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Front Door

One-stop shopping! With Front Door, an ABCD cutting-edge technology initiative, customers who walk through the front door of any ABCD location can be connected with every service for which they are eligible throughout the entire ABCD network.

With an innovative, streamlined, holistic approach to service delivery via free community photo membership cards, Front Door is changing the way human service agencies do business. This integrated model increases effectiveness, cuts through red tape and ultimately helps more customers become self-sufficient.

Right now 27,000 members of the Boston-area community are using ABCD Front Door cards to facilitate service provision in Boston, Malden, Medford and Everett. The Front Door system automatically matches clients to ABCD programs based on the client’s information from ABCD’s state-of-the-art Datawarehouse and our ABCD Program & Eligibility Database. 

How does it work? ABCD staff members run a search for the customer and the members of their family and all of the programs for which they are eligible will pop up.  Once the customer decides which programs to apply to, the Front Door system lets staff send an electronic internal referral. The entire process takes just a few minutes and then the customer and their family members are connected to more services! In this way – with these automatic wrap-around services – Front Door breaks down silos and enables ABCD to better serve the community.

Front door elder members outside ABCD neighborhood site

Snapshots

In January, ABCD’s Generations Advancing Together Through Education celebrated its first anniversary, applauding the graduates and enrollees of its training programs with partner agencies: Banking & Finance, Certified Nursing Assistant, Pharmacy Technician, and Office Skills Administration. Funded with a four-year federal grant, GATE is a two-generational initiative serving low-income parents who need child care to complete training programs and build careers.

GATE Celebrates First Anniversary:

In January, ABCD’s Generations Advancing Together Through Education celebrated its first anniversary, applauding the graduates and enrollees of its training programs with partner agencies: Banking & Finance, Certified Nursing Assistant, Pharmacy Technician, and Office Skills Administration. Funded with a four-year federal grant, GATE is a two-generational initiative serving low-income parents who need child care to complete training programs and build careers.
City Hall Plaza was transformed into a pizza lover’s paradise during the July 4 weekend! As the festival’s “Charity of Choice,” ABCD was front and center, firing up support for its youth programs. ABCD reps sampled the fare and spread word among pizza fans about the organization’s important programs for young people who need a hand up to get their footing in school, work and life. Thank you Boston Pizza Festival!

ABCD “Charity of Choice” for Boston Pizza Festival:

City Hall Plaza was transformed into a pizza lover’s paradise during the July 4 weekend! As the festival’s “Charity of Choice,” ABCD was front and center, firing up support for its youth programs. ABCD reps sampled the fare and spread word among pizza fans about the organization’s important programs for young people who need a hand up to get their footing in school, work and life. Thank you Boston Pizza Festival!
Spurred by research showing that nurturing the brain development of infants and toddlers and meeting the health needs of pregnant woman has a significant positive impact on child development, ABCD is expanding its Early Head Start programs across the city. In January 2018, Mattapan Early Head Start opened, with its beautiful facility now serving more than 15 infants and toddlers as well as 90-plus preschoolers in traditional Head Start classrooms.

Grand Opening for Mattapan Early Head Start:

Spurred by research showing that nurturing the brain development of infants and toddlers and meeting the health needs of pregnant woman has a significant positive impact on child development, ABCD is expanding its Early Head Start programs across the city. In January 2018, Mattapan Early Head Start opened, with its beautiful facility now serving more than 15 infants and toddlers as well as 90-plus preschoolers in traditional Head Start classrooms.
Mayor Gary Christenson of Malden donned a chef’s apron and helped Head Start nutritionist Alex Manos prepare a health salsa snack at ABCD’S Malden-Everett Head Start Center. “I heard for years what a tremendous organization ABCD is and now we are so fortunate to have them here in our city,” he said. Yvette Rodriguez, VP, ABCD Head Start & Children’s Services, and Mei-Hua Fu, Program Director, ABCD Malden-Everett Head Start, welcomed the Mayor and a host of Head Start family members and community supporters to the event.

Malden Mayor Cooks For Head Start!

Mayor Gary Christenson of Malden donned a chef’s apron and helped Head Start nutritionist Alex Manos prepare a health salsa snack at ABCD’S Malden-Everett Head Start Center. “I heard for years what a tremendous organization ABCD is and now we are so fortunate to have them here in our city,” he said. Yvette Rodriguez, VP, ABCD Head Start & Children’s Services, and Mei-Hua Fu, Program Director, ABCD Malden-Everett Head Start, welcomed the Mayor and a host of Head Start family members and community supporters to the event.
ABCD panel of advisors

Solutions Series

The Solutions Series is the research and policy arm of ABCD that works with like-minded organizations to provide dedicated space for discussion and exploration of solutions to entrenched dilemmas of economic opportunity. The 2017-2018 season focused on issues of income inequality, the ever-changing structure of work, and public wellness. Topics included:

  • OBSTACLES ON THE ROAD TO OPPORTUNITY: FINDING A WAY FORWARD
  • FRAGMENTED WORK: CREATING OPPORTUNITY AND SECURITY IN THE GIG ECONOMY
  • DISAPPEARING WORK: COPING WITH THE 2ND MACHINE REVOLUTION 
  • IT’S NOT EASY GOING GREEN: DILEMMAS OF MARIJUANA PROFIT & PREVENTION
  • HEALTH WANTED: IS COERCION GOOD PUBLIC POLICY?

IN IT TOGETHER

THANK YOU to the many residents, human service providers, business and nonprofit leaders, and students and staff who attended this year. We also offer our gratitude to a dynamic cross-section of public and private stakeholders and local leaders who lent generously of their time to help us ask tough questions and move towards answers that lead to action.

The Solutions Series is coordinated by the ABCD Planning & Grants Department with support from several ABCD departments and in collaboration with like-minded partner organizations and institutions.