Blackstone Community Center offers a wide range of programs for youth, children, teens and families. It offers fitness programs, sports activities, summer programs, swimming, performing arts as well as adult education. It also offers after-school programs. Check the main website for a full schedule or for details on getting involved.
Jenks Center is operated by the Winchester Seniors Association, which is a nonprofit organization working to improve the quality of seniors’ lives in the community. Some programs and activities offered include card games, movie screenings, exercise classes, yoga, arts and crafts and more. Other events and programs include computer classes, special trips, discussion groups and dancing classes. Check its website for a full schedule, details on programs or for information on donations.
Constitution Inn YMCA is a great neighborhood gym located near the USS Constitution Memorial Site. The gym is connected to the Constitution Inn but the YMCA also has its own entrance on the south side of the building.
Back Bay Events Center is a venue located on Berkley Street in Boston. The venue is home to John Hancock Hall and Dorothy Quincy Suite and is a great space to hold all types of events, including meetings, performances, conferences, special events and trade shows. The location has a large 1,100-seat ballroom and offers a wide range of services through partnerships, including audio and visual work, Wi-Fi, catering work as well as staging work and floral rentals among other services. Check the website for a schedule of events and rental information.
Founded in 1988, Arlington Center for the Arts is a community art space located on Foster Street. The Center features a gallery showing the work of Arlington Open Studios participants, the Tufts Gallery and a 150 seat theater, in addition to offering art classes for students of all ages and an after school arts enrichment program. For upcoming exhibit, course catalog and registration information, visit the Arlington Center for the Arts Web site.
The Franco-American Club is a nonprofit cultural community organization fully staffed by volunteers and run by a board of directors. Members receive access to the Franco Lounge, which includes a bar and a TV area. (Nonmembers can rent the club's banquet hall for corporate or personal events.) Outings such as bus trips, dinners and sports matches are also run through the club.
Located on Washington Park in Newton, the New Art Center is a non-profit community space that opened 33 years ago. The Center offers a range of art education programs, features regularly scheduled exhibits of local artists and student works, hosts art-focused lectures and special events and offers space rentals for private functions. Visit the New Art Center website for program registration, donations and upcoming event information.
Described as a Catholic fraternal benefit society, the Charlestown branch of the Knights of Columbus has two halls, one that accommodates 120 and one that accommodates 350. The basement serves as a members only facility that has a full bar and pool table, as well as several TVs that regularly feature sporting events. This facility requires membership for admission.
If you have something you want to get on TV, SCATV is the place to do it. Since 1983, this public access TV station has offered residents the training, tools and TV channel they need to create their own television and videos. Programs are cablecast on Channel 3 to every cable subscriber in Somerville.
For a small membership fee, residents can take very affordable video production and editing classes and learn to use SCATV's fully equipped three-camera studio. The station also has a host-operated studio, where one person can sit down and create a show without the help of crew. Use of all equipment and the facilities is free as long as the project is for SCATV. Others may use SCATV resources for a rental fee.
The nonprofit station also offers youth programs, provides local election coverage and produces public service announcements. Community groups may use the facilities for meetings at no cost. And the station's public areas double as an art gallery.
Also of note, the station is a true community crossroads drawing in a very diverse array of members from across the city. Members often collaborate on projects, which run in a variety of languages. One of those shows, "Dead Air Live" is the longest-running access TV show in the country.
Originally built as a YMCA in 1904, this building has character to spare. The adult program list is extensive and includes activities such as swimming lessons, yoga, karate and an array of dance classes. Senior citizens can loosen up with water aerobics courses, many of which are free to members. Memberships are reasonably priced for individuals and families. Other programs include a pre-school, child care, outreach and youth day camp.
The Fenway Community Development Corporation (Fenway CDC) is a charitable organization devoted to protecting the neighborhood's economic and racial diversity, long-term vibrancy and general well-being. The Fenway CDC organizes multiple initiatives, including building and maintaining affordable and special needs housing. It also sponsors job training and employment programs, supports the Peterborough Senior Center, the Fenway Family Coalition, the Urban Village Plan and oversees voter registration and turnout drives. The organization welcomes donations and offers many volunteer opportunities.
This educational garden and performance space takes the idea of compact gardening to a whole new level. On just over ¼-acre of sloping ground, the garden packs in an orchard, vegetable gardens, a grape arbor, a pond and stream, a labyrinth, an amphitheater, a solar-powered fountain and—safely in the back—a beehive. The event schedule is just as jam-packed. All of it is the work of a horde of volunteers that created the center in 1994 with the support of the City.
All are welcome to help garden or simply sit here. Meanwhile, numerous hands-on, after-school and vacation programs teach youths about science and nature. Special events also bring farm life to the city with activities such as maple syrup making and apple pressing. A busy arts calendar features concerts, dance, art shows, theater, storytelling and the occasional fanciful event like Fairy Night, where children don wings and flit about the greenery. If a volunteer can think of it, the garden will likely host it.
Others come to calm their minds at meditation groups or labyrinth walks. One thing we should all contemplate while there: this space was once just a steep sand pit on the former site of Southern Junior High. But once a few residents planted the seed—and rolled up their sleeves to tend it—it grew into a significant community resource.
Dare is a non-profit social services program, with six regional offices throughout Massachusetts and one in Connecticut. Dare provides intensive foster care for children that have been entrusted to them by the state after being separated from their biological parents due to abuse or neglect.
Additionally, Dare offfers an Intellectual Disabilities program and a Newburyport location—in which it houses pregnant and parenting teen girls. The Somerville office is the administrative headquarters.
The Recreation Center is open only during certain class times. Most programs are geared toward toddlers during school hours. After school, the center hosts elementary school programs and in the evening, some adult education programs are held. North Reading Youth Services' high school youth group meets at the center on Wednesday nights. Visit www.northreadingma.gov/recreation for more details.
The Medford Family Network is for parents and caretakers of children, prenatal to age seven. Run by the Medford Public Schools, the network is a parenting education program and family support system. This support comes in the form of the Medford Family Center (located in the Medford High School), special citywide family events and activities, ESOL classes, information and referral sources, parent support groups, playgroups, newsletters and much more. Programs are free of charge.
For more than 50 years, the community center has been in the historic Ensign Thaxter House in downtown Hingham. The center offers more than 90 different special events, classes and activities. Hingham Community Center is a non-profit that relies primarily on membership fees and donations to keep running. Classes include gymnastics, preschool and dance for kids, as well as various classes for adults, such as ballroom dancing and CPR. There are also summer and vacation activities such as ceramic and painting workshops.