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CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect the number of volunteers at the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness as well as the correct link to donation information.
Nancy Wolcott sat at the welcome desk and greeted every client who entered the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness, checking them in and signing them up for showers.
Wolcott has various responsibilities, and clients know to seek her out for a range of necessities. She sorts donations and stocking supplies. She provides clients clothing, towels, shoes and a listening ear when they need to talk for a little.
“I can’t sit still for too long, so I need to be busy, purposeful,” she said on an active morning last week.
The Concord Coalition to End Homelessness is a private nonprofit that supports the capital region’s unhoused population and help individuals achieve housing stability. Through its resource center, emergency winter shelter and permanent supportive housing, the organization puts into action its conviction that ending homelessness is possible.
Wolcott, one of the organization’s nearly 100 volunteers, has donated her time to the coalition for over 10 years.
Her connection to the organization’s mission is personal: Wolcott previously witnessed her son battle an addiction that, at some points, led to him live out of his car.
“It just did something to me when he would live in his truck,” she said.
Six months out of the year, Wolcott — who resides in Franklin — lives in Florida, where she first went to interact with the Turning Points homeless shelter in Bradenton.
The shelter’s structure limited her interactions with clients, but the coalition gives her the opportunity to talk to every individual and make her own connections with them, which is her favorite part.
She’s learned by forging trust with clients through her volunteer work that homelessness can result from a variety of life experiences.
“I feel that I’ve made some good friends and there are some people who even come because they know I’m going to be here,” she said.
With a background in writing, editing and graphic design, she edits newsletters for the Webster Lake Association in Franklin, which educates local residents on the environmental welfare of the lake.
She also volunteers with a local food pantry, where she collects, organizes and submits the food pantry’s incoming and outgoing food totals from May to October.
In the past, she has also volunteered boosting child literacy through YMCA Reads. More recently, she was a part of an international online organization called ENGin, which helps young Ukrainians learn English.
Her work at the coalition has always felt uniquely impactful.
“There’s something very special about these people,” she said.
The resource center, located at 238 N. Main Street in Concord, provides clients with food, showers, laundry, clothes and other resources at no cost. The center also accepts donations, with a list of high-need items listed on their website.
They also employ case workers who work with clients individually to look at their financial standing, guide them through potential housing options, help obtain government-issued IDs and more.
Housing support specialists connect clients with safe, affordable housing in their community, helping them move in and in some cases maintain the space, according to Kait Gallagher, director of development and communications.
The emergency winter shelter, located behind the resource center, is open seven days a week, from December through March. The coalition offers the only low barrier shelter in the area, and their services are open to anyone, regardless their background, criminal record or drug use. There are 40 beds open to adults.
Wolcott derives meaning from smoothing the operation in any way she can. Her experiences with her son brought her to the coalition, but she stayed because of the lives she’s been able to help.
“I just want to be able to be sunshine in somebody’s life,” she said. “You can usually see if you’re serving that purpose.”
