The board of directors of a nonprofit that serves families in the rural hill towns of Western Massachusetts is on the hunt for new membership. Huntington-based It Takes A Village was founded as a neighbor-to-neighbor support network in 2009, but has expanded in the years since to provide free postpartum and early parenting resources to the community. In 2022, it worked with over 2,000 families in 120 towns across the sparsely populated region. It Takes A Village also operates the Village Closet donation center, which has distributed around $2 million in clothing for children, diapers, and other supplies to families in need. Development and Outreach Director Mollie Hartford spoke with WAMC about the board of directors’ new membership push, which will continue through September.
HARTFORD: We are a small nonprofit organization that were founded in the hill towns originally, and we provide free postpartum support for families all over Western Mass. We have a home visit program for families in the hill towns, we have a donation center in Huntington that is open to any family, regardless of income or town of residents. And we have free parent groups and workshops to help new families connect with their community and learn about what resources are available to them.
WAMC: Now, for folks that don't really know what the hill towns are, give us a working definition.
The definition is a little nebulous, but it's mostly towns that have very small populations, really low population density. They don't have the interstates running through them. So, they're not part of, they're not on Route 91, they're not on Route seven in the Berkshires. They're kind of what's in between. So, they're those hill towns, like the Berkshire hills in Hinsdale in Peru. We go all the way up into Franklin County in Colrain and Shelburne Falls, down into Hampden County with Russell and Montgomery and all through Hampshire County, those hill towns of Goshen and Williamsburg, and then our footprint actually expands outside of that, too. We have families that we support in Dalton and North Adams, and then all the way into Springfield, and actually even into Northern Connecticut. We have discovered that there isn't a lot out there like this organization that focuses on new families and families in these rural communities who have little kids.
This summer and into the fall, It Takes A Village is looking to expand its membership to – and I'm going to quote the press release – “more fully represent the populations served by its programs.” Break that down for us. What does that mean?
So originally, our board of directors were simply the volunteers that we have already sort of in our program. And so, most of them are retired, they're mostly women, they're mostly white, too. They're mostly those folks who can afford to travel and have a meeting in the middle of the day. But a lot of the families that we serve are young, maybe they are people of color, they are people who are working during the day who might not have the flexibility of a retired person. And that is really important to us that those folks have a voice with the decisions that we're making in the organization so that we're not just in this bubble, thinking about, oh, what is it that the families just like us need. We need to hear voices from people with different lived experiences, so that we can really provide support for every family in Western Mass, regardless of their background.
Now, let's say someone hears this and takes a swing at joining the group. What would those responsibilities look like?
We have six board meetings a year. Board members are expected to attend four of them. They're expected to contribute as much as they can. And that doesn't have to be financially- It can be connecting with business sponsors, it can be introducing existing board members to new opportunities for fundraising and outreach. And it's really about being at the table and helping guide us, guide the organization into making decisions that are really going to support everyone and really being that voice to say, you know, in my experience, this is what is going on on the ground for families with young kids. And being flexible. We're a hard-working group, we expect some work out of our board members, but it's really, really fulfilling to be able to sort of be out there and talking about the organization and getting people on board.
Over the last 14 years of It Takes A Village’s operations, what do you feel like are some of the more surprising or under discussed revelations that you've uncovered through the work that you do in these largely rural and somewhat isolated communities?
There's a huge issue with childcare across the whole country, but really, in these rural towns. I'm very honored to get in front of a lot of other organizations, a lot of our legislators, and sometimes they'll say, oh, the biggest problem is housing and the biggest problem is transportation. Yes, those are huge problems. But if you ask the young parents, what are the biggest obstacles? It's childcare, it's health care, it’s mental health care. And those are often intertwined. If you can't get a babysitter, maybe you can't get to your job, and you can't afford your health insurance, which means you can't afford your mental health care. And it all comes back to, who is taking care of these babies? So that's something that we run into a lot, that childcare is a huge barrier to accessing the other things that are already available. So, if we can get these families some support for some of those very, very basic needs, they can then move that next step themselves to getting more resources for their long-term health care, their long-term financial stability. But sometimes it is those very basic needs. Like, we need preschool. You know? That's something that I found really surprising of how much of a barrier that is.
Do you think there are ways that the state legislature could better support the kind of work that you're doing in Western Massachusetts?
We have some great legislators working on some bills regarding diaper need, being able to use someone's SNAP benefits or WIC benefits to purchase diapers. Right now, that's not allowed. And there is a huge need. About of families don't have enough diapers for their kids, and that, again, leads into issues with childcare. You can't send your kid to daycare if you don't have enough diapers, you can't send- Which means you can't go to school, which means you can't go to work. So, some of those basic needs, making sure that something like diapers, it's not a luxury, it is absolute medical necessity. So that is something that we're really pushing our legislators to understand and to open that conversation. I think that's not something that everybody knows. Unless you have little babies at home, you don't realize how much of a barrier that can be.
Mollie, is there anything about this that I’ve not thought to ask you that you want to make sure folks understand?
If you hear this, and you're not able to take that leap and join the board and commit to that everyone listening can be the village that It Takes A Village. It takes you. You can be that village for our family by referring them to a resource that you know about, going over and checking on a family with a new baby and making sure they have what they need, pr offering to volunteer in other ways. We have lots of folks who just deliver donations to folks who don't have transportation. We need people to go into the homes and hold those babies so that the parents can help take care of themselves and play with those other kids and so that mom and dad can take a break. So even if you can't commit to being a board member, we can help you find a way to get involved. So, people should know that they can reach out to us and go to our website and find out more about ways they can get involved.
