NeighborWorks® Housing Solutions (NHS; www.nhsmass.org), the leading housing service provider in southern Massachusetts, recently received a generous grant from the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation in the amount of $50,000.
The Mabel Louise Riley Foundation dedicates an arm of their grant funding to serving low-income children, youth, and families. They also support a broad range of nonprofits and programs that seek to provide education, human services, and community revitalization.
NHS first received funding from the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation in 2019 to support the organization’s merger. Since the merger NHS has been able to expand their reach in build substantial capacity in all their service areas. Because of the merger and in part because of the past support of the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, NHS was able to quickly scale up to meet the growing need for services during the pandemic. The resources provided by the Foundation will assist NHS with additional programmatic expansion in communities where the need for housing services is great.
“We were humbled to receive this generous donation from the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation,” said Robert Corley, CEO of NeighborWorks Housing Solutions. “Our plans for its use will increase prospects for housing accessibility for people living in the New Bedford community.”
The funding will help to support the agency’s capacity building opportunities in New Bedford with the goal of expanding access to affordable housing and leveraging partnerships to facilitate the increase of existing housing stock.
The Mabel Louise Riley Foundation is named after the only child of Agnes Winslow and Charles E. Riley, president of H&B American Machine Company in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Born in 1883, Riley was an active patron of the arts. Her generosity and concern for the needs of others prompted her to establish a general-purpose foundation, with the sole suggestion to her trustees that particular consideration be given to the needs of children and youth. Riley died at the age of 88 in 1971; the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation began operation as an active member of Boston’s philanthropic community one year later.