Shared Living Collaborative awarded $100K for riding trail

Jim Sullivan, The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.
·3 min read

Jun. 21—MERRIMAC — A local nonprofit organization continues to expand, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Cummings Foundation.

The Shared Living Collaborative was founded in 2007 to support young people and adults with developmental disabilities and mental health issues.

The Merrimac-based organization now offers day and residential programs at the former Strand Theater in downtown Amesbury and operates a carpentry center at its 20-acre produce farm in Georgetown where clients learn farming and customer service.

The collaborative also maintains a retirement farm for older animals in West Newbury and supports roughly 40 youths with complex challenges in state Department of Children and Families-funded therapeutic foster homes as well as 110 adults in shared living settings.

"We have grown very quickly," Executive Director Daniela Morse said. "We also offer dog training, therapeutic riding and sportsmanship."

The organization continues to grow and Morse was eyeing the former Chuck Patti Training Center on Birchmeadow Road in Merrimac for a therapeutic riding program when she was approached by someone who told her she should apply for the Cummings Foundation $25 Million Grant Program.

Cummings Foundation Executive Director Joel Swets said in a written statement that his Woburn-based commercial real estate company's grant program aims to help meet the needs of nonprofit organizations in all segments of the company's communities in Middlesex, Essex and Suffolk counties.

"It is the incredible organizations that we fund, however, that do the actual daily work to empower our neighbors, educate our children, fight for equity and so much more," Swets said.

A Cummings Foundation spokesperson added that the organization is based on volunteer support and the Shared Living Collaborative was recently awarded a $100,000 grant to be paid out in $25,000 increments over four years.

"They are really looking at innovative ideas that nonprofits have within the northeastern region," Morse said. "This was the first time that we had applied and we got it. The application was due in January and we celebrated the award last week."

Morse said the grant will be used to create a nature discovery horseback riding and walking trail at the newly named Stoloff Farm on Birchmeadow Road that she purchased last year.

"We just bought the farm, so we don't have the sign up yet," Morse said. "Animal-assisted activities are crucial to much of what we do. We also just got 10 very adorable Nubian goat babies that we bottle feed. So animals are really important to us."

Morse also said she hopes to turn the farm into a community resource.

"We would like to invite people who might take joy in the trail to utilize it," Morse said. "We would especially like to see kids with disabilities. We want to be a resource to towns, families and neighborhoods."

Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.