices for the Wayside Multi Service Center in early June. She began working in that building before it was even Wayside, back when it was part of the City of Watertown.

See a portion of the interview with Kurman below. Paid subscribers of Watertown News’ Patreon can listen to the entire interview. Click here for more information.

Watertown News: Thank you for sitting down with me, Laura. We’re talking because you’ve come to the end of quite a long career with the Wayside Multi Service Center in Watertown. And since a lot of people know you or may not know you, but probably know Wayside’s contributions to Watertown, I was thinking it’d be a great way to sit down with you and hear about your career and what’s going to be coming up for Wayside. It’s probably hard to sum up, but what, when you look back, what do you do you have what do you feel proudest about when you look at your Wayside time?

Laura Kurman: That is a good question. I just hit 35 years last week. Yeah, May 29. And so there’s a lot to think back on, but also a lot to finish up. And maybe never feel like I finished up, but passing on as much as I possibly can. I have a lot of things that I’m proud of, so I’ll just list a few, but sure I certainly have to speak first, of being proud of my staff and past and present for all these years, incredible people that have come through here worked so hard and diligently and dedicatedly to the people of the community and in so many different ways, and also a lot of interns. I mean, just so many people have come through, more than I can count for sure. So I’m always I’m really proud when I sit and listen to them and see them in meetings, or hear about what they’ve done and know that they’ve built these strong relationships in the community that I had a part of helping to begin, and then they went off and built their own.

WN: Is this what you set out to do when you were in college? How did you come about to this field?

LK: I have, I pretty much my whole career, has been working with youth and families in nonprofit human services. I didn’t start out that way. I wanted to be an anthropologist in college, but that changed quickly because of, interestingly, a statistics course that was really difficult, and I just sort of went, “Well, maybe this is not what I want to do,” and I switched to social work. And so it’s been a long time. I don’t know that I knew that I would want to work with youth and families. So I have done that. It’s just a different ways that things have gone through the years.

WN: What brought you to Watertown and Wayside specifically?

LK: I was in Philadelphia, and we I lived in California, and then my husband and I moved here to be closer to family, and I interviewed here, and I got the job. And at the time, we were the Human Services Department for the Town. So I was hired as a Town — now City, it’s called — employee. And after a few years, things changed. In the early ’90s, the Human Services Department was no longer and we became part of a private nonprofit, which then became, very soon after, with Wayside, and that’s where I stayed.

WN: Were you always in this house?

LK: I literally am in the same office. It looks a little nicer. It was painted.

Laura Kurman, middle, received a lifetime achievement award at the Watertown Youth Coalition’s Community Spirit Awards. Also pictured are Program Coordinator at Wayside Youth & Family Support Network Stephanie Sutherland-Ramsey (left) and Vice President of Community Services at Wayside Youth & Family Support Network Andrea Salzman. (Courtesy of Wayside Multi Service Center)

Continue Reading…

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The Trevor Project is the leading suicide prevention nonprofit for young LGBTQIA+ people. You can contact the organization on its 24/7 hotline at 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386) or message someone on TrevorChat for counseling support and crisis intervention.

Visit the website

Equality Federation

The Equality Federation is a nonprofit organization that works with state-based advocacy groups to improve the lives of LGBTQIA+ people, while also providing up-to-date tracking on legislation that affects queer and trans people.

Visit the website

The National Coalition for the Homeless

With a network of activists, advocates, providers, and more, the National Coalition for the Homeless seeks to end homelessness across the U.S., while providing education and resources for those who may already be in need of shelter.

Visit the website

The National LGBTQ Task Force

The National LGBTQ Task Force is a coalition of activists dedicated to mobilizing and organizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people in the hope of promoting progressive change.

Visit the website

The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund

A nonprofit dedicated to ending discrimination against transgender people, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund provides pro bono services to low-income trans and nonbinary people, while also leading impact litigation and more.

Visit the website

Trans People of Color Coalition

The Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC) is the only national social justice nonprofit dedicated to supporting trans people of color.

Visit the website

Trans Lifeline

Run for and by trans people, Trans Lifeline offers a grassroots hotline at (877) 565-8860 in an effort to connect trans people to community support and resources.

Visit the website

TransAthlete

For any students, coaches, or administrators dealing with discrimination in sports, TransAthlete acts as a resource that breaks down the policies for trans athletes around the world, while providing templates for letters to write to legislators and more.

Visit the website

Campus Pride Index

A free online tool for prospective students to investigate the LGBTQIA-inclusive policies, programs, and practices of higher institutions across the United States.

Visit the website

Point Foundation

An organization offering support and resources to LGBTQIA+ students across the United States, with scholarships awarded each year, as well as leadership and community resources.

Visit the website

LGBTQIA+ Victory Fund

The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund seeks to support pro-equality, pro-choice LGBTQIA+ candidates at all levels of government, with the goal of increasing the number of queer and trans politicians in office through fundraising, education, and more.

Visit the website

Hey I’m Trans

A step-by-step guide for trans people trying to navigate coming out at home, at work, or even online.

Visit the website

The Bisexual Resource Center

The Bisexual Resource Center seeks to connect bi, pan, and queer people with resources and support through various events and educational campaigns.

Visit the website

The National Center for Lesbian Rights

The first national LGBTQIA+ legal organization founded by women, the NCLR is a nonprofit, public interest law firm that is committed to advancing the rights of LGBTQ+ people through litigation, legislation, policy, and public education.

Visit the website

Lambda Legal

Lambda Legal offers legal representation, advocacy, and more for LGBTQIA+ folks and people living with HIV who have experienced any form of discrimination.

Visit the website

SAGE

A national advocacy and services organization that is dedicated to aiding LGBTQIA+ elders, with over 70 partner centers located across the United States.

Visit the website

The Anti-Violence Project

A free, 24/7 crisis intervention hotline provided in English and Spanish at (212) 714-1141, the Anti-Violence Project seeks to help survivors of violence who are LGBTQIA+ or affected by HIV.

Visit the website

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Wayside helps children, adolescents and young adults across the state

Michelle Martin,for Wayside Youth & Family Support Network

Children don’t go straight into adulthood. There’s a crucial period during childhood when they are developing and growing – and when support services are needed most.

That’s the reason Wayside Youth & Family Support Network is so important to the communities it serves. The behavioral health organization provides in-home, outpatient and residential services to help children, adolescents and young adults achieve greater independence and well-being. Wayside believes in a strength-based approach, focusing on affirmative and inspirational strategies that promote sustainable change. Wayside honors the power of families, as they possess a wealth of knowledge and strength and are key drivers in the change process.

Employees are inspired by the impact the organization has made in 170 cities throughout eastern and central Massachusetts. Wayside works with families who are under significant stress due to mental illness, behavioral problems, addiction issues and other challenges. It also supports youth who have experienced abuse, trauma and neglect. Our staff tenaciously “do what it takes” to help our clients and families fulfill their hopes for the future.

“Our employees make an important impact on families across the state, and we are proud of the work they do,” said Sara McCabe, president and CEO. “In return, we are committed to providing them with an inclusive, supportive work culture that is committed to DEI and social justice.”

Diversity, equity and inclusion is fully integrated into the culture of the organization. Wayside mirrors the clientele it serves – 59% of employees identify as people of color, just as more than half of its clients identify as people of color – and that is also true at the managerial level.

Read full article here.

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Food on the shelfs at the Watertown Food Pantry, which has seen an increase in the number of people using its services since the start of the Pandemic. (Photo by Charlie Breitrose)
For many, Watertown is a destination for food and eating, with dozens of restaurants, markets small and large, and a farmers market through the warmer months. However, a significant number of residents have trouble affording to feed themselves and their families.

The hunger problem in Watertown is often not visible, but those who provide assistance and services to people in need have noticed a recent increase in the number of people in town facing food insecurity, spiking during the Pandemic. And, while the COVID cases have dropped, the numbers of people going to Watertown’s two food pantries, or needing help to put enough food on their table has remained at about the same level.

Watertown has found some ways to help people have enough to eat, both traditional efforts, including Food Pantries, and new ones, such as the Community Fridge and programs funded by the Watertown Community Foundation to deliver food to some of the City’s most vulnerable residents. Some of these programs, however, will be coming to an end as post-Pandemic funds dry up.

Watertown News and Watertown Cable Access Television joined forces to look back at the rise in food insecurity, speaking to those making use of the local and state food insecurity programs, the people on the front lines providing help, and sought to find out what else can be done. This story is the first in a six-part series on food insecurity, and Watertown Cable will be producing a series of programs looking at the issue airing at a later date. The series is made possible, in part, by a grant provided by the Watertown Community Foundation.

The Pandemic Spike

The Pandemic brought some issues in Watertown into focus, said Jan Singer, the former executive director of the Watertown Community Foundation.At the dawn of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Singer remembers gathering her board members to workout how the organization could help the community weather the Pandemic. They looked at ways to provide COVID kits to those who had tested positive, computers for families who needed it so their children could participate in remote learning, and emergency funds for things like rent, utilities, and food.

Food insecurity was not unknown before March 2020, Singer said, who said the WCF was working with the Watertown Public Schools to send students home with backpacks full of food for the weekend. The program was aimed at children of families in the Watertown Public Schools who qualified for the free lunch through the federally funded National School Lunch Program.

“We had a special grant for this from the Perpetual Benevolent Fund,” she said. “We brought their board members in to see how we were doing it and what was going on, so food insecurity was an issue long before the Pandemic and when the Pandemic hit it just exacerbated it and it has not stopped.”

Kathy Cunningham, coordinator of the Watertown Food Pantry, said she has seen many more people use the pantry in the last few years.

“So, when I first began here, we were doing 40 families a week …” Cunningham said. “And then it graduated up to probably 70 families, and then once the pandemic hit, we were running approximately 200 families every single day that we were open, which was okay. It was fine. We made sure that we did a lot of outreach. We had a lot of feeder programs. We were never without, we never let anybody go hungry or anything on that level.”

After people got back to work and things began to return to normal after the Pandemic, the number of families the Watertown Food Pantry served began to decline, but did not return to previous numbers.

“So after the COVID and things are starting to get back to normal, such as the children attending school, I would say we probably leveled off at around 180 a week, for probably six, seven months at least,” Cunningham said. “And now we’re averaging between 140, 160 each week.”

The Watertown Food Pantry, located in the basement of the former Methodist Church near Watertown Square at 80 Mt. Auburn St., is one of two pantries in town and is open on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The other is run by the Catholic Collaborative in the basement of Sacred Heart Church, 770 Mt. Auburn St. in East Watertown on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

During the Pandemic, another food source became available, a grass-roots community effort called the Watertown Community Fridge. This started near Francis Market on Belmont Street, and then moved to the same church that houses the Watertown Food Pantry. Food is put in the fridge, an is available for free to anyone. Also, people can donate fresh, frozen, and non-perishable items.

Read full article here….

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 8, 2023
Contact: Betsy Freedman Doherty
774-287-6418 (cell)
Betsy_FreedmanDoherty@WaysideYouth.Org

The Boston Globe Names Wayside Youth and Family Support Network a Top Place to Work for 2023

Magazine honors the best employers in Massachusetts

Framingham (DECEMBER 3, 2023) – Wayside Youth and Family Support Network has been named one of the Top Places to Work in Massachusetts in the 15th annual employee-based survey project from The Boston Globe.

Top Places to Work recognizes the most admired workplaces in the state voted on by the people who know them best—their employees. The survey measures employee opinions about their company’s direction, execution, connection, management, work, pay and benefits, and engagement. The employers are placed into one of four groups: small, with 50 to 99 employees; medium, with 100 to 249 workers; large, with 250 to 999; and largest, with 1,000 or more. Wayside Youth and Family Support Network was ranked 50 out of 55 employers in the large category.

“The best employers are always striving to put their people first, whether they’re honoring small individual. accomplishments or adjusting company-wide policies to become more inclusive. “Said Katie Johnston, the Globe’s Top Places to Work editor.

Additionally, Wayside was listed as one of 23 companies that excel at championing DEI.  “This recognition is a testament to our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace,” says Guimel DeCarvalho, Wayside’s Vice President of Administration and Chief Information Officer. “We have been doing the hard work of embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into our workplace culture because it is what is best for our people and our business.”

The rankings in Top Places to Work are based on confidential survey information collected by Energage (formerly Workplace Dynamics), an independent company specializing in employee engagement and retention, from more than 137K individuals at 347 Massachusetts organizations. The winners are constantly working to improve their workplaces, from investigating how artificial intelligence can assist. workers, not replace them, to helping workers get to know each other in an increasingly hybrid world. Top Places to Work online extras include sortable rankings and features showcasing companies that are going the extra mile to make their workplaces more supportive and responsive to their employees’ ever-changing needs. All can be found at Globe.com/TopPlaces. Readers can follow the news on Twitter at #workboston.

About Wayside: About Wayside Youth & Family Support Network: Founded in 1977, Wayside Youth & Family Support Network is a non-profit, nationally accredited human services agency headquartered in Framingham, Mass. dedicated to building strength, hope and resiliency through its family-based outreach services, residential treatment programs, and community-based counseling services to thousands of children, youth and families throughout Eastern and Central Massachusetts. Wayside Youth & Family Support Network has been a strong presence in Watertown for decades. The Wayside Multi-Service Center, which joined Wayside in 1996, has provided services to the community since the 1960s. Today, Wayside operates multiple youth programs aimed at preventing risky behavior and building healthy ones. Wayside also runs the Watertown Social Services Resource Specialist Program, linking members of the community to vital services. To learn more about Wayside, please visit www.Waysideyouth.org

About Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC

Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC (“BGMP”) is a multimedia organization that provides news, entertainment, and commentary across multiple brands and platforms. BGMP offers leading integrated advertising solutions that connect communities, ideas, and causes through powerful storytelling and multimedia experiences. BGMP properties include The Boston Globe, Globe Opinion, Globe.com,

Boston.com, STAT, The B-Side, Globe Publishing Services, Globe Events, and Studio/B.

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Our annual Staff Satisfaction Survey has earned us the Top Workplace award in three categories:

• Top Workplace – Nonprofit Organizations
• Top Workplace Culture – Purpose & Values
• Top Workplace Culture – Innovation

Energage benchmarks our scores against other agencies like ours to determine which agencies are considered Top Workplaces. We are proud to be recognized for our commitment for creating a positive and innovative workplace culture that is aligned with our mission and values.

The areas in which we scored well above the benchmark include:

• 94th percentile in “My benefits package is good compared to others in this industry”
• 93rd percentile in “I would highly recommend working at Wayside”
• 93% agree “My job makes me feel like I am part of something meaningful”
• 93% agree “Wayside operates by strong values”
• 87% agree “New ideas are encouraged at Wayside”

“This is a long standing commitment we have had for our employees and rest assured that it will continue,” said Sara McCabe, Wayside President & CEO. “We can celebrate these positive scores and also stay focused on making Wayside an even better workplace for all.”

 About Wayside

Wayside Youth & Family Support Network provides a wide variety of mental health counseling and family support services to children, young adults and families in Massachusetts.

Values

Strength
Wayside believes in a strength-based approach, focusing on affirmative and inspirational strategies that promote sustainable change. Wayside honors the power of families, as they possess a wealth of knowledge and strength and are key drivers in the change process.

Hope
We believe in the power of hope as a central factor in providing the motivational resources necessary for change. Shared hope for a positive future is the underpinning of all that we do. Our staff tenaciously “do what it takes” to help our clients and families fulfill their hopes for the future. Positive expectations promote psychological and physical well-being. Our staff focus on developing hope-inspiring strategies that mobilize internal and external resources for sustaining healthy change.

Resiliency
We firmly believe all people have the inherent ability to rebound, learn and grow from life’s difficult experiences, and we are supportive partners with people as they engage in the process of personal change. We join with them to build the resilience that will see them through adversity.

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