Author Archives: caroline-w

Family Voice Advocates

Family Voice Advocates is taking on both pro-bono and reduced rate clients through the end of 2020! Rates are income-dependent on a sliding scale. Please email Lani Verges-Radack at FamilyVoiceAdvocates@gmail.com for details about how she can help with records review, educational advocacy, and systems navigation.

Lani is the proud single mother to two teenagers with complex special needs. She is a transracial adoptive parent who has personal experience navigating state systems including DCF (Department of Children and Families), DMH (Department of Mental Health), MBHP (Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership) and Masshealth. Continue reading →

Give or Get Household Items at Welcome Home

Do you have extra home goods that you are ready to part with? Welcome Home will gladly accept “like-new” or new items that are not broken, stained or torn at their convenient Newton Centre location.

Need essential household items? They will provide household items to people who can use them — no forms, no fees, and no requirements.

Welcome Home, Inc., a local nonprofit eco-friendly organization, collects and redistributes
household items to people in need. To schedule a donation drop off, make a financial
contribution or request home goods visit the website or email welcome homemass@gmail.com.

A Home Goods Pantry
Trinity Church, 11 Homer Street (entrance on Furber Lane),  Newton Centre
617-454-4795

Safer Teachers, Safer Students: K-12 Back to School Testing Collaborative

A group of physician/scientist parents from Newton have been working together with several neighboring towns to develop a Covid surveillance testing program. Surveillance testing is a supplement to school reopening public health measures such as hand washing, face coverings and social distancing. In particular, surveillance testing aims at detecting and acting on any silent (asymptomatic) viral outbreaks much earlier than would be possible without testing.

As a partner in these Collaborative efforts, the group believes Newton can, and should, develop our own Covid testing pilot program, as teachers and students return to schools this month and next. They will shortly be conducting a survey to assess parents’ interest in Covid testing, and will provide a link to that as soon as it goes live.

Girls on the Run

Girls on the Run (GOTR) – Fall Registration is open and includes both Live and Virtual options.  You can now register your 8 – 13 year old to join a Girls on the Run team this fall, to help them stay physically and emotionally healthy despite the pandemic.

GOTR has created virtual teams so that all girls can participate, regardless of school district or financial circumstances. Twice weekly, small teams of girls in grades 3 – 5 or 6 – 8 are led by trained coaches through the research-based curriculum that uses running and other physical activities to build girls’ confidence, connection, and resilience.

Registration is open at girlsontherunboston.org/register-now. Check out the flier here GOTR flier.

Newton SouthEast Little League Fall 2020 Registration Is Open

Baseball is back! Following strict safety protocols, Newton Southeast Little League is excited to return to the field for the fall season. Registration for T-Ball through Majors is still open for students who reside within or attend private or public schools within the public school district boundaries of Memorial-Spaulding, Mason-Rice, Bowen, Angier, Countryside and Zervas. Children who attend one of these schools but live out of district may participate in NSELL’s program under Little League’s 2020 rules without a waiver.

  • T ball: ages 5-6 (pre-K and K)
  • Farm: ages 7 and 8 (one division for age 7/1st grade and one division for age 8/2nd grade)
  • AA: age 9 (3rd grade)
  • AAA: ages 10-11 (4 – 5th grade)

Register online at http://www.newtonsoutheastll.org/

Fall Sports Training With Social Distancing!

This Fall, Boston Athletic Training is offering speed, strength, basketball and football skills sessions for all ages in the Newton area. All sessions are outdoors and athletes are kept at 6+ feet of distance at all times during the 1 hour long small group sessions! BAT also offers 1-1 training.

Click here to check out their group training schedule this fall!

For more info, please contact infobostonathletictraining.com

“Art in the Park” art classes

Fine art enrichment courses available during the fall semester, featuring a Lasell College professor. The acclaimed “Art in the Park” series is being held weekly outdoors in Needham. Classes available for elementary aged students as well as middle/high school ages.

Contact Alla at alla.lazebnik@gmail.com for more information about her art classes.

Math Tutor available

Experienced Math Tutor (Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus) available for the fall as remote/hybrid learning begins; additional and supplemental support is being requested by parents. An engineer with experience connecting to Middle and High School students via Zoom and Video conferencing in Newton and Needham schools, Samuel Alpert is a Newton North graduate, with a BS in Electrical Engineering from UMass Amherst and an MS in Energy Management from NYIT. He has over 5 years experience tutoring middle, high school and college age students.

Please contact Sam at samuel.alpert@gmail.com for more information and let him know how he can be of help. References are available upon request.