Community/Neighborhood Improvement

Food Pantry

Homemaking & Home Health Aides, Friendly Visitors Progam, Training Apartment Program

Urban Community Homemaking

Urban Community Homemaking was founded in 1973 by a group of women united in their desires to offer improved and expanded home services to members of their community. The program provides homemaking, home health aide, chore, and friendly visitor services to people who are disabled, frail or elderly in Boston's urban neighborhoods.

Our goal is to prevent unnecessary institutionalization and assist and support families with care giving. In addition, our staff who are local residents, receive training and stable employment which contributes to the economic health of our community. Over 250 people receive services monthly. Nearly all are low-income clients who require ongoing home care support to remain safely in their homes.

Homemaking & Home Health Aides

In its training and employment practices, the agency has developed and uses a unique concept, "Peer Homemakers and Home Health Aides." These are trained employees attuned to the language and culture of the people with whom they work. Familiar and reliable assistance is particularly important in serving a frail population that is constantly dealing with the multiple losses of functional ability, independence, and friends.

Our employees receive ESL training so that they are fully equipped to meet the needs of the people we serve. They are trained to teach efficient household management techniques and encourage family members to assume responsibility for the client whenever possible. Our staff are also encouraged to help ease the loneliness and isolation many of our clients experience by being empathetic.

Friendly Visitors Program

While many public and private agencies have formed over the last two decades to provide home care services to the elderly, state cutbacks have significantly decreased both the number of people served and the hours of services offered. To solve the problem, Urban Community collaborated with Senior Companions of Boston and the Massachusetts Association for the Blind to create the Friendly Visitors Program.

The program is designed to address the support and social needs of vulnerable, low-income elders and disabled citizens who are not eligible for adequate home care, particularly on weekends and holidays when isolated people feel most alone. We assist disabled and elderly people with shopping and errands, accompanying them outside for visits and light exercise, provide light homemaking, help to organize activities of daily living, and encourage hobbies, interests, and outside contacts.

Real Estate and Commercial Property Development: Responsible for assembling proposals for property development and for overseeing financing and construction of these developments.
Resident Services Department: Coordinates existing services for children, youth and families and develops new services to meet the needs of residents living in QGHC properties and the in the target area.
Workforce Development Department: Creation of job opportunities, skill development and training.
Foreclosure: Counseling, prevention, counseling, recycling, rehabbing, property management.
Administration and Fiscal Support: After a major reorganization and restructuring, QGHC currently operates with a small staff. The staff consists of the Executive Director, an Executive Assistant, secretary, three resident services workers and volunteers who work on special projects. A financial team including bookkeepers and auditors manages a financial reporting system and submits on schedule all filings and financial reports. QGHC provides technical and financial assistance to a variety of local organizations including the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association, Grove Hall Board of Trade, Grove Hall Main Streets, and Friends of the Franklin Park Zoo