Executive Director
Robb Zarges
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On behalf of the Board of Directors, our dedicated staff, more than 300 volunteers and the 2,400 young people we served last year, I want to thank you for visiting our website.
I am so thankful to be leading Bridge at this critical juncture for the organization. The work that Barbara Whelan started almost 40 years ago is as relevant and critical today as it was in 1970. Sister Barbara is truly a visionary and I find myself both honored and humbled in taking the torch to provide hope, healing and homes to our young people.
I met with a client recently who told me his story and how Bridge has made a difference in his life. He came to know Bridge through the Mobile Medical Van, which he visited when he needed some medical attention after being in a fight. After building a relationship with the outreach staff, he started coming to the Transitional Day Program to shower, have a meal and spend time in a safe and warm place during the winter months. Our staff helped him to get health insurance, a small rental unit, and a counselor. It was during this time at Bridge that he remembered the dreams he had as a child: to be an accountant like his uncle who raised him and recently died. He asked our staff what he could do to live into that dream. He is now in our GED program and will be testing soon so he can go to college to pursue his dreams! He told me, “…this place [Bridge] not only healed my wounds but gave me hope for my future. Who do I thank for that?”
The reality is that the 2,400 young people we served last year can thank you! Many of you have been generous supporters of Bridge for many years. You have allowed thousands of kids to heal, find hope and move into stable homes.
The original vision for Bridge was “to do whatever may be necessary or desirable to assist youth, who are on the streets with no one to comfort them, to achieve a place in society as fulfilled and productive adults.” This is a high calling. It is an opportunity to bring hope, healing and a home to hurting and disconnected young people. It’s a vision that requires Bridge to work with others. It requires friends of Bridge to join us in saying, even in this economic downturn, “We will do whatever may be necessary” to see that no young person in Boston will have to fend for themselves. We need your help, we need your support and we need to do whatever may be necessary!
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