Catholic Charities of Boston Receives Yawkey Foundation Strategic Initiative Grant

Catholic Charities of Boston Receives Yawkey Foundation Grant

$700,000 Strategic Initiative Funding to Support Expansion of Multi-Service Centers 

Boston, MA- November 22, 2021: As communities across the Commonwealth continue to cope with the lasting economic impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis, Catholic Charities of Boston is excited to announce it has received a $700,000 strategic initiative grant from the Yawkey Foundation to help expand its multi-service centers in gateway cities, initially focused on the cities of Brockton and Lynn. This gift will enable Catholic Charities to serve hundreds of new clients each year in geographic areas with great need for the organization’s core services, including Basic Needs, Youth & Family Services, Adult Education & Workforce Development, and Refugee & Immigrant Services.

As one of the largest social service non-profit organizations in Massachusetts, Catholic Charities’ four core service areas provide a comprehensive approach to serving clients’ varied needs. This significant funding from the Yawkey Foundation will enable Catholic Charities to start making essential infrastructure upgrades to expand program and service offerings at hub locations throughout Eastern Massachusetts.

“For decades, Catholic Charities of Boston has provided critical social services to those most in need, and we continually expand and enhance programs to meet growing demand,” said Kevin M. MacKenzie, CEO of Catholic Charities of Boston. “As a result, our infrastructure needs continue to grow and change. We are immensely grateful for our long-standing partnership with the Yawkey Foundation and its continued support as we begin the multi-year transformational process of shaping the Agency for the future, beginning with establishing new multi-service hubs in gateway communities.”

The Yawkey Foundation’s Strategic Investment Grants support nonprofit organizations catalyzing plans around strategic growth, which may entail a reimagining, rescoping, or re-energizing of mission delivery for long-term optimized impact.

“Catholic Charities plays an extremely meaningful role in providing the most vulnerable individuals and families throughout Eastern Massachusetts with access to basic needs such as food, housing, childcare, and workforce development.” Said Maureen H. Bleday, CEO of the Yawkey Foundation. “As a partner over many decades, Yawkey Foundation is very familiar with how Catholic Charities delivers these critical programs and services – with dignity, responsiveness and compassion – and the prospects for expanding these capabilities to the Gateway Cities of Brockton and Lynn really resonated with our Trustees as an outstanding and very timely investment.”

About Catholic Charities of Boston 

Our mission is to welcome and serve, with compassion and respect, all those in need by providing life’s necessities, education, and advocacy to move families towards self-sufficiency.

As one of Massachusetts’s largest social service nonprofit organizations, Catholic Charities of Boston serves our most vulnerable neighbors each year, regardless of religion, race, gender, age, disability, or ethnicity. CCAB has five hub locations in Dorchester, Lynn, Brockton, Lowell, and South Boston, with 23 locations supporting families across Eastern Massachusetts. The Agency’s four core services assist our clients with:

• Basic Needs (food, shelter, living assistance)
• Family & Youth Services
• Adult Education & Workforce Development
• Refugee & Immigrant Services

We help our clients move from crisis to stability to self-sufficiency.

To learn more, please visit CCAB.org

About the Yawkey Foundation  

The Yawkey Foundation is dedicated to perpetuating the philanthropic legacy of Tom Yawkey and Jean Yawkey, whose eight decades of quiet generosity supported individuals and families in the communities that were closest to their hearts – Massachusetts and Georgetown County, South Carolina. Having awarded more than $520 million to-date in charitable grants to organizations focused on Health Care, Education, Human Services, Youth and Amateur Athletics, Arts and Culture, and Conservation and Wildlife, Yawkey Foundation is committed to preserving and sustaining the charitable values of the Yawkeys by investing in impactful nonprofits providing resources, opportunity, and dignity to the vulnerable and underserved. For more information, please visit www.yawkeyfoundation.org.