The Home for Little Wanderers

Congratulations to The Home’s Vice President of Clinical Quality and Outcomes Dr. Mike Semel, Ph.D., who was awarded the Carl B. Cutchins Award for Children's Behavioral Health at the Association of Behavioral Healthcare’s 2024 Salute to Excellence last week! ABH’s Salute to Excellence is a celebratory day recognizing individuals and groups who have made outstanding contributions to community-based behavioral healthcare in Massachusetts. Throughout his extraordinary 23-year tenure at The Home, Mike has made a significant impact within our organization and in the field, as he is chiefly responsible for ensuring our clinical practice model delivers the highest quality services and interventions that children and families require and deserve. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor, Mike!

Make this a merry and meaningful holiday season by exploring corporate giving opportunities with The Home! Whether you join The Home’s Big Wishes Gift Drive to make holiday dreams come true, decorate a gingerbread masterpiece to support our diverse range of 30+ programs, or volunteer your time with us ahead of the New Year, you and your team can help make the season brighter for thousands of youth and families across the communities we serve in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York. Interested? Contact events@thehome.org to learn more about our holiday partnership opportunities.

On Tuesday, October 22, The Home for Little Wanderers welcomed a caravan of donation deliveries from our friends at The Goddard School, who have been collecting essential items this month to support our children and families. Hundreds of items, including donations of bedding sets, clothing, hygiene items, baby supplies and more, were donated by Goddard School families across 19 participating programs located throughout Greater Boston and New Hampshire! We send a heartfelt thank-you to the school directors, staff and families who helped in organizing and contributing to this drive for our youth. We can’t wait to distribute these much-needed items to our programs!

The Home at Walpole is celebrating the recent addition of Campus Director Kelly Salisbury! Kelly comes to us from the Parkway Community YMCA in West Roxbury, where she worked for 22 years, serving, most recently, as Executive Director. She was drawn to The Home because she is passionate about adolescent development and believes that one’s home and personal life, together with education, form an individual. Kelly is a mom to a three-year-old son and a new puppy named Zakim. In her free time, she loves being outdoors, especially for a good hike. Kelly climbs Mount Washington every summer with her dad and brother; they have tackled the impressive climb for 16 years running! Welcome to the team, Kelly!

Thank you to Riverside Community Care for honoring The Home at this year's CARE Awards! Last Monday, The Home received the Friend of Riverside Award, an accolade celebrating the opening of The Home’s Youth Community Crisis Stabilization (YCCS) Program and the significant impact it has had on Riverside. Riverside’s selection committee was unanimous in voting to celebrate Program Director So Hee Ahn and her team with this award, and it’s clear to see why. Since opening in late January of 2024, YCCS has served 140 youth, meeting their acute, critical needs with immediate stabilization services and comprehensive care. Congratulations to our amazing team at YCCS! Pictured L to R: Milieu Director Christopher Pelletier, Clinical Coordinator Courtney Smith, Program Director So Hee Ahn, LMHC, ATR, Vice President of Congregate Care Cathy O'Leary and Assistant Vice President of Congregate Care Robert Quinn. 

We’re off to the races! Applications for The Home’s 2025 Boston Marathon Running Team are now open! The Home is honored to be part of Bank of America’s inaugural partnership with the historic Boston Marathon and to offer a select group of fundraisers the opportunity to run 26.2 iconic miles for the children and families in our care. Interested in lacing up for The Home? Visit thehome.org/run to apply or learn more! #bostonmarathon #boston129

Here come the holidays! The Home for Little Wanderers invites you to join us for our 16th annual Gingerbread House Decorating Contest and Fundraiser. This festive competition is a fantastic opportunity for our corporate partners and friends to usher in the holidays together while supporting children and families of The Home. Compete with us Sunday, December 8, at The Mandarin Oriental, Boston, or have a house delivered straight to your office for a fun, team-building design session! Ready to compete? Visit thehome.org/gingerbread or email events@thehome.org to learn more.

This World Mental Health Day, the World Health Organization urges us all to appreciate the vital connection between mental health and work. At The Home, we prioritize the mental health of the hundreds of children and families we serve, as well as the mental well-being of our work families. We start from within, addressing and safeguarding the mental health needs of our staff, so that our workforce feels supported, cared for and can best serve the youth and families in our communities. Mental health affects everyone, those serving and those served, and prevention through self-care, awareness and open conversations help reduce the stigma, opening doors to support. We hope you will join us today in advocating for mental wellness for all! #WorldMentalHealthDay #MentalHealthMattersatWork 

Thirty years ago, Harry "Skip" Wells started The Home’s annual golf tournament, assembling friends and family for a no-frills day of play benefiting the children of The Home. Three decades later, the event is stronger than ever. The former board chair, mentor and longtime supporter of The Home reflects on the anniversary, on our agency and on the personal reason he is devoted to this cause. https://lnkd.in/eRiWDnFm

Check out this handiwork at The Home's Wediko School! Over the course of the fall semester, Woodshop Instructor Pat Liquori is teaching students how to build a shed on school grounds. Pat reports that the program has recently embarked on the construction and installation of 11 trusses to the shed's 12x20' frame. Wediko students are using both hand and power tools, measuring and cutting, and learning fundamental construction concepts, while gaining employable skills such as dependability, teamwork and on-the-job safety; they definitely have a future in the trades!