❋
Resources for Families
General Resources
Massachusetts 2-1-1: Available 24/7, Centralized hub for human service referrals and community resources in MA including housing and food assistance, utilities, childcare/parenting, medical care, transportation, legal help, domestic violence, and mental health services. https://mass211.org
We want to hear from you! Do you have a suggestion for a resource that we should add? Let us know!
Mental Health Resources
Available 24/7, confidential, free, no insurance required, multi-lingual. Provides real-time support, initial assessment, and connection to treatment for mental health and substance use concerns over phone, text, or chat via website. Call or text: 833-773-2445
Available 24/7, confidential, free, available in English and Spanish. Provides mental health support and crisis intervention services over text, WhatsApp, or chat via website Text: “HOME” to 741741
Provides free, confidential support, resources, and referrals from professional counselors to pregnant and postpartum individuals facing mental health challenges 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Counselors offer support in English and Spanish and interpreter services are available in 60 additional languages. Call (833) 852-6262.
Available 24/7, confidential, free, no insurance required, multi-lingual. Provides real-time support, initial assessment, and connection to treatment for mental health and substance use concerns over phone, text, or chat via website. Call or text: 833-773-2445
Food & Nutrition Resources
Confidential, free, multi-lingual, hotline to connect Massachusetts residents to programs to help afford groceries and put food on the table. Can help navigate SNAP (formerly food stamps), connect to free summer meals for kids & teens, suggest food pantries, and refer to additional resources. Call: 1-800-645-8333
The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) partners with more than 600 hunger-relief agencies, including food pantries, community meal programs and other food assistance providers throughout the nine counties and 190 towns and cities across Eastern Massachusetts. They also provide SNAP application assistance.
Distributes affordable produce to families at over 20 sites across Boston. No eligibility requirements, no registration, and no ID checks.
WIC is a nutrition program that provides healthy foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and referrals to healthcare and other services, free of charge, to Massachusetts families who qualify.
Baby & Child Supplies, Child Care Support
Exchange Trade your child’s outgrown clothes or volunteer to receive age-appropriate clothes. 1151 Massachusetts Ave, in basement of Old Cambridge Baptist Church
Community center that uses a holistic approach to promote the well-being, academic achievement, and successful transition to adulthood of children and youth and their families in Cambridge and surrounding communities. Infant necessities also available.
The Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) helps to meet the child care and transportation needs of low-income families so that children can get a safe start and parents can get where they need to go.
Mass211 can also help families identify and locate childcare programs in their area. The Department of Early Education & Care offers financial assistance to eligible families in the form of a subsidy. EEC will pay for a portion of a family’s childcare expense based off of their household size and income.
Child Care Choices of Boston (CCCB) offers support, resources, technical assistance, training and child care expertise to families and child care providers while being an advocate for affordable, quality and culturally competent child care in the larger community.
Provides students who live in Boston and their families free access to many of the City's world-class cultural institutions.
