Medfield Youth Outreach has some exciting news to share!

Medfield Youth Outreach has some exciting news to share!

Medfield Youth Outreach (MYO) announces the hiring of Kathy McDonald, M. Ed., MSW, LICSW, as Director, replacing Dawn Alcott, who had served in the role for the past 19 plus years. Kathy earned a Master’s of Education from Boston University as well as a Master’s in Clinical Social Work from Boston College. She comes to the role with over 20 plus years of prior clinical experience with children and families in community and school based settings. Kathy looks forward to learning more about the community’s evolving needs, developing strong relationships within the community, partnering with collateral programs, as well as creating and delivering services to address expressed needs.

Meri Haas recently came aboard MYO as the Substance Use Prevention Coordinator for the Drug-Free Communities Program, a five year, federally funded grant awarded to Medfield Cares About Prevention (MCAP) a Medfield Foundation initiative, administered by MYO. Meri is returning to eastern Massachusetts from the Berkshires where she worked with the Railroad Street Youth Project and many local health coalitions. She has a history of working with youth and communities on the issues of substance use prevention, intervention and treatment. Meri is excited to be working in the town of Medfield, not far from Brookline, where she grew up. Meri states she is looking forward to building upon the great work Medfield is already doing on prevention.

Kathy and Meri join Chelsea Goldstein-Walsh, LICSW, MYO’s Outreach Clinician for the past five years. Chelsea stepped up to serve as interim Director after Dawn’s departure and during the recruitment/hiring process for her replacement. Chelsea brings clinical expertise as well as her astute ability to secure resources for a wide range of needs. Chelsea holds a Master’s in Clinical Social Work from Boston College. She is excited to work with two new members of the Youth Outreach Department to support the Medfield community.

Medfield Youth Outreach is a valuable community resource. MYO provides free and confidential individual and family counseling, assistance with access to financial assistance programs, information and referral, community programming, and crisis intervention to Medfield residents. The office is an intake site for the federal Fuel Assistance Program for Medfield residents. MYO also facilitates various groups, programs, and services within the community that are related to the needs of youth and their families. The programs offered are often preventative and psycho-educationally based. Medfield Youth Outreach is a founding member and serves on the steering committees of Medfield Coalition for Suicide Prevention (MCSP) and Medfield Cares About Prevention (MCAP).

If you have ideas about services or programming that may benefit youth, families or the community, please share them! We want to hear from you.

You can email any inquiry or feedback to Medfieldyouthoutreach@medfield.net Also, make sure to check out and like our social media pages for more information: https://twitter.com/Medfield_Youth and https://www.facebook.com/MedfieldYouthOutreach