Wellspring’s students and instructors celebrate the CummingsFoundation’s “$100K for 100” grant in front of the Veronese Community Education Center located at Wellspring House in Gloucester.
Wellspring House is one of 100 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s “$100K for 100” program. The Gloucester-based organization was chosen from a total of 549 applicants, during a competitive review process.
Wellspring House offers homelessness prevention assistance, emergency shelter, adult basic education, job training, and career and educational planning to low-income adults across the North Shore.
Representing Wellspring House, Melissa Dimond, Executive Director, and Lisa Robinson, Director of Development, joined more than 300 other guests at a reception at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn to celebrate the $10 million infusion into Greater Boston’s nonprofit sector. With the conclusion of this grant cycle, Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $170 million to local nonprofits alone.
The much needed funds will be invested in Wellspring’s efforts focused on Career Pathways – educational and employment opportunities helping to ensure living wages for local families.
Wellspring offers free classes for adults to improve skills, prepare to take the HiSET (high school equivalency test) or GED, meet the requirements for college entry, and navigate the job market. For students who speak a native language other than English, Wellspring offers free English Language Learning in collaboration with the Sawyer Free Library in Gloucester.
Wellspring’s Education Resource Collaborative (WERC) offers customized one-on-one career and educational counseling and group mentoring for adults who seek to gain the skills and educational preparation to secure stable jobs with living wages. WERC is also available for high school seniors and recent graduates.
For the past 14 years, Wellspring has partnered with North Shore Medical Center and its affiliates to offer our MediClerk job training and placement program to more than 400 students, 85% of whom have secured stable administrative jobs in health care settings. Last year, graduates earned average starting wages of more than $15/hour with benefits, opportunities for advancement, and future tuition support. Approximately 30-35 students graduate from MediClerk every year.
The$100K for 100 program supports nonprofits that are not only based in but also primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties. This year, the program is benefiting 35 different cities and towns within the Commonwealth.
Through this place-based initiative, Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate Cummings Properties.
“Nonprofit organizations like Wellspring House are vital to the local communities where our colleagues and clients live and work,” said Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation’s executive director. “We are delighted to invest in their efforts.”
This year’s diverse group of grant recipients represents a wide variety of causes, including homelessness prevention and affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food insecurity. Most of the grants will be paid over two to five years.
The complete list of 100 grant winners is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.
About Cummings Foundation
Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings of Winchester. With assets exceeding $1.4 billion, it is one of the largest foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including two New Horizons retirement communities, in Marlborough and Woburn. Its largest single commitment to date was $50 million to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.