By Danielle Achin
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NATICK – Family Promise MetroWest is a Natick-based nonprofit organization that works to shelter homeless families in need of a temporary space to stay. Recently, Danielle Conti joined the organizations as its new director.
Born in Medford, Conti grew up in the Northeast, moving often state-to-state. By the time she moved to Missouri her senior year of high school, Conti had attended 10 different school districts. She also spent some time in Kansas while her father was in Graduate school.
Conti moved back to the Northeast when she was 18. She lived in Charlestown, and took classes at Bunker Hill Community College. She also worked for the Executive Office of Communities and Development in Boston.
“I was also able to volunteer for a program in Boston that worked with the homeless. Thus solidifying my love and adoration for the Boston area and fueling my passionate interest in helping the marginalized and disenfranchised,” Conti told SOURCE.
For college, Conti returned to Missouri where she still had resident status. In college, she met her former husband and raised 3 girls in a small town outside Springfield.
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“When my youngest was a junior in high school, I was fostering mom to a baby boy that I would eventually adopt,” said Conti. “Now all four of my babies and my two grandbabies all live in the Boston area. We all moved to the Northeast right around the time that the COVID pandemic began and don’t intend to leave.”
Conti said she loves Natick and ended up moving to the area in 2019, after getting a job working for the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE). She said she was looking for an excellent school district and great place to raise her adopted son who is now 8 years old and in 3rd grade.
Conti has a BA in Philosophy and an MPA with a focus on Nonprofit Management from Missouri State University.
She always knew that she wanted to work in the nonprofit world – her first position in college was in direct services, providing bereavement support to families after the loss of an infant to SUID and SIDS. Conti said it was intense work that required that she traveled often and covered a huge geographical area.
After a few years the position lost funding and her job ended.
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She was “heartbroken to think that the bereaved families would not have the support group and support services that my organization had provided. I knew instantly that I wanted to do all I could to help essential community programs run by not for profits be successful.”
Conti said she focused on learning all she could through her work experiences and beyond about raising funds, building partnerships, writing grants, applying best practices, human resources, DEIA, innovative and creative leadership models, anything that would make her “an asset for a non-profit.”
“Through my expanding leadership positions in multiple social service settings including the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, The United Way, Ronald McDonald House, Harmony House, House of Hope, and FosterAdoptConnect I have developed (and am still developing) the knowledge, skills and abilities that will help an organization operate in the most efficient and effective manner,” said Conti.
When Conti heard about the director position at Family Promise, she immediately jumped on the opportunity.
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“A friend of mine on LinkedIn contacted me to tell me about the position at Family Promise Metrowest and said it was perfect for me! I have previous experience as both the Executive Director and Development Director of shelters in Missouri. Coincidentally, it ended up that my former Executive Director at MARE had volunteered at Family Promise Metrowest and was very fond of the organization,” said Conti.
Conti said she is anxious to learn all that she can about the history of the organization, and the collaborations that exist and the partners that have helped the organization grow.
Currently, Conti said she is enjoying getting to know the families, staff and volunteers.
“I am an enthusiastic and visionary leader with 30 years of nonprofit experience. My background includes working with diverse, marginalized, and underserved populations, coordinating capital campaigns and special events, building infrastructure for growth, and working with donors and funders to build sustainable funding for the program at Family Promise Metrowest.”
In her role, Conti said she will be applying a DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) and social justice lens and developing creative strategies and policies that are community-centric, responsive, informed by the families they serve, and relevant to emerging trends and needs.’After a few years the position lost funding and her job ended. She was “heartbroken to think that the bereaved families would not have the support group and support services that my organization had provided. I knew instantly that I wanted to do all I could to help essential community programs run by not for profits be successful.”
“Ultimately, I hope to do something useful and purposeful with my existence, something that makes the world a better place and helps address social justice issues by empowering and supporting others,” Conti said.
Meet Conti and tour the organization at an open house on January 19 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. You can email the new director at email at Danielle@familypromisemetrowest.org
Danielle Achin is a fall 2022 SOURCE intern. She is a senior English major with a concentration in journalism and a minor in psychology at Framingham State University. Danielle has been an athlete since she started gymnastics at age 4. She joined the Framingham State cheerleading team freshman year and recently won the 2022 National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) National Championship for the first time in Framingham State history. She is also one of the Sports editors for Framingham State’s student newspaper The Gatepost. This is her last article for SOURCE as part of the internship.
MetroWest Medical Center