Introducing our two newest Board Members

We are excited to welcome two new members to our Board of Directors!

Karen Marryat is a marketing professional with over 30 years of experience in brand strategy, product development,  customer acquisition, community relations and foundation management.  Her most recent position was as chief marketing officer of Needham Bank, a thriving community bank serving consumers and businesses throughout Metrowest, Greater Boston and Southern New Hampshire.   Karen’s prior volunteer service includes the Menino YMCA in Hyde Park, Charles River Y in Needham, Cambridge Housing Assistance Fund (CHAF), and Pilgrim Hall Museum.  She has a BS in business from the University of Rhode Island and an MBA from Simmons College. 

Robert DeWitt spent his career in the apartment industry at GID Investment Advisors where he served as its President and CEO for nearly 25 years. He was on the Board of the National Multifamily Housing Council for over 20 years and served as its Chairman for two years; a member of and past Chairman of the Multifamily Gold Council of the Urban Land Institute and served on the Governmental Affairs Committee of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. Bob has appeared in numerous national and regional publications, CNBC’s Squawk Box and was a contributor to “Multifamily Housing: The Essential Industry Text,” published in 2015. Capping off his 40-year career, he was the sixth inductee into the Multifamily Executive Hall of Fame in 2021.

Locally, Bob served on the vestry and on the Rector Search Committee of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in his hometown of Weston, MA, and on the Board at The Weston Golf Club as Golf Committee Chair. Bob holds an MBA from The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College in 1982 and a BA cum laude from Middlebury College in 1978.

Out In The Community

We were thrilled to participate in the Light the World Giving Machines at the Natick Mall this holiday season! Shoppers had the opportunity to "buy" various donation kits for Circle of Hope, including clothing kits and hygiene kits for the people we serve. We are deeply grateful to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints for including Circle of Hope in this innovative global initiative.

We had a blast joining Beacon Wellness Brands and Give n' Glow for a holiday kit-packing event this holiday season! This energetic team assembled 1,000 makeup kits for women experiencing homelessness and economic hardship this holiday season. Circle of Hope distributed half of these kits to five of our partner programs, including Breaktime, Rosie's Place, and Women's Lunch Place.

Thank you to everyone who came to our skate party fundraiser at Chez-Vous Roller Rink in November! We had a blast skating with you and raising critical funds for Circle of Hope. Big thanks to our wonderful Board Member, Franchesca Carrington (second from left), for organizing this fun community event!

Charles River Apparel generously included COH in the launch of their new Patriots x Charles River clothing line, weekend-long warehouse sale, and direct-to-consumer website launch, donating a product for every item sold during launch week. We received dozens of boxes of new clothing and outerwear just in time for winter. We are so very grateful for this impactful partnership!

New Partners!

Circle of Hope is growing! We moved closer to our goal of 50 partners by 2029 by adding three new partner programs in the second half of 2025: Suffolk County Sheriff's Department, Shut Up Until You There, and MassBay Community College.

Through our new partnership with the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department's Re-Entry Division, Circle of Hope provides hygiene kits to 300+ individuals transitioning out of incarceration each year. The majority of these individuals move in with family or go straight to a shelter upon release. By providing them with basic necessities, we are helping them get re-established and settled safely and comfortably.

Shut Up Until You There is a nonprofit organization in Boston supporting members of the Haitian community. We first provided winter coats to guests at their Thanksgiving dinner celebration in 2024 before transitioning to a full partnership last year. We will continue providing their clients with coats and clothing on an ongoing basis to support health and opportunity.

MassBay Community College offers free college tuition for most Massachusetts residents. We launched a new partnership with their Wellesley campus late last year to provide coats and clothing to students experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. We will continue to make regular deliveries to support students' health and academic success.

We plan to move more partners off our waitlist in the coming months, so stay tuned for more exciting announcements!

Circle of Hope’s new funding source: Donation of stocks and securities

Accepting stock donations brings a new funding source, enabling Circle of Hope to support mmore people in need. This option allows supporters to contribute in an additional way beyond traditional cash-based gifts. Accepting stock donations allows Circle of Hope to broaden its types of contributions for donors and use the resources to continue its work. 

Accepting stock donations is an important milestone for Circle of Hope, allowing Circle of Hope to continue furthering its mission and provide individuals and families experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity with clothing and hygiene essentials.

Help thousands of people access basic essentials.

Dear Friends of Circle of Hope,

In times of crisis, our community has never failed to rise to the occasion, providing critical resources to infants, children, and adults experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. This past year, you helped Circle of Hope:

• Move three new partners off our growing waitlist.

• Provide temporary support to five additional partners with urgent needs.

• Answer dozens of emergency calls from our partners, helping families recover and rebuild after house fires, domestic violence, and other traumas.

Together, we are confronting a deepening humanitarian crisis in Greater Boston, promoting health and creating pathways to opportunity for tens of thousands of people.

But the need is still growing — and so is our waitlist.

Right now, 18 potential partners are waiting for our help, and many of our existing partners are navigating deep uncertainties and turning to Circle of Hope more than ever before. They count on us to fill urgent gaps, sustain critical services, and answer every call for help.

Please help us raise $150,000 by the end of 2025 so we can immediately launch five new partnerships, reaching hundreds more neighbors who are struggling without basic necessities. Every dollar you donate brings us closer to our goal of serving 50 partner programs by 2029.

Please join us again this year and consider increasing your gift so we can meet this moment together. Your generosity will put warm clothing and hygiene essentials directly into the hands of those who need them and send a powerful message of hope, comfort, and compassion when it matters most.

With my deepest gratitude,

Ari Barbanell, Executive Director

New Go-To Crew Request: Toddler Clothing and Welcome Baby Bags

New and like-new toddler clothing urgently needed!

Our toddler clothing bins are completely empty and we still have 6 family shelter deliveries left this month! We need your help giving children experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity the seasonal clothing they need for health and comfort this fall.

Please donate new and like-new toddler clothing (sizes 2T-5T) ASAP so we can send them to our partner programs this week and next week! 

We are also completely out of Welcome Baby Bags for newborns in shelter. Please donate backpack-style diaper bags and/or fully-assembled Welcome Baby Bags as soon as possible so we are ready for our next request. Assembling Welcome Baby Bags is a great service project to do with your classmates, colleagues, or community group! Learn more.

Summer of Impact

When Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Needham's clothing closet was running low between our regular deliveries this summer, our operations team pulled together a last-minute delivery to make sure the shelves were fully stocked for the rest of summer. Patients experiencing homelessness don't always have clean clothing to change into upon discharge, so Emergency Department personnel provide them with Circle of Hope clothing. Adequate clothing is essential for overall health and we are proud to support patients right here in Needham on their road to recovery.

We love a perfectly-timed donation drop-off! Kristen from Arbella Insurance walked into Circle of Hope with an amazing donation of 84 hygiene kits just as Dwayne Brown arrived to pick up donations for men staying at 112 Southampton Street Shelter in Boston. Kristen handed the men's hygiene kits directly to Dwayne so he could distribute them that very same day! Thank you to everyone at Arbella for putting these kits together and helping dozens of people experiencing homelessness access the essentials they need for health.

Before our donation center closed for a brief summer break, we made sure to stock up Breaktime's supply of brand new clothing and accessories for their young adult Associates!

"The essential items provided by our valued COH partners play a vital role in preparing young adults for success in our job training program and worksite placements. These resources help remove critical barriers and ease financial strain for young adults experiencing housing insecurity." -Natasha Adeyemi, Breaktime's Director of Community Outreach

On July 3, when Circle of Hope was closed for Independence Day, we got a call from Melissa Burgos Cora, Director of Voices Against Violence. A new family had arrived in shelter overnight and urgently needed our help. Our spectacular operations team sprang into action, pulling together the clothing the family needed to recover, plus baby and postpartum care items for a pregnant mama in shelter. We respond to all emergency requests within 24-48 hours - and often just a few hours! - to make sure families in acute crisis have everything they need for health and safety.

This may surprise you.

““Regarding the accessibility they have to these products...I guess the best way to describe it is a sigh of relief. Just knowing their basic needs are taken care of…that’s probably the best way to describe it. It just feels like this sigh of relief.””

— Student Employee at UMass Boston

When you think about homelessness, you might not immediately picture a high school senior, a college student, or a young adult diving into their career. But in fact, thousands of youth and young adults experience homelessness and housing insecurity every year. 

That's why Circle of Hope launched its Get Set program in 2019 to provide clothing, hygiene products, and dorm essentials to college and career bound students. Having first partnered with Framingham State University, we quickly expanded the program, now providing Get Set packages to eight of our 33 current partner programs.

We believe students experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity deserve equitable access to the essentials they need for health, safety, comfort, and wellbeing as they pursue an education or enter the workforce. No student should walk into their first dorm room or apartment to a bare mattress, unable to access the bedding they need for quality sleep. 

Your gift to our Get Set program today will put sheets and blankets on the bed of a college student heading to school in the coming days and weeks. 

Will you help Circle of Hope create pathways to opportunity for thousands of youth and young adults in Massachusetts by donating today?

Together, we can help young people breathe a sigh of relief as they embark on their chosen path forward. Thank you very much for your support!

UNIQLO USA donates 8,060 clothing products to Circle of Hope

This summer, UNIQLO USA donated an incredible 10 pallets of new clothing and shoes to Circle of Hope! Volunteers and staff have been busy unboxing, sorting, and distributing the 8,060 clothing donations to our partner shelters and programs, including Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and 112 Southampton Street Shelter in Boston. 

“It’s been two or three sessions since the donation and things have gone a LOT smoother lately. Patients are happy, volunteers and interns are happy, staff are happy. Everyone wins! It’s been great,” said Dan Maloney, Manager of Service Programs at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.

The donations include basic layers like sweatpants and HEATTECH leggings, jackets, jeans, blouses, and sweaters for men, women, and teens. Not only are we already giving UNIQLO’s donations to people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, but we are also now prepared to begin giving out jackets the minute the temperatures start to drop this fall.

This is UNIQLO’s third large donation of brand new apparel. Since 2022, we have also been a beneficiary of their “RE.UNIQLO” program, which invites customers to donate their gently used UNIQLO clothes back to the brand to maximize the lifespan of each garment and reduce textile waste. In 2023 and 2024, UNIQLO hosted free shopping events in Natick and Boston for our high school-aged clients. UNIQLO employees have even volunteered at Circle of Hope, helping us sort and bag clothing donations.

This type of consistent support from companies committed to social impact is pivotal to Circle of Hope’s mission and growth. We are so grateful to UNIQLO USA for their generosity! And a huge thank you to the dozens of volunteers who have sprung into action, helping us unbox the donations and prepare them for delivery.

Meet our newest team members

We are thrilled to introduce our newest team members, Jeilyn Ortega and Kamryn Eller!

Distribution Manager Jeilyn Ortega

Jeilyn brings a strong background in customer service and management to her new role as Circle of Hope's Distribution Manager. With previous experience as a receiving manager for a small business, she has developed a keen eye for detail and an ability to work effectively in fast-paced environments. As Distribution Manager, Jeilyn oversees our inventory of clothing and supplies, maintains the organization and flow of donations through our donation center, and works closely with our Operations and Community Engagement teams to coordinate volunteer activities. Outside of work she values spending time with family, friends and dog and enjoys moments of relaxation to recharge.

Special Projects Manager Kamryn Eller

Kamryn brings a strong background in nonprofit leadership, community engagement, and organizational development to her new role as Special Projects Manager. Prior to joining the team, she founded a local nonprofit initiative in her hometown and held several campus leadership roles focused on equity, student success, and service. Kamryn recently graduated from High Point University with a B.S. in Psychology and is currently pursuing her Master’s in Nonprofit Management at Northeastern University, further deepening her commitment to driving sustainable impact in the sector. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, spending time by the lake, and all things creative—whether it's design, photography, or music.

Welcome to the team, Jeilyn and Kamryn!