The Helping Hand Roundtable, July 2026

Welcome to The Helping Hand Roundtable! In this episode you'll hear stories of some of the amazing work being done in Watertown to help those in need in our community along with some of the great resources you might not be aware of. The discussion featured 6 local leaders:

Bevin Croft, Chair, World in Watertown

Gary Beatty, Executive Director, Watertown Boys and Girls Club

Janet Saied, Program Director, Project Literacy

Sophia Suarez-Friedman, Program Director, Wayside Youth and Family Support Network

Stephanie Venizelos, Assistant Director of Human Services, City of Watertown

Tia Tilson, Executive Director, Watertown Community Foundation

Released July 22nd, 2026

(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)

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Links for more info and to get involved:

Safe Space Project, Unity Breakfast, Yard Signs and other projects at World in Watertown

Info on all programs at Watertown Boys and Girls Club

Info on all programs and volunteering at Project Literacy

Info on all programs at Wayside Youth and Family Support Network

Info for Live Well Watertown, Farmers' Market, Food Assistance Programs, and Human Services Department

Info for grants and more at Watertown Community Foundation

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Sign up for the Little Local Conversations email newsletter to know when new episodes are out and keep up on everything Little Local Conversations.

Thanks to podcast promotional partner the Watertown Business Coalition, a nonprofit organization focused on connecting local businesses and strengthening our community. Check them out at watertownbusinesscoalition.com.

Thanks to promotional partner Watertown News, a Watertown-focused online newspaper. Check them out at watertownmanews.com.

Thank you to The Helping Hand series sponsor Watertown Savings Bank!

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Matt 0:02

Hi there. Welcome to the Little Local Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode, I sit down for a conversation to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is the second in one of the newest series for the podcast called The Helping Hand. And the Helping Hand episodes focus on nonprofit and mission-based organizations and projects within the city. And the Helping Hand series is sponsored by Watertown Savings Bank, so I want to give them a big thank you. This episode, I had a roundtable with six different leaders of organizations and groups in the city. And it was just nice to hear positive stories of people doing work to help others within their community. So I found this episode uplifting to hear it all. And maybe you'll jump in and help out one of these organizations yourself. All right, let's get into the conversation with Bevin, Tia, Gary, Janet, Sophia, and Stephanie. 

Matt 0:54

Well, I'm sitting here today in City Hall and here with a group of people who are doing some things in town with nonprofit and mission-based work. I'm calling it the Helping Hand Roundtable. Why don't everyone who's in the room introduce themselves? We'll go around and then we'll get into some of the conversation. So, Bevin, we'll start with you and we'll go around.

Bevin 1:10

Okay. I'm Bevin Croft. I'm the Chair of World in Watertown, which is an all volunteer-led nonprofit organization with almost 30-year history in our city. We focus on promoting rights and inclusion across our community. We are based in principles of human rights and really work to boost any and all efforts to make Watertown a welcoming place for everybody who lives here.

Tia 1:39

Hi, my name's Tia Tilson. Matt, thanks so much for having all of us here today. It's great to have this conversation together with, you know, our grant partners, a representative group here in the room. My name is Tia Tilson, Watertown Community Foundation. We have been around since 2003. What we do is we provide funds into the Watertown community to make Watertown a welcoming, vibrant place where people can thrive. So delighted to be here as part of this conversation.

Gary 2:07

My name is Gary Beatty. I am the Executive Director at the Watertown Boys and Girls Club here in Watertown. Since 1972, the Boys and Girls Club has been the largest youth-serving nonprofit organization here in Watertown. We provide year-round after school and out-of-school time programming for children ages really anywhere from 3 up through 18 years of age, our primary focus being our after-school program, our drop-in after school program. And recently our licensed after-school program. So we have two different components to our after-school program. But we really provide year-round programming, including school vacation weeks, summer camp weeks, providing necessary child care for working families in the community. And we do so at a very low cost and sometimes no cost. Thrilled with what we do, really happy to be a really important part of the Watertown community. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Janet 2:57

Hello. Hi. I'm Janet Saied, and I'm the Director of Project Literacy. We are based out of the Watertown Free Public Library on the second floor. And we primarily give English classes to adults, adult immigrants in our community from 18 to 90s, really. We currently have just over 500 students and 12 paid teachers. And fortunately, Watertown is a wonderful community. We have about 130 volunteers, but we still need more. And thank you very much for having me here. Also, we started in 1987, and our 40th year will be next year.

Sophia 3:37

Hi, I'm Sophia Suarez-Friedman, and I'm the Director at Wayside Youth and Family Support Network’s multi-service center in Watertown. So we provide mental health support and substance use prevention to youth and their families. So we support youth 6 to 22. And we also run the social services resource program for the city of Watertown, where we're helping adults in the community access resources for basic needs for food, housing, utilities, et cetera. It's good to be here with you all.

Stephanie 4:08

Good morning. It's Stephanie Venizelos, Assistant Director of the City of Watertown's Human Services Department, which is just one year new. And the new department includes Veteran Services, the Watertown City Food Pantry, Community Wellness, Live Well Watertown, and the Farmers Market, also overseeing the Social Service Navigation Resource Program that's housed in Wayside. And also staff liaison to the Commission on Disability and the Human Rights Commission. So a lot happening. We're happy to be here with some wonderful local organizations that we partner a lot with.

Matt 4:43

Well, thank you all for being here and for all that you're doing in the city. And we'll get into some of that. We're just going to go through some different segments here and hear what you guys have been up to and some of the stories. So I'm going to start off with our first one here, which I'm calling, recent heartwarming moment. I'll work this way and then I'll switch up who goes first next. So, Bevin, you want to start us off?

Bevin 5:02

All right. So I thought I would highlight the Watertown Welcomes All, Safe Space project that some folks at World in Watertown have spearheaded. This is a project to work with all of our local businesses to provide them with a sticker that was designed by a local artist that features the Pride flag and the Watertown Human Rights Commission and World in Watertown logos. It was a collaboration with the Human Rights Commission. And it's an opportunity for those businesses to affirm that they are a welcoming space for our LGBTQ plus community. So we've had volunteers going around and canvassing local businesses. And we've heard from many Watertown residents, both longtime residents and folks who are very new to the city, that it means a lot for them to see those symbols of inclusion up on our local business community when they walk through our town.

Matt 5:56

Awesome. Gary, how about you, a recent heartwarming moment for the Boys and Girls?

Gary 6:00

Well, at the Boys, we often have heartwarming moments at the Boys and Girls Clubs, but most recently, the one that comes to mind is we are now in week four of our 11-week club adventure summer camp programs. We're running a full summer camp program all the way through to the end of the summer season. And recently we were able to have a young member participate in her very first summer camp experience. She is a child that's dealing with some pretty severe autism and is in a specialized school for that and has found it difficult to find programs where they are able to have a positive experience. And with the help of an aid and then through some sponsorship opportunities, that child is now participating in camp here at our club and having a wonderful time. And it's just so terrific to see her being able to mingle with kids of her age who may not be having the same experiences that she is in life. But to see the joy that she is having at camp and being able to feel, for want of a better word, typical, has been really refreshing. And I think it's something that we take great pride in being able to facilitate those types of opportunities for kids that might not otherwise be able to do that. So that has been the one that's really stuck with me most recently.

Matt 7:07

Awesome. Recent heartwarming moment. What's your moment for that, Tia?

Tia 7:13

One of the things that continues to impress me about Watertown is the just immediate response to need in the community. We saw this last year in response to the very sudden shutdown of food benefits for people. And we've seen this in terms of this very strong civic muscle where small groups of people in Watertown organize to get things done. And they get organized for positive change and they get organized to help people. The most recent example of that that I'm aware of, and I'm sure there's many others out there, is that there's a mutual aid group that's come together, and mutual aid groups kind of rise and fall according to need. This one has come together as part of being supportive of all people in Watertown, residents of all walks of life and of all citizenship status. One of the things they've done is they knew the heat wave was coming and they began to organize for collecting air conditioners and they got them out during this recent heat wave. I was speaking with one of the project coordinators, and she said, Yeah, they gave an air conditioner to someone with a severe heat allergy. And the response of that person was, You literally saved my life. I love this story because it just represents this heart in Watertown that we are going to take care of one another. I love seeing it and I love helping facilitate it whenever I can, as one of many people.

Matt 8:34

Great. Thank you for sharing. How about for you, Janet?

Janet 8:38

I wanted to focus on our volunteers because lately, with everything going on, it's been really wonderful to be in the Project Literacy office because volunteers are coming in with their learners talking about how incredible their experience has been with each other. But I chose to focus on the Watertown World Cup event that we had at the end of May because it was awesome. And it was one of those times where I drove away and I was just like, that was just awesome. So it was the end of May, and we organized a Watertown World Cup where the Project Literacy students were the captains of the teams that they are from. And we had about 225 people attend and it was great. We had eight countries. There were kids from seven years old up to like people in their 70s. There was one student, he's from Portugal. He's a retired police officer. He's like, I'm just gonna go and just watch. And I'm like, you should play. He's like, I haven't played soccer in 30 years. And then he started in goal and then he got himself onto the field. And it was wonderful to see him along with kids. And, you know, there was a woman and she was running around and she was in a hijab and she got knocked down. And it's like, I'm so sorry. She's like, What are you talking about? Come on, like, let's go score a goal. It was awesome. 

Janet 9:47

And the winning team was India, which was again, I thought was great because it was actually a mother and a daughter who are from India in our program. And the mother, she's older now, but she used to be on the national cricket team for women in India. And so she was just like, come on. But the Indian team itself was made up of people who were born and raised in Watertown. And there's little kids from Guatemala, and there's a couple of kids from Colombia and Brazil and then Armenia. So it just, it was wonderful. It was a great event. I just loved being a part of it and seeing it. 

Matt 10:23

Awesome. Thank you. All right, Sophia.

Sophia 10:25

Okay. I had a conversation with a client recently. We were wrapping up some of the services we were providing and so reflecting on how it had been together. And she shared something really beautiful with me about her experience that she growing up had connections to multiple people that she considered grandmothers, that she had a lot of community support and family support around her. And that she was finding that for her son, that she wasn't experiencing the same thing and was feeling like she didn't have that community around her to be providing as much support as her son needed, you know, exacerbated by being a black family in a predominantly white space, and as well as like other hardships that they were experiencing. And so she shared with me that it was coming to Wayside that she like felt like she actually had community for the first time. And that was really special to hear. And she's a really wonderful mom and special person. And I've always been really impressed with how much she reaches out for support and asks for help. That's a really hard thing to do, something that she is good at and has gotten even better at and advocating for herself. 

Sophia 11:37

And so she's someone who has been able to receive support from various of our programs, which is what we want, right? Our programs might be different by name, but in reality, they all work together to support a family. And another successful part of that was that her son, when we first met, was not really interested in receiving support. He wasn't interested in therapy and wasn't sure he was interested in any type of more formalized or professional support. You know, it was a slow buildup and it did result in him being able to engage in multiple other types of therapies and supports for him and for his family as well.

Matt 12:15

Great. Thank you. All right, Stephanie.

Stephanie 12:18

So a recent heartwarming moment for us was at the farmer's market when one of our regular customers, now regular customers, came up at the end of the day to say that she wanted us to know that visiting the farmer's market is the highlight of her week. And she is one of many who uses our food assistance benefits. So at the farmer’s market, we offer a SNAP match. So people who use SNAP can get up to $15 a week in free dollars. And it makes it more affordable. It really gives them access. For many people, the farmer's market is a little bit out of reach. And there's another benefit affiliated with SNAP called HIP, Healthy Incentive Program. And many SNAP users are unaware. It's very underutilized. It's basically free produce, and all three of our farms provide it. Helping people understand HIP and what it is. I'm looking at Sophia who's laughing because she understands it's complicated in a strange way. They know they have it, they've heard of it, but they don't understand how it actually works. 

Stephanie 13:18

So we spend a lot of time educating them because we know that they could be leaving with $40 to $80 a month more than they're already getting at the farmer's market. So we spend a lot of time, and this visitor was one woman who we, it took a couple of weeks to finally, you know, she'd say, Oh, maybe next week I'll try it. So when we finally got her to do it, people they come, they need the food, but the sort of joy when they realize how much more is available is really. And in this particular case, and it's not unusual. This is someone who now does their shopping and then sits on the wall, listens to the music. I see people chatting with each other who don't know each other. So it's a wonderful outdoor space. It's providing free music and some activities, and we have community organizations, city departments table and share information. So it's a whole experience. So we're happy to be providing extra free food, but it's also heartwarming when you see people come and take in the space and the experience. So wanted to share that.

Matt 14:18

Great. Well, thank you all for your heartwarming moments. Sets the tone nice for the rest of the conversation. So in a similar vein, but I left this one up to be more broad for you guys to answer. The next segment here is success stories. Gary, we'll start with you this time. What's a success story you'd like to share?

Gary 14:35

Yeah, thank you. So I think undoubtedly the biggest success story that our club has experienced most recently has been twofold. Number one has been the completion of the expansion of our club into the lower level of our building with the new foundations project, which actually this time last year was in its final stages, the final touches were being put on the space. The primary purpose of the redevelopment of that space was to increase the capacity for more children at the club, primarily focused on the youngest age groups for after-school, where unfortunately here in Watertown and every local community that I talk to, there's just such a shortage of after-school care options for children. So the primary goal of increasing our square footage into this new space was to be able to create space for a new licensed after-school program, which was going to be available for kids younger than we've ever served before. Traditionally, our club has always served kids in the after-school program, ages seven and up. With this new licensed program, we've opened that up to children ages kindergarten through second grade. And from there, then they can graduate to the drop-in program. 

Gary 15:36

So we hired a wonderful director last year, Sarah Austin, who has done a wonderful job, a magnificent job of getting us through our first year. We've had close to 30 families enrolled in the program in our first year, which slightly exceeded what our expectations were. And those kids are again primarily at the kindergarten age group, where sadly there are still many families that aren't able to get spots. So we were thrilled to be able to address that ongoing shortage in that space for after-school care. As we go into year number two of the program, our hope is that we will be expanding our capacity to somewhere to closer to 50 children in the program upcoming for the 2026-27 school year. 

Gary 16:15

And just the feedback from families. One, their gratitude for the fact that the program has been available, but two, the experience that they've had at our club. Again, came into this a little unknown. While we do after-school care every day, it's a new age group. We had a new director. There's a lot of potential pitfalls there where you're just unsure as to how it's going to go. But the program has been received wonderfully. The staff have done a fantastic job. And more important than anything else, the kids have really thrived. Again, we've had a couple of kids in that program who have got learning deficits or they're on the spectrum. And to see their development from September of last year through June of this year, where they've come out of their shells. Our staff have found ways to connect to them, find what works for those kids, find their learning style, and be able to modify and create programming that in which they will thrive. It's been something to behold, I have to say. 

Gary 17:05

It's something that we're very, very proud of, our entire staff from top to bottom and our board of directors, because we had a vision for what this program was going to be. We had a vision for what the space was going to become. And within year one, we've seen a lot of that happening already. So we're incredibly excited about the future and really looking forward to the new school year. We currently have, I think, a little over 40 kids now enrolled in the program. So we have capacity for a few more, and we would expect that those spaces are likely going to fill up in the weeks ahead. So undoubtedly, that's been a massive success story for us. It's been a long time coming. And to see that project through and the program now up and running has been really rewarding for everybody involved. So very proud of that.

Matt 17:43

Yeah, congrats.

Gary 17:44

Thank you.

Tia 17:45

I've spoken a little bit about how this community comes together to help one another. And a great example of that was last year when SNAP benefits were cut off. In a matter of hours, key leaders in this community came together and said, we got to do something. And the community foundation, the Watertown Community Foundation, had had an experience of running a community food drive as part of our annual Watertown Helps Out in May. And we were able to pull on that experience and say, okay, we know how to do this, and we can support those organizations that want to take the lead on it. And the city needed to take the lead on it. So we were able to provide a structure and say, here's how you get it done. Here's how we can work with the food pantries. We can provide volunteers. They provided an incredible citywide platform to organize the food collection across a variety of city partners and nonprofits that were working together. 

Tia 18:37

The outpouring of food was extraordinary. We were pulling together volunteers weekly, sometimes two times a week, to distribute food to both of our food pantries. Carloads of food were going out. In addition to that, the Watertown Community Foundation is the only place people can give online to support both food pantries. So, you know, people I'd never heard of were making contributions to the community foundation that we were a pass through. We distributed straight out to both food pantries. And this was close to $50,000 in a matter of weeks. So I looked at that and I was touched, proud, humbled by the incredible response. And I've seen this again and again with GoFundMe campaigns when personal need has cropped up in very desperate situations in an ongoing way. And again, to me, it speaks to the heart of this community in caring for one another. And I'm very proud to be a resident here.

Matt 19:33

Great. Well, thank you for sharing. That's great success. All right, Janet, what's your success story?

Janet 19:40

So there have been a lot of changes to the citizenship exam and process and interview. And I went after a grant about a year ago and we lost the grant because of the funding was cut, but the state heard about it. And they were able to provide us with money that was the same amount of the grant to update all of our citizenship materials. The tricky part was a lot of the materials out there, there's not a whole lot out there for the new exam and the new process and the new interview. And not many places, not many libraries have the recent resources. So as of I think literally about two weeks ago, we were able to get the newest published books for the updated interview and the citizenship process. We got two updated books. And then the USCIS website, the government website for citizenship, has a lot of great updated materials, but you have to get it printed and everything. So we were able to update all of our materials, which is great. 

Janet 20:41

And it's great because like Watertown Library is now one of the few places that has the updated materials, though I want other, of course, places to have those as well. And we have a lot of people that really care about this. So her name is Nancy. She, I call her a citizenship guru, but she stayed on top of all the changes. And so she just led a citizenship training for people, volunteers who want to teach citizenship, do one-on-one training, tutoring, and hopefully we can create a class too. It's great because we have the people and the resources to help people get their citizenship who have done everything they can to get to this point. So it's awesome. It's great.

Matt 21:20

Nice. Congrats to you as well. All right, Sophia.

Sophia 21:23

Kind of similar type of origin story to Janet's. You know, we're living in a more uncertain environment when it comes to funding. And so trying to get creative, trying to make sure that we can continue the programming that we're offering, but also expand it and improve it always. And so I'm trying to diversify the types of grant funds that we have, especially given we have some federal grant funds. They were temporarily taken away this past year and then reinstated within 24 hours. But you know, there's some legislation that could come down the line that could make it possible for them to take it away permanently. 

Sophia 22:05

And so that being a motivator, we were able to get a Cummings Foundation grant this year. They have the $35 million grant program. And so we were awarded funds for a new program called Seeds of Wellness. The idea is that we're going to be bringing some gardening activities to our existing programming, like our individual and group counseling as another way for our kids to be practicing wellness and positive coping skills, but also because we recognize, mostly through our prevention work with substance use prevention, how important it is for youth to feel like they belong in their own community. And we don't really have volunteer opportunities at the moment because we're dealing with protected health information and offering counseling and therapy. So these types of activities are ones that we could open it up for volunteer involvement, which would then, you know, expand the community that our clients have. And so it's a three-year program, and we're kind of just getting it up and running now, and there's more to come.

Matt 23:07

Nice. Congrats. Alright, Stephanie.

Stephanie 23:10

So a success story for the new human services department was the ability to carry out several commemorative Memorial Day events this year in May, as we always do, but this was in the absence of a veteran services officer. So fortunately, human services staff, primarily Jenna, the new director, was able to bring together a group of key partners, a lot of people from the local VFW, Marine Corps, people who are often involved to some degree. And this year it was a new experience. We all helped carry out the week-long activities leading up through the Memorial Day parade. So the week-long events included flag planting, which happens every year at St. Patrick's and Ridgelawn Cemeteries. We had 40 volunteers thanks to Watertown Helps Out, funded by the Community Foundation. And then following that, we facilitated veteran attendance at the Watertown Middle School assemblies, which are organized by students. The city's events team, as they do each year, they host a poppy social following the assemblies. And we helped organize a color guard presentation along with the Watertown police. On Sunday, alongside with local veterans, we participated in a rolling procession to pay tribute in various locations across the city. And then events concluded with the annual Memorial Day parade on Monday, where over 20 veteran agencies, local organizations, braved the rain, came out together in community. It was a wonderful day.

Matt 24:34

So, Bevin, your success story.

Bevin 24:36

So for many, many years, over 25 years, World in Watertown's signature event has been the Unity Breakfast, which is held on Martin Luther King Day. And it's really an opportunity for the community to come together to reaffirm our commitment to the principles that Dr. Martin Luther King stood for. And it's been a really beloved community event. This January will be our 27th annual event. During the pandemic, some wonderful volunteers kept the event alive and moved to a virtual format. And that worked really well for a few years. But in 2025, January 2025, the group of us at World in Watertown and the organizing group decided we wanted to try to bring the event back in person. And we had no idea how it would go. 

Bevin 25:23

A wonderful group of volunteers, about 30 volunteers, came together to make it happen. And the morning of the event, we really didn't know what to expect. And almost 500 people showed up to the event. And then this past January, we decided to rinse and repeat, have it in person again. We weren't sure, you know, if that enthusiasm for coming together was going to continue. And yet again, almost 500 people showed up to the event. So we're just really proud to be able to host this event every year, bring folks together. There's over 200 student essays are submitted for the student essay contest that's a centerpiece of the event. It's just been wonderful to be a part of that. And we're looking forward to Unity Breakfast 2027.

Matt 26:07

Congrats. All right. So now we're gonna head into number three, which is our Did You Know? So this is a place where you can share a little fun fact or hidden resource or something like that. So let's start with you, Janet, for this one. What's your Did You Know?

Janet 26:22

Did you know? So not only at Project Literacy do we provide free English classes for adults, but we're in the library. So another big role for us is just connecting people to resources. And as Tia's mentioned, we have a lot of incredible organizations and groups of people doing amazing things. And we don't want those resources to go to waste. So we have Wayside coming into the Project Literacy office now once a week for drop-in for anyone who needs anything. And I mean, it literally says need help. That's their flyer. And Wayside's been incredible. We have SNAP benefits information up there. Live Well for especially for our older students and volunteers to do like yoga at the library and things. The Watertown Boys and Girls Club, letting our families know the resources there, camps and discounts and ways to help them find things for their children during breaks and things. 

Janet 27:16

And we also run parent classes for parents who have children in the Watertown schools. And, you know, I'm a parent, so things like knowing when you should be looking for summer camps and where can I send my child during a break, knowing that the pools here are free, you can just walk in. And we've got a great relationship with the Watertown schools and we work hand in hand to make sure like the parents know what to expect on open house night and things like that. So to echo what everyone has said, it's just awesome to see so many people doing things and making sure the resources are getting spread and people are, you know, improving their lives and advocating for themselves and their families.

Matt 27:54

Yeah, it's important to know it's a whole ecosystem that people can tap into. Yeah. All right, Sophia, what's your Did You Know?

Sophia 28:00

My did you know is very similar to Janet's did you know, which is that, yeah, we have the library hours every week now, every Wednesday at the library on the second floor by Project Literacy. So it alternates 2 to 4 or 11 to 1 week to week, so that we're, you know, coinciding with when some Project Literacy classes are, when the farmer’s market is, so that it's more accessible for people, and that the specific information is on the library calendar so that people can see. One of the reasons that it's worked really well is that people are already at the library. They know the library. Like one client in particular said that they had been afraid to look for help, but then they saw the need help flyer and were like, okay, I'm just gonna do it. And it being right where they were already, right at that time, is what allowed them to access it. And so that's why we do the library office hours. 

Matt 28:51

That's great.

Stephanie 28:52

So, did you know that September is National Recovery Month? So this is an observance that started over 30 years ago and since has been an intentional time to promote and support substance use recovery services and increase public awareness around mental health and addiction recovery. So, for many years, the city and a group of partners have held educational events in September to bring awareness to the fact that people can and do recover. This year, two events are happening in September. So at the Faire on the Square on September 18th, the human services table will feature information about substance use disorders to revive the effort to educate people. And then following that, on Thursday, September 24th, in partnership with the library, the Human Services Department will be hosting a screening of the documentary Recovery City, followed by a conversation with a filmmaker, Lisa Oliveri, who's from Watertown, to understand services through the lens of advocates and people with lived experience. We'll also have Narcan, a life-saving medication used to reverse opioid overdoses available and prevention resources available for attendees.

Matt 30:06

Great. Thank you. All right, Bevin, what's your Did You Know?

Bevin 30:10

Did you know that World in Watertown has yard signs available? If you would like to send a message to our immigrant community that they are welcome in Watertown, we have many yard signs that are available. They say no matter where you are from, we are glad you are our neighbor. They're available in Haitian Creole, Armenian, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian. You can get a yard sign through the World in Watertown website or by emailing Worldinwatertowncity at gmail.com, and we're more than happy to get one to you. The cost of the yard signs has actually already been covered by donations, but if folks want to make a donation, they can also do that. It's really nice to see the yard signs up in yards all throughout the city. And I think it really does make a difference in sending a message to our neighbors that everybody's welcome here.

Matt 31:04

Yeah. Thank you. All right. Yeah. So, Tia, what is your Did You Know?

Tia 31:09

Did you know that the Watertown Community Foundation offers grants in three key areas essential needs, education, youth, and development, and community engagement. And that grant portfolio, we will begin to accept applications for that at the beginning of September. So check out our website and look for that. Did you know that the Watertown Community Foundation provides grants for block parties? We really want to bring people together. So check out our website. We offer very small grants to get you started, between $100 and $200 to bring your neighbors together and get to know them. And did you know, since we're committed to really supporting the nonprofits in the community, there's some fun facts that I wanted to offer up. 

Tia 31:48

Did you know that many of the murals in the city are possible with the financial support of the Watertown Community Foundation? So we've been part of beautifying Watertown for a couple of decades now at least. A small promo since it's summertime, and we've been a big supporter of the Watertown Community Gardens. Did you know there's a seed library to the left of the circulation desk at the Watertown Library? And let's not forget the lending library of things. These are things that I think people need to know in Watertown. And then the other thing is signing up for Medicare is confusing. Did you know that the Senior Center has a SHINE, serving the health information needs of everyone, a SHINE coordinator who can help offer guidance for signing up for Medicare and prescription drug coverage? This is going to be particularly helpful during October's reenrollment period.

Matt 32:34

Great. Thank you for all those facts. All right, Gary. 

Gary 32:37 

Follow that? Comprehensive list. All right. I actually have two Did You Knows. Our first Did You Know, did you know that our after-school drop-in program is completely free of charge for families? I still to this day meet families in town who are not aware of the fact that this is available to them. So there is a very small, modest annual membership fee of $25 per child, but that does give them access to our drop-in after school program for kids seven through eighteen every day of the school year. And my second did you know is that the Watertown Boys and Girls Club is so much more than just gym and games. We offer a wide variety of programs and activities that are focused around education with our daily homework help program. Through the support of people like the Watertown Community Foundation, we provide a free daily snack to every child that comes into our club upon arrival every single day. We are currently focused a lot on social emotional learning as a core theme of all of our programs and activities. We offer daily swim for our members in our swimming pool, which is not something that they get to do in a whole lot of places, but we offer it every single day. 

Gary 33:43

So those are my did you know's is that one, our after-school drop-on programs, completely free of charge for members. And two, there's a wide variety of programs that happen every single day at the club, and those are expanding all the time. This year, we very proudly, through our partnership with the library, we're able to get 16 members of our club, their very first library card, which is something we're thrilled about with our book club, which was started this year and ran by our social rec director, Rose Muldrew. Very proud of those.

Matt 34:08

Great. Thank you. All right. Thank you everyone for sharing your little facts there. Our next segment is going to be number of the month. I always like seeing what people come up with numbers for this one. So Sophia, you’re up first this time.

Sophia 34:21

Yeah, luckily it's, we just had the end of quarter two for our social services resource program. So I have a fresh off the whatever we call it number. So our social services resource program funded through the city of Watertown and the Human Services Department was able to support 36 Watertown households alone with housing support in the last quarter. Housing support can look like applying for public housing, looking for affordable housing opportunities, and teaching people how to search for good market rate units that will fit their requirements. So housing costs have really gone up a lot. And you know, there's other ways that we're supporting people, like with accessing rental assistance, public benefits, and other financial needs. And the need for housing, for rental assistance, for utility assistance has stayed very high since the pandemic. So 36 households alone have received some support around housing in the last three months.

Matt 35:22

Good work. All right, Stephanie, what's your number?

Stephanie 35:26

So the Human Services Department number of the month is around food access and free food. There are several programs providing a significant amount to residents in the community. And over the past month, the department, through its different programs, fed well over a thousand people through food sourced at the City Food Pantry, the farmer’s market, and the affiliated food assistance programs, and through the Essential Needs gift card, which was a grant from the Community Foundation, as is the SNAP Match program. So the City Pantry is open on Tuesdays where visitors can go in and shop. So there's both some fresh produce and non-perishable goods. And on Wednesdays, the farmer’s market offers the $15 a week snap that you heard about and the free produce from our farm vendors through their hip benefit. Also at the farmer’s market are three vendors, farms and a bake goods vendor, donate pretty significant amount of food, which goes to the Community Fridge and the Catholic Collaborative Food Pantry. So these items are filled in the bags that go to at least 25, sometimes many more, families that go through the drive-thru of that pantry. And they also fill the fridge. 

Stephanie 36:38

So there's a lot of food that comes out of the generous donations of the farmer’s market that goes beyond the city pantry. And then we also have the gift cards that went out through that essential needs program. So we do track. So this is an estimate, and I think it's well over a thousand people because we're counting households. We don't know exactly how many people are eating and how much from the fridge, but it is a significant amount of food. And we're grateful to be able to provide that through grants and other support we have.

Matt 37:06

Great. Well, good work there too. Thank you. All right, Bevin.

Bevin 37:10

I have a modest little number to share, and that's the number 37. That's the number of businesses in Watertown that have Safe Space stickers displayed in their windows. And by our account, on our outreach spreadsheet, there are over 300 businesses in Watertown. And we're still working to canvas those businesses. So if anybody is interested in volunteering to ask more businesses if they'd be willing to put up the stickers, you can reach out to us on our website. 

Matt 37:41

Great. Thank you. All right, Tia, do you have a number for us? 

Tia 37:45

I have numbers of the month. WHO, 12th annual, Watertown Helps Out, 12th annual, was in May of 2026. We had 40 projects, the most ever. We had 500 volunteers on the ground and a thousand volunteer hours. And the purpose of Watertown Helps Out is to connect volunteers to nonprofits that need help doing things. It's a great way to bring the community together and it's a great way to lift up our nonprofit partners. And we're finding in many respects that there are volunteer relationships that continue after this. So this is a shout out to all of the nonprofits that participated and all of the many volunteers and companies that put their folks in the community for a thousand volunteer hours. If you think about that in terms of work weeks, that's pretty extraordinary. So those are my numbers.

Matt 38:36

Congrats. All right, Gary, what's your number?

Gary 38:40

Okay. As with other things, I've got two numbers, not just one. 70,000 is the number of hours that we will exceed in any given year with the amount of supervised programming activities that we provide to kids during the course of the year. So if you accumulate all their time together. This year we think that number will actually exceed 75,000. And my second number is 35,000. That is the amount of financial assistance that we provide to families in our community to attend our fee-based programs during the course of a year. Things like our summer camp, our swim lessons, our biddy basketball program, and our new fee-based after school program, the Kid Connect program. So those are my two numbers: 35,000 of financial assistance on average. And again, that number is probably going to rise this year. And over 70,000 hours of activities and services provided altogether. 

Matt 39:29

Great numbers. Thanks, Gary. All right, Janet.

Janet 39:32

As I mentioned earlier, Project Literacy started in 1987. And I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record. I've said this before because I'm amazed by the history of Project Literacy. So it started in 1987 with 20 volunteers and 20 students. In 2027, we'll celebrate our 40th year. So right now we have 530 students, 12 paid teachers, and about 130 volunteers. So it's amazing. And I walked into an awesome program. And I just think it's definitely telling of the Watertown community. It's awesome. It's wonderful to see something like this do so well. And it's because everybody has really stepped up to help. It's wonderful. So that's my number. My numbers.

Matt 40:17

Great to see the longevity and growth. Awesome. All right. So we're coming to our wrap-up last part here, which is upcoming. So you can think of this as, you know, name a couple things for people to keep an eye out for coming up, ask for anyone to get involved with something. And like I mentioned before, I'll do a dump of any links in the show notes for people to click through to things. So, Stephanie, give us what you got for us to look forward to.

Stephanie 40:40

So, current and upcoming, that would be good to know, are some Live Well programs. So on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, there are three opportunities. So on Tuesdays, we offer a free stress reduction or movement class. And many of these are in collaboration with the library. And in August, we're going to be doing an outdoor Zumba wellness class on Tuesday nights in Saltonstall Park. So we think that's going to be a lot of fun and hope people will check that out. That and many of the programs that I mentioned can be found on the livewellwatertown.org website. 

Stephanie 41:10

On Wednesdays is the farmer's market. And again, that's a place where you can come and find fresh local food, connect with others. Every other week, starting yesterday, we're having a ask the dietitian table. So you can come and ask a registered dietitian who's also a wellness coach, any questions you have and talk about what produce is available and how you can cook with it. So that's a new initiative we just kicked off yesterday. And on Thursdays is our Watertown Walks program. So every week we run a walk on Thursday mornings or in some cases later in the day. And we offer programs in collaboration with partners. We feature city happenings, health and wellness, arts and culture. And with the Watertown Business Coalition, we offer a monthly walk that features businesses and other local organizations in the community. We hope to see you at one or all. 

Matt 42:05

Great. Thanks for sharing. All right, Bevin, what do you have for upcoming?

Bevin 42:09

Upcoming. So July is Disability Pride Month, and October is Disability Employment Month, but we're not bound by month, and we do care a lot about disability justice. So World in Watertown has, for the past couple of years, collaborated with the Watertown Commission on Disability to host a panel discussion focused on the topic of disability in the fall. And we are planning our third disability forum. The first year we did this, we had a group of Watertown residents with disabilities, folks with a variety of different disability identities, just speak in a very practical, straightforward way about what it's like to be a disabled person in Watertown. And it was a wonderful event. I learned a lot. I think everybody there learned a lot. So we're thinking we may host something similar. So that's coming up in the fall. Right now we're really just in the early planning stages. So for listeners who have lived experience of disability or who care about disability and educating our community around issues of disability, if you're interested in putting together the panel or maybe being a speaker, we'd love to connect.

Matt 43:21

Great. Thanks for sharing.

Tia 43:23

Upcoming for the Watertown Community Foundation. September is the opening of our community engagement grant cycle. So if you have an idea or a project to bring the community together, take a look at our website. We'd love to entertain your ideas. So grant cycle will be open through September, but the deadline's the deadline. Also stay tuned for two October events coming up. Watertown's Got Talent is in partnership with the Arsenal Yards, and this is a great opportunity for our kids in our schools to showcase their dance, their singing, their baton twirling, whatever talent they wish to share with the community. Stay tuned for that date coming up in October. Also, we have a semi-regular fundraiser, which is quite popular, citywide trivia, also coming up in October. So get your teams together, pay attention. This is a fundraiser for our work in the community. So again, stay tuned for trivia and Watertown's Got Talent.

Matt 44:16

Thank you, Tia. Alright, Gary, what do you have upcoming?

Gary 44:19

Okay, well, by the time this comes out, our biggest annual fundraiser event at the Boys and Girls Club is our golf tournament, which happens every August. So the 49th edition of the Stephen P. Mugar Memorial Tournament will be happening on Monday, August 3rd of this year. We are, however, already making plans for our 50th edition of that event for 2027. So be on the lookout for that. Other important dates that are upcoming is the start of the new school year. Our Kid Connect after-school licensed program will begin on Tuesday, September the 8th. And our drop-in after-school program will begin on Monday, September the 14th. Until then, our summer camp program will be running all the way up through Friday, September the 4th. And there are still openings in our camp program. So if anyone is still looking for options for summer camp until then, please check out our website.

Matt 45:07

Great. Thank you, Gary. And Janet.

Janet 45:10

Yeah, so upcoming information. Our summer classes are actually ending July 30th. So registration for our academic year, which starts September 14th. We have registration now open for that. Our academic year of classes will be September 14th and they go through May 2027. We will have classes in the morning at the library and then in the evening, primarily on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in the Watertown schools. So please, if you know anyone or if you're interested in volunteering, I'm also hiring some teachers as well. Please reach out. And on July 30th, we have a volunteer training through the Marshall Home Fund. It's helping us with that. And it's called fun with grammar. It's at three o'clock in the Mastrangelo room at the library. You don't need to let us know ahead of time, but it'd be great if you did. But if you are interested, come by the library July 30th, three o'clock to have some fun with grammar. And if you don't think that's possible, then I really think you should come by.

Matt 46:14

Thank you, Janet.

Sophia 46:15

So some things that are upcoming for Wayside, if you want to come and talk to us, get to know what our services are, we'll be at the farmer’s market on August 26th. And then we'll be at Faire on the Square on September 19th. I'm sure everyone here will be there. And then some things to look out for. We don't have dates for yet, but some upcoming programs and trainings that we're offering with help from the Watertown Community Foundation grants. We have mental health first aid trainings coming up. We'll do one for youth and one for adults. So mental health first aid is a way to learn how to support adults and youth while they're in crisis, if they're struggling with their mental health or with substance use and how to respond. So it's typically an eight-hour training. So we'll do one over two days, like two evenings, four hours each, and one over a whole day period at the library. We're nailing down those dates now. 

Sophia 47:10

And then we'll also have a help the helper series of workshops, also through the Watertown Community Foundation. And so that's to support people who are supporting others. That might mean that you're a teacher. That might mean that you're involved in the rapid response network. That might mean that you're a social worker. It might mean that you're a parent. There'll be workshops with different topics. The first one will be a little bit exploratory to figure out who's attending and what else that they want to see. But it'll be around self-care. It'll be around, you know, we call it secondary traumatic stress in the field. So that's where you're supporting someone who's struggling. And so then you might take on some of those symptoms. So how to still support them without burning out and then engage in some self-care activities to be able to take care of yourself within the community of the group. So the first one will be coming up in August and then they'll be monthly. Look out for more information. A good way to find it is our quarterly newsletter as well as our social medias on Facebook and Instagram.

Matt 48:13

Great. Well, thank you everyone for coming. For listeners, if you want to check out any of the things that were mentioned, go to the show notes. I'll put links in there that you can click through to many of the things mentioned here. So please do check that out. These are great organizations in our city. Thank you, all of you who are here today and for the work you do in the city. And thank you for taking your time to share everything that's going on. Thank you for being here. Goodbye, listeners.

Matt 48:39

So that's it for this Helping Hand episode. Again, I'll put links in the show notes so you can find out more information about things that were mentioned. And if you'd like to hear more episodes of the podcast, you can head on over to LittleLocalConversations.com. And I want to thank again Watertown Savings Bank for being the sponsor of the Helping Hands series. So I'm going to read their little message. We'd like to say that we are proud to sponsor this series you're producing and appreciate the work that you do for the community. As a 155-year-old community bank, Watertown Savings Bank is honored to be such an integral part of the incredible Watertown community, working alongside all the amazing organizations in the city. In addition to our five Watertown locations, we also serve Waltham, Belmont, Arlington, Lexington, and Newton. For more information on Watertown Savings, please visit our website, watertownsavings.com. Thanks again, Watertown Savings Bank. 

Matt 49:25

All right, and I want to give a few shout-outs here to wrap things up. I want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council who have given me a grant this year to help support the podcast. So I want to give them the appropriate credit, which is, this program is supported in part by a grant by the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Find out more about them at WatertownCulturalCouncil.org and MassCulturalCouncil.org. And a couple more shout outs to promotional partners. First, the Watertown Business Coalition. Their motto is Community Is Our Business. Find out more about them at WatertownBusinessCoalition.com. And lastly, Watertown News, which is a Watertown focused online newspaper. It's a great place to keep up to date with everything going on in the city. Check that out at WatertownMANews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.