The mission of the Newton-Wellesley-Weston Committee for Community Living, Inc. is to provide a wide spectrum of services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including residential services, social support services, and a one-to-one volunteer program.

Description:
The NWW Committee for Community Living created its one-to-one volunteer program, Community Access, to assist individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to enjoy a higher quality of life in the community. With their volunteer companions, individuals receiving residential services from the agency, as well as individuals living at home with their families, engage in a wide variety of leisure time activities. Typical activities include eating out, going to the movies, attending a concert, seeing a sports event, going to the theatre, visiting a museum, cooking together, gardening, taking walks, talking on the telephone and sharing hobbies--all the types of things friends tend to do together. The agency's role is to bring people with and without disabilities together and to provide them with support as they build a friendship together. An extensive orientation session, assistance from the Volunteer Coordinator and direct care staff or family members in the matching process, and on-going support from the Volunteer Coordinator, agency social worker, other staff or family members is provided as needed. This is a highly individualized program that benefits both the volunteer companion and the NWW individual, as attested to in an article in the April, 1998, issue of Mental Retardation, a national journal in the field. The article highlighted the reasons why volunteers in the NWW Committee's Community Access Program continued beyond the one-year minimum requirement.

History:
The Newton-Wellesley-Weston Committee for Community Living, Inc. was established in 1972 as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit agency by parents and professionals who wanted to help create services in the community both for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities leaving state institutions and of people with similar disabilities ready to leave their family homes for more independent living arrangements. Gradually, the agency established 5 group homes in Newton, 1 home in Wellesley, and supported apartments in Newton as well as an array of social services to improve the quality of life in the community of people with developmental disabilities.

Contact people:

Christina Jameson, Ph.D., Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email) Betty Kazanjian, Administrative Assistant, (phone), (email) Mary Margaret Pappas, Director of Community Relations, (phone), (email)

Address:

1301 Centre Street Newton Centre, MA 02459 (See a map)

Directions:

The central office of the Newton-Wellesley-Weston Committee for Community Living, Inc. is located at 1301 Centre Street in Newton Centre right near the corner of Centre Street and Beacon Street. From the east (Boston) drive west on Beacon Street past. . . (more)   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: Newton Centre Green "D" (Riverside) line,   Walk distance (in minutes): under 5   Nearest Bus Stop: Newton Centre, 1 minute walk For maps or information, please see http://www.mbta.com