The Home for Little Wanderers to Expand at Walpole’s Longview Farm with Help from $18 Million MassDevelopment Bond

September 15, 2011

Contacts:
Kelsey Abbruzzese, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2086 & 617-448-9077
Heather MacFarlane, The Home for Little Wanderers, 617-585-7592

MassDevelopment has issued an $18 million tax-exempt bond on behalf of The Home for Little Wanderers, Inc., the nation’s oldest and one of New England’s largest nonprofit child and family services agencies. The organization expects to create additional staffing opportunities over the next three years by using bond proceeds to build a new special education and residential campus at Longview Farm in Walpole.

At the new campus, children will be able to participate in outdoor activities such as swimming, hiking, and agriculture. The expansion will serve the current 20 resident and 20 day students in Walpole, and make room for an additional 40 students relocating from a Boston program. The new campus will include an upper and lower school building, two dorms, and two smaller residential cottages. RBS Citizens purchased the bond.

“The Home for Little Wanderers provides vital residential and community-based services to children and families,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. “We’re pleased to close this timely low-cost financing deal at the start of a new school year, and help The Home create jobs and augment its offerings to the Commonwealth’s southeastern residents.”

The project will also include renovations to the existing school building, new utilities, parking, driveways, lighting, and landscaping. Originally founded as an orphanage in 1799, The Home seeks to ensure healthy behavioral, emotional, social, and educational development, along with physical well-being, of children and families in at-risk conditions. Programs and services include adoption, foster care, special education, therapeutic residential care and a wide range of community-based services in schools, clinics and in families’ homes.

“The new facilities will be invaluable,” said Joan Wallace-Benjamin, Ph.D., President and CEO, The Home for Little Wanderers. “This is an exciting time as we make a significant investment in the future of The Home and all of the children and families we serve.”

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2011, MassDevelopment financed or managed 277 projects generating investment of nearly $3.7 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are projected to create 10,239 jobs (2,502 permanent and 7,737 construction) and 1,350 housing units (336 new and 1,014 rehab).