Posted in News & Updates
Southern NH Services is one of over 1100 Community Action Agencies throughout the country! Founded in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, CAAs have been helping people on the road to self-sufficiency for 45 years. On May 11th, Governor John Lynch will deliver a proclamation declaring May as COMMUNITY ACTION MONTH in New Hampshire to honor the continued contributions of New Hampshire’s Community Action Agencies to those in need!
For more information on National Community Action Month and Community Action Agencies, visit www.communityactionpartnership.com
Posted in News & Updates
SNHS continues to maintain its place as one of the state’s leading providers of housing to low-income eligible senior citizens and is pleased to announce that Supportive Housing for the Elderly is expanding!
- Renderings for the Plymouth and Campton Senior Housing sites provided by David M. White Architects
On April 5, the Plymouth Zoning Board granted SNHS a variance and a special exception to allow for construction of 16 new 1-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors at 230 Fairgrounds Road. During the week of April 11, construction will commence on another 16 apartments at 349 Owl Street in nearby Campton. For more information on these sites, contact Regina Buteau at 968-3063 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Phase II of Hallsville Court in Manchester
Phase II of Hallsville Court in Manchester is approximately 1/3 complete. Occupancy is anticipated in Fall of 2011 ; an application for Phase III with an additional 18 units will be submitted in June to complete the project. Contact Cristina Cataño, Quality Assurance Specialist & Housing Manager at 622-9693 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.
Funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 202 Supportive Housing Program has enabled SNHS to build and manage 20 elderly housing projects reflecting 729 affordable apartments. With heat and utilities included in the rent, the low income residents of these apartments pay 30% of their income for rent with the balance subsidized under HUD’s Section 8 Rental Assistance Program. For more information on the Supportive Housing for the Elderly program, contact the Housing Department at 668-8010 Ext. 6142.
Posted in News & Updates
Southern NH Services, Inc. Child Development Programs will be celebrating The Week of the Young Child during the month of April. Head Start, Early Head Start and Child Care classrooms will be offering a variety of activities to promote literacy and family engagement. Several centers will be hosting Family Literacy events. Families will also be invited into the classrooms to participate in activities linked to literacy such as ‘Teddy Bear Picnic’. A program wide Read-A-Thon will result in classroom displays linked to ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. Children will also enjoy special event days such as Friendship Day, Pajama Day, Silly Hat Day, and Backwards Day.
Southern NH Services Child Development Programs have also j
oined with Prevent Child Abuse NH in partnership with the NH Charitable Trust Fund in recognizing April as Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention month. The ‘Pinwheels for Prevention’ theme will be visible in all of our centers where staff will be creating displays and providing parent resources and positive parenting activities to share the message that child abuse is preventable and we all play a part.
Posted in News & Updates
The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) is offering a spectacular trip to the old Southwest. In conjunction with Collette Tours we are sponsoring a trip to fabulous San Antonio, Texas November 7-11, 2011. There is plenty to see and do on this 5 day trip!
If you have any questions, please call Dee Martin at 603-668-8010 x6022. A portion of the proceeds from the trip will benefit RSVP and its programs!
For more information, trip details and information on Collette Tours, click on the following link: Collette Tours- San Antonio Trip to Benefit RSVP
Posted in News & Updates
(You can also read the article on the Union Leader website: unionleader.com)
It’s Valentine’s Day. That means we’re supposed to talk about love. In this case, it’s a labor of love that unfolds regularly at Hillside Middle School.
Those who marvel at the academic and behavioral transformation that has taken place at Hillside this year would probably be just as thrilled at the transformation that takes place at the school after dark.
That’s when a program called “Bring It!” brings the place back to life.
For the record, Bring It! is an acronym for a program called “Bringing Refugees, Immigrants and Neighbors Gently Into Tomorrow,” which is why I frequently thank my stars for acronyms.
Anyway, the ambitious after-school program was once at the Beech Street School, but when assistant principal Brendan McCafferty was elevated to the top job at Hillside last fall, he brought “Bring It!” with him.
“We had been doing it at Beech Street for five years,” Brendan said. “Having the chance to bring it to the middle school gave us more options as far as space and facilities, but our mission is the same. The sports and educational programs are the carrot, but we wrap it with positive mentoring to get kids connected and bring all of the elements of the city together.”
Thus, an average of 100 kids attend the Tuesday and Wednesday evening sessions, which feature dance, in-door soccer and the fabulous Homework Club. The sessions are filled with so-called “service learners,” those being volunteers from the City Year program, plus students from St. Anselm, UNH-Manchester and Southern New Hampshire University.
The fact is, Bring It! inspires an amazing array of mentors. Student teacher candidates from the New Hampshire Institute of Art and volunteers from the Currier Museum of Art have introduced the kids to art programs, you have soccer coordinators Doug Leclerc, Hector Urrea and Abdi Khalid and then there is dance instructor Deo Mwano, the Congolese refugee whose family’s remarkable story was recently featured on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
Now there is music on the horizon.
“We’ve been able to arrange bus transportation to Hillside for the kids who live in the Beech Street School area and Elmwood Gardens,” said program coordinator Jodi Harper, “but we also wanted to offer opportunities to kids at West High and Parkside, so when John Faggiano offered to begin drumming classes, that allowed us to establish programming on the West Side.”
For the record, John Faggiano is chairman of the percussion department at the Concord Community Music School. More importantly, his rocking seven-piece band – The Knights – played at my daughter’s wedding and it was worth every last penny. In fact, it required my last penny, but I digress.
What’s important here is that Bring It! is helping to bring Manchester’s newest residents into harmony with their new home, and to Brendan’s mind, one other thing bears mentioning.
“This program doesn’t cost the local taxpayers so much as a dollar,” he said. “There is a collaboration between the school district and Southern New Hampshire Services, but everything else is covered through grants and donations. That’s why we’re always looking for new sources of funding.”
One new source is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which – through the New Hampshire Nursing Diversity Pipeline Project – has enabled Bring It! to bring 25 eighth, ninth and 10th graders into a pilot program designed to introduce them to career opportunities in the field of health care.
The provisions of that grant specify that it is limited to refugees, immigrants and people of color, but that is the only program under the Bring It! umbrella with any such restrictions.
“Everything else is open to any child from Manchester,” Jodi Harper explained, “and we’re happy to accommodate as many as we can.”
If you’d care to assist Bring It! on its mission, you can contact Jodi by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 603-296-0442. Better yet, stop by Hillside some Tuesday or Wednesday evening and bask in the glow.
John Clayton is the author of several books on Manchester and New Hampshire, including his newest title, "Remembering Manchester." His e-mail is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Posted in News & Updates
Southern New Hampshire Services joins millions across the country in mourning the loss and celebrating the life of Sargent Shriver, the father of Community Action. As a lifelong public servant and visionary idealist, Mr. Shriver is renowned for his leadership in creating many of the important social programs still active today which serve to better the lives of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.
Shriver was long known for his idealism and conviction that the power of an active and involved citizenry can change the world for the better. In the era of civil rights, he encouraged the nation’s economically disadvantaged to get involved in the very programs which aimed to help them, which was a dramatic shift from how social programs had been run up until that time. This model is reflected in the Promise of Community Action:
Community Action changes people’s lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community, and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other.
Shriver was born in Westminster, Maryland on November 9, 1915. A graduate of Yale and Yale Law School, he was also a Lieutenant in the Navy during WWII and was awarded the Purple Heart. He married Eunice Kennedy (July 10, 1921 – August 11, 2009), a sister of then-Senator John F. Kennedy.
Shriver played an important role in Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign, and after the election he served as the first director of the Peace Corps. After President Kennedy's assassination, Shriver continued to serve as Director of the Peace Corps and served as Special Assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. Under Johnson, he created the Office of Economic Opportunity with William B. Mullins and served as its first Director. He is known as the "architect" of the Johnson administration's "War on Poverty".
In this role, Shriver founded numerous social programs and organizations, including Community Action, Head Start, VISTA, Job Corps, Upward Bound, Foster Grandparents, Special Olympics, Legal Services, and others, all while continuing to direct the Peace Corps. He served as U.S. ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970, and was the Democratic Party's candidate for Vice President during the 1972 presidential election.
In recognition of his life of public service and leadership, in 1993, Shriver received the Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom From Want Award. On August 8, 1994, Shriver received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton.
Speaking at a 2003 National Center on Poverty Law dinner in Mr. Shriver’s honor, President Clinton said, ‘‘In my lifetime, America has never had a warrior for peace and against poverty, a warrior to make citizenship the noblest of all endeavors, like Sargent Shriver.’’
In a statement, President Barack Obama says Shriver embodied the idea of public service during a long and distinguished career, calling him one of the "brightest lights of the greatest generation." Obama went on to say that through the Peace Corps, Shriver helped make it possible for generations of Americans to serve as "ambassadors of good will" around the world.
Posted in News & Updates
The walls of Karen High’s home are decorated with framed drawings and paintings, including one she bought in Paris when she visited in 2002. Eight years later, High’s life is drastically different than the year she was able to travel abroad.
Currently unemployed, High’s home consists of one room in Mary’s House – a program of Southern New Hampshire Services that provides safe and affordable permanent housing for previously homeless, single women in Nashua.
Story reprinted from The Telegraph.
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