Patch Picks: Non-Profit Agencies Making a Difference in Watertown/Waltham
Here are five Watertown and Waltham based non-profit groups that are doing important charitable and social work.
- Advaita Meditation Center, Waltham: It is a volunteer-run organization dedicated to promoting meditation and spiritual inquiry. Since 1970, thousands of students from the Greater Boston area have explored how to live more consciously “in the midst of life's complexities and challenges.” The Center provides meditation classes, Sanskrit classes, and discussion groups, among other activities. The Center also holds free of charge informational open houses once a month - the next session is scheduled for Wednesday, March 9 at the historic Worcester House in Waltham.
- Primary Source, Watertown: The group provides learning opportunities and curriculum resources for teachers and introduces global content to nearly 1,800 educators each year through a series of workshops, graduate courses and study tours. Primary Source is a way for students to learn so that their knowledge is “deeper and their thinking is flexible and open to inquiry.” The group's strategies and programs of Primary Source are geared toward a wide range of educators, from elementary and middle, and high school teachers and principals to superintendents and policy makers.
- REACH, Waltham: group helps victims of domestic violence through a number of important services. REACH, which stands for Refuge, Education, Advocacy, and Change, provides a 24-hour hotline, emergency shelters, support groups, legal advocacy, specialized children's services, community-based victim advocacy programs, outreach, education and training. It's overall mission is to give victims of domestic abuse a “sanctuary and support services necessary to empower their realization of permanent safety, financial independence and well-being.”
- The Armenia Tree Project, Watertown: Located at 65 Main St,, the group works to reforest the Armenian countryside which has been depleted of trees in recent years. According to the Tree Project’s website, over 3,500,000 trees have been planted and restored in Armenia since the non profit’s inception in 1994, in addition to hundreds of jobs that have been created for Armenians in seasonal tree-related programs.
- More Than Words, Waltham: Located on Moody Street, the store is a non-profit organization that empowers children who are in the foster care system, have legal issue, are homeless, or out of school, to “take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.” Kids involved with More Than Words spend about 30 hours each week managing the bookstore and cafe while receiving instruction on becoming a responsible adult.
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In This article
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Advaita Meditation Center
28 Worcester Ln, Waltham, MA -
Primary Source
101 Walnut St, Watertown, MA -
REACH Beyond Domestic Violence
PO Box 540024, Waltham, MA -
More Than Words Books
376 Moody St, Waltham, MA
