Outreach Organizations
These are the organizations that St. Matthew's currently supports with donations and volunteers.
Abbott House
Abbott House is a social service agency in Westchester, NY, which provides services to more than 3,000 abused, abandoned, developmentally-disabled children and their families. It operates group homes, one of which is located in Bedford. The group homes provide a refuge and enable children to attend public school and participate in local activities. Children receive clinical and medical attention while living in a safe home-like environment. Counseling is also offered to the family. St. Matthew’s provides hands-on support as well as financial support.
St. Matthew’s Contact: April Foley and Laurie Sturz
A-HOME
A-HOME rehabilitates, builds and manages affordable rental housing in northern Westchester County, NY for older adults, disabled individuals and single-parent families who, because of age, disability, or family status, cannot afford market rates. Presently it oversees 17 houses in Bedford Hills, Chappaqua, Croton Falls, Katonah, Mount Kisco, Pound Ridge, Thornwood, and South Salem, and manages one for the Blue Mountain Housing Development Corporation. St. Matthew’s supports this organization financially.
St. Matthew’s Contact: Caroline Shepherd
Bedford Hills Correctional Facility For Women
Children's Center
This facility is the largest women’s maximum security prison in New York State. The Children’s Center at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility offers a wide range of services to Bedford inmates and their children. Imprisonment separates mother and child. The Center helps inmate women preserve and strengthen family ties and receive visits from their children as often as possible while they are apart. St. Matthew’s was instrumental in creating and continues to support the Children’s Center.
St. Matthew’s Contact: April Foley
Community Center of Northern Westchester
The Community Center provides food, clothing, furniture, school supplies, career counseling, summer camp scholarships to those in need. It conducts classes in English language, computer training, US Civics for Immigrants, Spanish for volunteers, and infant massage. It operates out of its own building on Route 117 just south of Katonah. St. Matthew’s was a lead donor in the creation of the Community Center. St. Matthews provides volunteers who drive food donations from Scott’s Corner Market to the Center.
St. Matthew’s Contact: Mary Ann Robinson
Emergency Shelter Partnership
Over 25 local churches and synagogues (“Partners”) provide a warm place to sleep for homeless people from November to March each winter. ESP supplies: (a) vehicle transport from Mt. Kisco to the host facility; and (b) sleeping bags/mattresses. The host Partner provides dinner, breakfast, and a volunteer or two who stay overnight. Each morning, the ESP van returns the participants to Mt. Kisco. St. Matthews supports ESP with funds and volunteers. During Antioch Baptist Church’s week as the host facility, their Women’s Association prepares and delivers a dinner and a breakfast, and an Antioch Men’s Association volunteer stays overnight. St. Matthew’s also provides volunteer back-up to host churches.
St. Matthew’s Contact: Doug Kim
Hope's Door
Hope’s Door prevents, responds to, and partners to end domestic and intimate partner violence and other forms of abuse. They provide a 24/7/365 crisis, support and information hotline (the gateway to all our services) as well as emergency shelter to ensure individuals are safe from the threat of violence.
St. Matthew’s Contact: Laurie Sturz
Midnight Run
Midnight Run coordinates volunteers from churches, synagogues, schools and other civic groups who distribute food, clothing, blankets and toiletries to the homeless poor on the streets of New York City. Late at night, volunteers go to designated locations in New York City and dispense donated items directly to homeless people on the street.
St. Matthew’s Contact: Caroline Shepherd and Dan Ward
Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry
The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry is located at the United Methodist Church of Mt. Kisco. Supported by volunteers from 11 area churches and synagogues, the Food Pantry currently helps an average of over 150 families a week. Residents of the greater Mt. Kisco area who are in need can come in once a week and take home groceries and fresh produce. While much of the food is purchased from the Westchester Food Bank, financial and non-perishable food donations are necessary to keep the Pantry going. St. Matthew’s provides volunteers approximately one day a month, either a Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, to stock the tables with food and help families make their selections.
St. Matthew’s Contact: Betsy Meyer and Missy Renwick
Neighbors Link
Neighbors Link operates a community center to assist Latino immigrants who represent 26% of Mount Kisco’s total population. Programs and services in the following areas are provided: adult education, employment, computer skills, leadership training, entrepreneurial development, after-school tutoring, parenting skills, housing, homelessness, medical and mental health, budgeting, alcoholism, domestic violence, and immigration issues. St. Matthew’s provides financial support to this organization.
St. Matthew’s Contact: Christopher Robinson
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
This committee of over 20 St. Matthew’s parishioners provides meals, flowers, and/or support to other parishioners who need assistance in times of stress or crisis. The Committee’s assistance is triggered by events such as illness, birth of a new child, or a death in the family. Different kinds of assistance are provided, depending upon the circumstances. Committee members serve in teams headed by Anita & John Stockbridge, Laurie & Paul Sturz and Meg Burdick & Tina Foster. Neighbors Helping Neighbors is a St. Matthew’s volunteer enterprise. Committee members fund the committee’s activities on an ongoing basis.
St. Matthew’s Contact: Tina Foster
Open Arms Men's Shelter
Grace Church Community Center in White Plains is a non-sectarian organization which assists Westchester County’s neediest and most at-risk residents, with a focus on those who are under-served by other resources. The Open Arms program is a round the clock, 38 bed shelter and social service center for single homeless men. It operates under contract with the Westchester County Department of Social Services and shelters 400 and 1,200 individuals annually. St. Matthew’s parishioners volunteer to serve meals at Grace Church.
St. Matthew’s Contact: Terry Long
Open Door Family Medical Centers
Open Door Family Medical Centers, a federally qualified health organization founded in 1972, is committed to delivering quality medical, dental, behavioral and specialty health care as well as chronic disease management, to low-income people in Westchester County, NY. Open Door is accredited by the Joint Commission and licensed by the New York State Department of Health as a diagnostic and treatment center. At the core of Open Door’s philosophy is that every patient is a member of a care team of highly trained, certified family practice physicians and other clinical staff. In 2014, Open Door served 52,860 patients over the year for a total of 233,697 patient visits.
St. Matthew's contact: Laurie Sturz