2020 Annual Campaign

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Dear Friends,

When the COVID-19 crisis erupted, Circle of Hope immediately pivoted toward disease prevention to protect the lives of vulnerable children, women, and men who are homeless. Since March, we have provided more than 60,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE), hygiene essentials, and new clothing to homeless families and individuals. Our efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 in homeless shelters and healthcare clinics are working.

“It's amazing to see that your organization is still making these essential deliveries during this time. It truly means a lot," said a staff member at On The Rise.

It’s getting colder now, and the need for winter coats and clothing is growing as families lose work due to COVID-19. The family shelters we serve cannot accept gently used clothing or coats this winter. Last year, we gave 5,500 winter coats to children and adults experiencing homelessness, helping protect them from frostbite and hypothermia. In order to provide the same number of winter coats this year, we desperately need your help to buy new coats for the vulnerable families we serve.

Can you help us protect homeless families and individuals from COVID-19 and cold this winter?

Please donate to our Annual Campaign by December 31, 2020 to protect the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors throughout this crisis and beyond. Your donation will directly allow us to supply homeless families with the new coats, warm clothing, face masks, soap, and hygiene supplies they need to keep themselves and their children safe and healthy.

Thank you for your incredible continued support. Our COVID-19 response is literally saving lives and we couldn’t do it without you.

Most gratefully,

Barbara Waterhouse

Founder, Executive Director

Fall Plans - Update

Dear Friends of Circle of Hope,

After extensive discussions with our staff and Board, we have concluded that we must extend our current COVID-19 policies through the end of 2020. It is not safe to accept donations of gently used clothing at this time. We need to be 100% certain we are not putting a single staff member, volunteer, donor, or homeless recipient at risk of COVID-19, so we will continue providing only new donations to homeless families, individuals, and clinic patients for the rest of this year. On-site volunteering is also postponed.

We know so many of you, our dedicated donors and volunteers, are eager to join us in our vital work and help us provide essential donations to homeless infants, children, and adults in Greater Boston. We are incredibly grateful for our compassionate and generous family of volunteers and donors at Circle of Hope. More than anything, we hope to see the COVID-19 crisis under control soon. We miss you and want to be together with you in person!

Right now, you can help the vulnerable families and individuals we serve. The need for our donations will be greater than ever this winter, as families struggle with lost wages due to COVID-19. Please run a collection drive to gather new masks or soap, purchase and assemble "COVID Kits" for homeless families, or shop for the specific items homeless patients and shelter residents need.

Click here for more information on how you can help.

Please reach out to us any time with questions - or just to say hello! We will continue sharing updates via social media, e-newsletter, and on our website, so please keep in touch.

Thank you for your generosity, patience, and understanding. Together, we are helping thousands of our homeless neighbors in crisis. We hope you and your loved ones remain healthy and safe.

Most gratefully,

Barbara

Looking Ahead to Fall

Hello All,

We have missed you so very much and hope you and your loved ones remain safe and healthy.

Circle of Hope has changed dramatically since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, yet our mission remains unchanged and our resolve to help unhoused people more determined than ever. We launched our COVID-19 response from the solid foundation of our Emergency Response Program and pivoted operations to focus on hygiene and toiletry items. Under their COVID-19 precaution protocols, the shelters and clinics couldn’t accept our gently used clothing. We applied for COVID-19 emergency funds and purchased new clothing essentials for the neediest patients and shelter residents.

We are so grateful for what we’ve accomplished during this pandemic and what our donations and service have meant to the people whose lives we’ve protected. Since March, Circle of Hope made 76 contactless deliveries to our partner shelters and clinics thanks to a small crew of drivers. We secured and packaged nearly 42,000 items for delivery, including 7,855 PPE items, something we never dreamed we would need to find and deliver during a public health crisis. Our mighty team transformed the inside of Circle of Hope into a “warehouse style” facility without missing a single emergency call for help.

As the myriad COVID-19 challenges continue, we are making thoughtful and strategic changes to safely move forward, keep us all safe, and help us serve and protect even more people who are homeless in the days to come.

Looking ahead. . .

We are hopeful that we’ll be able to start accepting gently used clothing donations in the fall on a limited basis. We are still working on new safety protocols and procedures for donation collection and handling. As a precaution, we will be asking donors to pre-sort donations at home and drop them at Circle of Hope. We will provide instructions for the new protocols on our COVID-19 page, so please stay tuned.

Please keep an eye on our website and social media for updates. We wish you peaceful, healthy days for the remainder of summer. We are so looking forward to seeing you soon!

With gratitude,

Barbara

Summer COVID-19 Response Summary and Updated Report

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What an impactful summer at Circle of Hope! In June and July alone, Circle of Hope made 34 deliveries to our partner shelters, clinics, and programs. We provided 20,000 essentials for health to homeless families and individuals, including 4,000 PPE items to protect them from COVID-19.

We updated our COVID-19 Response Report to include our deliveries, stories, and impact from June and July. Our summer highlights are summarized below. To read the full updated report, please click here.

We resumed deliveries to Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP), Fenway Health, and Framingham State University (FSU). For various reasons, these three partners were more difficult to reach in the earliest months of the COVID-19 crisis. BHCHP and Fenway Health both set up COVID-19 testing sites and BHCHP has been actively treating COVID-19 patients. FSU closed its campus when the COVID-19 crisis began.

With persistent outreach and careful planning, Circle of Hope is back to providing hygiene supplies, hand soap, sanitizer, face masks, and essential new clothing to students and patients who are experiencing homelessness at these locations. Homeless students can now access Circle of Hope donations by appointment through the Rams Resource Center food pantry on campus. BHCHP employees now pick up donations for their Transgender Program and other clinics. We made two deliveries to Fenway Health in July, including a 24-hour emergency response, providing new clothing in the correct sizes for an individual in the Violence Recovery Program there.

This summer, we received several generous grants to fund our shelter deliveries and COVID-19 relief efforts from the City of Framingham and the MetroWest Health Foundation. In July, we also received 100 new face masks from COVID Shield Boston as well as many generous donations from our Emergency Response Wish List on Amazon. We are still reaching out to new companies and organizations for mask donations and gratefully accepting donations to our Emergency Fund.

We will share details about our September re-opening plans on our website, social media, and e-newsletter in late August and early September.

August Closure and July Updates

We will take a short break from shelter deliveries during the month of August. Please be on the lookout for our COVID-19 Summer Report this month. If you urgently need to get in touch with Circle of Hope while we are closed, please email Carolyn at carolyn@circleofhopeonline.org. In the next few weeks, keep an eye on your inbox, social media, and our website for important updates about our re-opening plans. We're excited to share our plans for the fall!

For more updates, stories, and photos from July, please click here.

Circle of Hope | 1329 Highland Ave. Suite 3, Needham, MA 02492

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