Community
Non-Profits & Community Organizations
The Other Half of a City
City Hall does not do everything, and in Gardner it never has. A large amount of what actually reaches a resident, food, health care, job training, a safe place to be after school, comes through non-profit organizations that raise their own money and answer to their own boards. They are also the easiest door in civic life to walk through. Most of them will take a volunteer who is sixteen, and none of them require you to be registered to vote.
Help, Health and Food
- Gardner Community Action Committee. In its own words, a non-profit organization located in Gardner focused on serving the needs of economically disadvantaged individuals throughout the Greater Gardner community. This is the front door for a family that needs help now.
- GAAMHA. A Gardner based organization whose own opening line is that it is redefining community support, working across disability services, recovery support and transportation.
- Growing Places. Connecting community through real food since 2001, running gardens and food access programs across north central Massachusetts.
- Community Health Connections. A community health center serving north central Massachusetts, including medical, dental and behavioral health care.
- Heywood Healthcare. Heywood Hospital, at 242 Green Street in Gardner, is the city’s own hospital and one of its largest employers. 978-632-3420.
- House of Peace and Education. A Gardner organization running education and youth programs, known locally as HOPE.
- Gardner Community Youth Center. The city’s own youth center, and the most direct place for a student to start.
- Gardner Senior Center. Programs and services for older residents, run by the Council on Aging.
- Gardner Square Two, Inc. A downtown revitalization organization. It is listed here without a link because no website for it could be verified.
Learning, Reading and Local Business
- Levi Heywood Memorial Library. Gardner’s public library, named for the furniture manufacturer whose name is all over the city’s history. A card costs a resident nothing, and the library is the cheapest research tool in town.
- The Gardner Museum, Inc. The city’s own museum of its history, including the furniture industry that named it.
- Mount Wachusett Community College. The college opened in 1964, and in 1966 the City of Gardner offered it land for a permanent home on Green Street. It enrolls high school students through dual enrollment.
- Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce. The membership organization for local businesses, and a useful map of who actually employs people in the city.
Local News
A city government is only as visible as the people who report on it. The Gardner News is the city’s paper of record and still covers Gardner and the surrounding towns, from municipal budgets to high school sports. Reading it is the single cheapest way to know what your City Council is about to vote on before it votes.
- Gardner Magazine. Local news and articles about the city.
- WGAW 1340 AM and 98.1 FM. Gardner’s own news and talk radio station.
- Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The regional daily, which covers Worcester County government and courts.
- Gardner Educational Television. The city’s own channel, which carries the School Committee on Channel 8.
The city carries its own meetings too. Council meetings are streamed live and archived through the city’s video player. If you want to know how your ward councillor voted, you can watch it happen.
Getting Involved
- Pick one organization whose work you already care about rather than the one that seems most impressive.
- Ask what they actually need. It is often a specific and unglamorous thing, and offering it is worth more than a general offer to help.
- Show up twice. The second time is when you stop being a visitor.
- Then consider a city board. Volunteering makes you exactly the kind of person the Mayor’s Office is looking for when a seat on a commission opens up.
City boards are the volunteer half of the government itself.