Walker Receives Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation Grant

Walker, a non-profit leader in special education, behavioral health and residential treatment for children and youth, is the recipient of a $12,000 Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation grant in support of Solution Focused Brief Treatment training and ongoing consultation for over 330 clinicians, direct care staff and families of children and youth served by Walker’s therapeutic and academic programs.

Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation’s commitment will help Walker prepare staff and families to utilize current evidence-based interventions and therapeutic best practices. Through ongoing training and professional development, Walker further develops staff capacity to respond to the emerging critical needs of children and families throughout Greater Boston, the North Shore, South Shore and Central Massachusetts.

“The core of our work at Walker is done by direct care staff who provide effective evidence-based and innovative programs for exceptionally vulnerable yet resilient children. Their learning challenges, trauma-reactive behaviors, and lack of self-confidence make them feel as if progress is beyond their reach,” says Susan M. Getman, M.S.W., Walker’s President and CEO. “Continued training, practical exercise and ongoing education is essential to preparing staff for a myriad of complex situations that arise as we support children and youth in discovering the very best in themselves. We are grateful to Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation as we strive towards a standard of excellence that ensures the best possible support for the resilient children, youth and families who face extraordinary challenges.”

This grant provides essential funding for Walker to equip highly trained professional staff with the skills needed to empower children and youth to learn new skills, connect with others in affirmative and satisfying ways and develop internal competencies, skills, resources, and support systems. Solution Focused Brief Treatment empowers youth through the repetition and self-evaluation of successful solutions when facing challenges. By experiencing small successes, youth become more confident about themselves, more interested in creating a better life for themselves and more hopeful about their future.

“We believe strongly in preserving and building the vibrancy of the towns and communities we serve,” said Dana Neshe, president of the Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation. “For over 180 years, we remain dedicated to serving local Massachusetts customers, the local business community, and the residents who live in our surrounding communities. From sponsorships to grants, the Bank and Foundation make a difference in many ways and we are pleased to support Walker this year with the awarded grant.”

Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation has supported Walker programs since 1997 and has been a Walker Community Connections Partner since 2007. Over the last 18 years of partnership, the Foundation has sponsored Walker’s signature events, funded targeting programming, and supported Comforts of Home, which provides vital items that make a child’s stay with a Walker residential or hospital diversion program more comfortable and as homelike as possible, filled with books, personalized bedding and special posters.

Solution Focused Brief Treatment trainings were conducted throughout the summer on Walker’s Needham and Watertown campuses with Susan Tohn, MSW. An expert in the field, Tohn has taught at Boston College School of Social Work since 1999 and joined the faculty as a full-time Assistant Professor of Clinical Practice in 2005. Tohn’s teaching focuses on clinical practice with a specialty in Solution Focused Brief Treatment. In 2009, she was a co-principal investigator on a BC Research Incentive Grant entitled, “Social Workers Collaborating with Teachers through Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.”

Walker is the hub of an expansive array of first-in-class educational and clinical programs, consultation, and professional training aimed at transforming the lives of children youth facing behavioral, social and learning challenges. Walker’s intensive, strength-based and individualized therapeutic environments on campuses in Needham and Watertown, in homes, and in public school classrooms affords every child the opportunity to make academic progress, develop strong social skills and personally flourish in their home community. For more information about Walker, visit walkercares.org.

About Walker, Inc.

Founded in 1961, Walker serves exceptionally vulnerable yet resilient children and youth facing complex social, emotional, behavioral and learning challenges. Walker’s effective evidence-based and innovative therapeutic and academic programs positively impact nearly 20,000 children and youth each year throughout Greater Boston, the North and South Shore as well as in Central Massachusetts. Through campuses in Needham and Watertown, community-based clinical and youth development services, professional seminars, consultations and out-posted Walker staff in public schools, Walker’s professionals partner with these children and youth, their families and communities to nurture hope, develop lifelong skills, and build on their capacity to be successful in their community. To learn more, please visit us at www.WalkerCares.org or www.Facebook.com/WalkerCares.

About the Middlesex Savings Charitable Foundation

The Foundation was established in 2000 to carry out further the philanthropic mission of Middlesex Savings Bank by supporting the communities served by the Bank. Over the past 15 years, the Foundation has provided more than $3 million in grants to over 300 nonprofit organizations, supporting services, and programs in a wide variety of fields, including education, and basic human services. Since the inception of the Foundation, Middlesex Savings Bank has funded the endowment with over $15 million in contributions. More information is available at www.middlesexbank.com/community-and-us/community-support/Pages/charitable-foundation.aspx.

About Middlesex Savings Bank

Middlesex Savings Bank, founded in 1835 and headquartered in Natick, Mass., is a mutual savings bank. As one of the largest independent banks in Massachusetts with assets exceeding $4 billion, the bank has been committed to providing outstanding value in consumer banking and business banking products for 180 years. The FDIC and DIF insured bank has 29 branch offices located in 23 communities – Acton, Ashland, Bedford, Bellingham, Boxborough, Concord, Framingham, Franklin, Groton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Littleton, Maynard, Medfield, Medway, Millis, Natick, Needham, Southborough, Sudbury, Wayland, Wellesley, and Westford. For more information, please visit www.middlesexbank.com, www.facebook.com/connectwithmsb and www.twitter.com/middlesexbank.

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