First Parish Church
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Mission Statement
We are a congregation that is committed to justice, service and love, and we work together with area organizations to help those in need.
About This Cause
First Parish Church in Taunton is an organization that is focused on love, service and community. We run several community programs through First Parish, and are committed to making the world a better place through our work and love. The largest of our programs is the Matthew Mission Outreach Center. The Matthew Mission is open four mornings per week, and is a warming shelter for anyone in need. We offer breakfast and coffee every day, and a wide variety of services. We partner with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Nursing Program and provide healthcare for our guests on Thursday mornings. We also work with Seven Hills Behavioral Health on a weekly basis and offer confidential STD and STI testing, as well as mental health services. Our case manager and assistant meet with any guests who need assistance in working with the system as a whole, from applying to subsidized housing to food vouchers, job training and healthcare services. We also work closely with the Veterans Affairs programs and New Hope Domestic Violence shelter, when our guests are in need of those specific services. So far during 2016, the Matthew Mission has served over 2000 individuals, and we are known as the “first line of defense” for anyone who is homeless or in need and who is looking for help. We also run, through the Matthew Mission, the only Christmas programs for teens in the area, where we collect gift cards from the community and distribute them to teens in need who may not be receiving any gifts. All gift card requests and distribution is done in partnership with other non-profit organizations in the area. Another program First Parish offers the community is the Church Green Farmers Market. Downtown Taunton is an officially designated “food desert”, and a high proportion of the residents in this area have no access to healthy, nutritious food. Our Farmers Market runs from July though October each year, and provides the opportunity to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. We work in partnership with WIC, who is also at the market each week, and also offer information and recipes for food prep for those who might not be used to working with the different types of food available. As a downtown organization, we also believe that we need to help provide events and opportunities for all of the citizens in our city. Each year we co-host a fall history festival, celebrating Taunton’s role in the creation of the United States and making colonial times live with re-enactors, crafts, and educational programming for children. We also take part in the city’s large Christmas celebration, opening up our building for community entertainment and education. We are in the process of formally developing our partnership with Taunton Area School-to-Career and creating a mentorship program for at-risk teens, and expect to be launching the program (which has been happening informally, on an ad-hoc basis) in the spring of 2017.