Non-Profits in Gardner

Question: We’re here speaking with Gardner Mayor Nicholson about non-profits in Gardner. Mayor Nicholson, can you tell us which non-profits you have worked with, supported, and or partnered with since becoming mayor in 2020? And what are some of the unique challenges faced today by Gardner’s non-profits?

Answer: There’s a lot of different non-profits we’ve been able to work with and partner with with the city for various different projects. The Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center downtown and their work with helping veterans who are struggling not only with housing and security, but also just looking for various other benefits that they have. It’s something that our Veterans Service Department works hand in hand with to make sure that they can provide the services to the veterans that they need, while also working with the benefits that they financially can qualify for. But that’s something that we’ve always maintained a very strong partnership with The Gardner CAC with their new location at our community center so that they can grow and expand their services. Growing Places LLC with their new location at the community center so that they can expand their programs to help people fight food insecurity in the area. And also work with our school districts on getting the various different school cafeterias in the region direct produce from our local farms. So we’re really keeping everything as local as we can. The Gardner Emergency Housing Mission is someone we partnered with through our CDBG program to help make it so that they can increase their homeless efforts working with the homeless population in the city to get them housed and sheltered. Working with places like North Star Families on the regional homeless shelter that they built in Leominster and the new transitional housing location that they’ve constructed at the Leominster campus that they have there too for regional support. That we have, if we listed every non-profit that we’ve worked with the city, again, we’d be here for a very long time. But there’s a lot we’re doing because we’re helping to partner with each other because it doesn’t make sense for the city to copy and duplicate a service that one of our non-profits is doing out there too. Because then you’re watering down two services that are there. Rather than letting the person who’s the expert in that field get the support that they need to really enhance and boost and bolster those services that they’re providing to the public. So that’s why we constantly work with the non-profit to see how can we help you in that regard.

Question: Gardner’s largest employer, Heywood Hospital, has forged a partnership with Gardner Public Schools. What can you tell us about that?

Answer: Yes, the Heywood Hospital and Gardner Public Schools have always had very strong partnerships with each other. From the backpack program that helps give students who are facing food insecurity a backpack full of food that they can take home for the weekend. The different ways that they have telehealth services. That if a student goes to the nurse office and a doctor can take a look at the student via a Zoom call through telehealth. There’s a lot of different things that we’ve really enhanced when it comes to mental health support. When it comes to direct care, food insecurity, fitness, and the quality of life improvements for our students. There’s a lot that we’ve done to be able to partner with Heywood Hospital on that.

Question: You’ve done some partnerships with organizations that are dealing with the drug epidemic.

And there’s actually a position that was created at the Gardner Police Department.

Answer: Yeah, well it’s actually, we’ve got a position in the Health Department and a position in the Police Department. At my first inaugural address, I talked about creating a new position called a Prevention Coordinator position. So that’s a position in our Board of Health office that helps be the city’s main liaison with all of the various different substance abuse prevention nonprofits in the city. And that’s something that we did because there was a service that was being lost. The Gardner Community Action Team was going to be forced to close due to them not receiving specific grant funding that they used to receive. So in order to maintain that service and then also strengthen it, we actually took that on as a city entity as well. So Veronica Patty was hired as our Prevention Coordinator, and we were able to keep the Gardner Community Action Team, GCAT, and then bolster those services and our partnerships with those. And that’s what’s led to us having things like our health fair, the National Light Out, and everything else that we’ve had throughout the years and annually in the city. We’ve also launched our new Domestic Violence Advocate position at the Gardner Police Department on a part-time basis. And we’re looking at ways right now to make that a full-time position so that we can get people who are victims of domestic violence out of the situations that they’re in and into a more safe environment that’s there too. So we’re constantly working with our nonprofit sectors in the substance abuse and prevention realm, but also with places like the Gardner Domestic Violence Task Force and the Voices of Truth, to make sure that all of the services that are in the city, right in our backyard, are coordinating and collaborating with each other to get the best results.

Question: And that Health and Wellness Fair has been quite well attended by vendors and people.

Answer: It’s one of our more popular events that we have here in the city, and it’s nice to be able to see that.

Question: Approximately how many vendors actually go there?

Answer: round 75. Around 75 vendors, and we’ll have a full crowd there for the normal four hours of the event.

Question: Mayor Nicholson, you’re known to show up at nonprofits all over the place throughout the city, including many faith-based organizations, and not just organizations that are part of your faith. Can you tell us about that?

Answer: Yeah, our faith community in Gardner has always been a very strong partnership. I’m a member of Annunciation Parish over at the Catholic Church here in Gardner. And I’m very proud to be as active as I am in my parish. But that said too, there’s a lot of great work happening all around the city. If you go to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and the work they’re doing with their community gardens over there. The produce that’s produced in their community gardens is given directly to the Gardner CAC to give out at their food pantry. There’s different services offered at, I’ve been to things that Higher Ground Ministries was doing over on Central Street. Same thing with the Chestnut Street Methodist Church, the Baptist Church in South Gardner that offers free meals for everyone on lunch on the first Thursday of the month. There’s a lot of things that people feel connections through their faith. And we wanna make sure that they know that those connections are felt citywide.

Question: And you even showed up at the Buddhist community.

Answer: Yes, that’s right, yes. Our new Buddhist temple had their grand opening and then their annual festival too. So they’re part of the community, that’s the thing. They’re a foundation in this community that helps people in Gardner and brings people to Gardner and helps support what the city is doing. So we should be there to support them.

Question: So you’re trying to make Gardner a city that’s welcoming to everyone?

Answer: Exactly, exactly.

Question: All right, Gardner Mayor Nicholson, thanks for talking to us about nonprofits.