Park Street Church partners with a variety of local service organizations that actively seek volunteers. An overview of these organizations, including information on how to get involved, is listed here:
Boston Faith & Justice Network
Boston Faith & Justice Network (BFJN) is a network of passionate and active volunteers from evangelical, mainline, and Pentecostal churches. Their goal is to build in themselves and their churches the moral and practical capacity to address poverty and injustice. They currently have action teams focused on Global Poverty and Youth & Education.
Web Site: bostonfaithjustice.org
Ministry Contact: Rachel Anderson, (617) 359-6910, info at bostonfaithjustice.org
Park Street Contact: Lisa Brewer, lbrewer at boston.k12.ma.us
The Boston Rescue Mission is the oldest continuously running homeless shelter in Boston. It is a healing community where lives are transformed through Christ's Love, Grace and Compassion. Service opportunities include a Saturday morning outreach and a Sunday afternoon meal. On Saturday mornings a group typically consisting of staff, volunteers, local church groups and some clients visits local parks and other designated sites to bring food, coffee, clothing and fellowship to the Boston homeless community. On Sunday afternoons, the Boston Rescue Mission invites church groups to come to the Mission to prepare and serve a meal for resident clients and shelter guests.
Web Site: www.brm.org
Address: 39 Kingston Street, Boston, MA 02111
Ministry Contact: Demetri Yannopoulos, (617) 338-9000 x1230, dyannopoulos at bostonrescuemission.com
Park Street Contact: Matt & Nicole Pritchert
The Chelsea Community Kitchen has been serving special guests for over 15 years. The kitchen opens for a light breakfast on Saturdays only at 9:00 am, serves a hot lunch, and closes at 12:00 noon. Participation can be from 40 to 100 special guests, which includes a veried ethnic population of adults, elderly and some children. Volunteers are always needed to serve in the kitchen, and to serve and interact with the guests.
Address: St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 201 Washington Ave, Chelsea, MA 02150
Ministry Contact: Joyce Ann Loiselle, Director, (617) 884-2453
Park Street Contact: Sean Kolva, skolva at gmail.com
Cradles to Crayons is committed to providing poor and homeless Massachusetts children, from infancy to age 12, with everyday supplies including clothing, books, school supplies, safety equipment, arts and crafts, and toys. Cradles to Crayons has served over 40,000 Massachusetts children in the past three years with high-quality items to keep a child warm, safe at home and ready to learn at school. Volunteer opportunities include: Inspect books, pack clothing, sort through toys, stuff backpacks, and coordinate drives.
Web Site: www.cradlestocrayons.org
Address: 82 Myrtle Street, Quincy, MA 02171
Ministry Contact: (617) 471-8417
Park Street Contact: Ben Atkinson, batkinso at bidmc.harvard.edu
Daybreak Pregnancy Resource Center
Daybreak is a non-profit, non-denominational Pregnancy Resource Center affiliated nationally with CareNet. Located in the heart of downtown Boston, our mission it to empower individual to make informed choices. Since 1984, we have provided assistance to over 13,400 clients. Our programs include pregnancy testing and counseling, shepherding homes, client advocates, material support, post-abortion counseling and support groups, and abstinence education in schools and churches. The center operates through the help of both supervised volunteers and paid professional staff. All our services are free and confidential.
Web Site: www.daybreakinc.org
Ministry Contact: Elaine Russo, (617) 742-9172
Park Street Contact: Elaine Russo
An urban ministry based in Boston, the Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC) works to build and multiply urban churches and urban ministries. EGC provides resources to nurture urban churches and urban ministries and to encourage ministry in urban and ethnic communities. EGC aims to understand and help nurture the vitality of the Church in the context of the broader urban community, particularly in Boston's low-income and immigrant communities where the work of the Church is so critical.
Web Site: www.egc.org
Address: 2 San Juan Street (South End), Boston, MA
Ministry Contact: Michele Mitsumori, (617) 262-4567 x212, mmitsumori at egc.org
Park Street Contact: Grace Lin, grace at aes-egc.org
The Greater Boston Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief organization in New England, and one of the largest food banks in the country. The Food Bank operates out of a 60,000 square-foot facility in the Roxbury/Newmarket section of Boston and distributes more than 25 million pounds of food annually to a network of more than 600 member hunger-relief agencies. Volunteers help us separate, sort, inspect and package food. Volunteer opportunities are available six days a week (excluding Sundays), with flexible hours in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings.
Web Site: www.gbfb.org
Address: 99 Atkinson Street, Boston, MA 02118
Ministry Contact: Amy Cooper, (617) 427-5200, volunteer@gbfb.org
Park Street Contact: Chelsea Forbus, mlle.chelsea at gmail.com
The Food Pantry operates in collaboration with Fair Food, a grassroots organization from Dorchester that provides fresh produce and bread to sites throughout the Greater Boston area through their "Dollar a Bag" program. The pantry is open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 12 noon in St. Paul's lower church. The produce and bread provided by Fair Food are supplemented with nonperishable items provided through the generosity of our parishioners. Contributions are collected in the vestibule of the church prior to each of the weekend liturgies. Volunteers are organized into teams, one of which staffs the Pantry once a month from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Each team has a leader who is responsible for the overall operation of the Pantry on a given Saturday. The duties of team members include setup, unloading the produce truck, hospitality, assisting those with special needs, distribution of food, breakdown, and cleanup.
Ministry Contact: David Sullivan, (617) 491-8400
Address: 29 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Park Street Contact: Ben Atkinson, batkinso at bidmc.harvard.edu
The Harvest, Cambridgeport Baptist Church
The Harvest is a relational ministry seeking to nurture the physical and spiritual life of the community by providing food, clothing, and hospitality to the needy twice monthly. The Harvest is open the first and third Saturday of each month, 10:00am to Noon. Volunteers are asked to show up at 9:00am. Opportunities for Service include: Food Ministry (shopping/set up/distribution), Clothing Ministry (sorting/distribution), Hospitality Ministry (greeting/refreshments/intake), Spiritual Formation/Prayer Team, and Bible Breakfast Club (children's ministry). Clothing donations, especially children's clothes, are warmly accepted.
Web Site: www.cambridgeportbaptist.org
Address: Cambridgeport Baptist Church, 459 Putnam Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139
Ministry Contact: Danny Tao, (617) 868-9447
Park Street Contact: Bill Hsu, william_hsu at alumni.tufts.edu>
Partakers' mission is to reduce prisoner recidivism through education and civic engagement. As a faith-based, non-profit organization, Partakers is committed to advancing restorative justice, rehabilitation, and the healing transformation of both prisoners and society. Partakers volunteers work to cross boundaries of race, class, criminal history, age, and social status. Mentoring and tutoring prisoners brings us closer to the experience of people who are marginalized and oppressed and advances the healing transformation of prisoners and volunteers alike.
Web Site: www.partakers.org
Ministry Contact: Mea Allen, training and volunteer coordinator, meaallen at partakers.org
Park Street Contact: Kristen Filipic, kristen.filipic at gmail.com
The Prison Book Project is a non-profit, volunteer-based collective based in North Hadley, Massachusetts, working to distribute books free of charge to prisoners. We are dedicated to offering the men and women behind bars the opportunity for self-empowerment, education, and entertainment which reading provides. Every Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 pm at North Hadley Congregational Church, a group of volunteers gets together to read letters from prisoners who request books & puts together packages to send to them. We are always in need of more help and would love to see you there. Come lend a hand, help a prisoner in need, learn about prison issues, and meet your community!
Web Site: www.prisonbooks.org
Address: North Hadley Congregational Church, 243 River Drive, Hadley, MA
Ministry Contact: 413-584-8975 x208 (voicemail only), prisonbookproject at riseup.net
Park Street Contact: Kristen Filipic, kristen.filipic at gmail.com
Rogerson Communities helps elderly and low-income men and women. This assistance, across generations and with attention to the diverse cultural traditions of our society, can include housing, health care and supportive services. Our programs respect and enhance each person's dignity, self-reliance and vitality. Volunteer opportunities include visiting with the elderly at residential care facilities in Jamaica Plain, and volunteering at adult day health programs in Jamaica Plain, Rosindale and Brookline.
Web Site: www.rogerson.org
Address: Adult Day Center, 23 Florence Street, Roslindale
Ministry Contact: (617) 363-2329, adultday@rogerson.org
Park Street Contact: Ben Atkinson, batkinso at bidmc.harvard.edu
Starlight Ministries is a homeless outreach ministry that focuses on the long-term, chronic homeless. Many of the adults we serve have been on the streets for much longer than a year, and often have been living on the streets for a decade or more. Although Starlight works with all individuals who are homeless, our focus has always been on serving the most vulnerable. In addition, Starlight has begun serving the increasing number of homeless youth and young adults in Boston and Cambridge. Numerous volunteer opportunities are available. The next volunteer training session is scheduled for Saturday, June 30, 2007, from 9:00am-4:00pm. Please refer to the web site for complete details.
Web Site: www.egc.org/ministries/starlight
Address: 2 San Juan Street (South End), Boston, MA
Ministry Contact: Jane Fallon, 617-262-4567 x182, jfallon at egc.org
Park Street Contact: Grace Lin, grace at aes-egc.org
A Woman's Concern Pregnancy Health Services (Dorchester, MA) provides complete, accurate information and compassionate peer-counseling to women and couples who are making decisions about unintended pregnancies.
Web Site: www.awomansconcern.org
Ministry Contact: Amy Mentzer, amy.mentzer at awomansconcern.org
Park Street Contact: Karen Cox, karenjcox at yahoo.com