HEAL Youth Changemakers
HEAL Winchendon and Gardner is a community movement for long lasting, “up-stream” change to improve the health and quality of life of the town residents through a series of programs that build social, financial, and community assets. They work hand in hand, building on shared strengths and knowledge to address the daily struggles and needs of Community residents.
UWYV partnered with the HEAL Winchendon initiative beginning in 2022, aiding the youth in their Venture to increase social inclusion, promote youth mental health, and positively impact their community.
HEAL Winchendon has recently expanded to HEAL Gardner in 2023, with a new group of Gardner youth embarking on a similar mission of social change.
These highly motivated leaders meet regularly to receive skill-building, leadership, and Changemaker coaching from UWYV, as well as continued project support in their Ventures.
2023-2024
The Sunshine Cafe Addition
The already established Winchendon Youth Changemaker initiative with the Sunshine Cafe lost most of its team members post COVID and due to senior graduations. With a new team and a STEM requirement, this team decided they wanted to make the Sunshine Cafe their "own" and add to the goal of social inclusion and mental health support in a way that felt unique to them. Therefore, the 2023 Winchendon Youth Changemakers embarked on a fundraising path to raise money to build a mobile coffee cart and a gas powered "bonfire" pit. The mobile coffee cart will allow them to bring the sunshine wherever they go, and the bonfire pit will allow them to host teen bonfire nights to bring more teens together in a healthy way, while also being outside.
In the cold weather season, this team continue to maintain regular Sunshine Cafe hours on Fridays and Saturdays at their permanent indoor location inside the new Winchendon CAC bowling alley. They also host monthly themed teen nights in this space, with bowling, sweet treats and drinks from the cafe, and a themed activity at each event. In addition to this, this group plans and hosts the Annual Taste of Winchendon Cultural event, and each youth sits on the Winchendon Youth Council!
The Crib
The newly formed Gardner Youth Changemaker team's mission is to create an accessible, welcoming, and entertaining space for teens in Gardner where they "can't be bored". Their space will host a variety of scheduled events for all interests, from skill workshops to movie nights, that bring the youth community together. In addition to scheduled events, they intend to have this space open on a regular basis to provide teens with a safe, healthy space for them to hangout. To ensure accessibility, they plan on organizing transportation and partnering with HOPE in downtown Gardner. They hope to positively impact teen's mental health, feelings of inclusion, use of time, and opportunities available to them.
2022-2023
Mobile Sunshine Cafe
Students at Murdock High School and the Winchendon School came together under the guidance of the HEAL Winchendon Project to create a youth space for teens to hang out in Winchendon. With great understanding that this is going to take time to get a brick-and-mortar location, they have begun by spreading the word about the future teen center and by fundraising. They created a Youth Changemaker Mobile Café, a coffee cart that they take to events where they sell coffee and treats while introducing their idea to the community. Their seed funding will help them to purchase tables and chairs so people have a place to gather while enjoying their coffee.