One Can Help

At-Risk Youth, Foster Children, Underserved Families

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How to Apply

Only Juvenile Court and Child Welfare related Professionals can apply.
All cases must have either juvenile court or DCF involvement.

One Can Help’s success depends on the tireless energy and compassion of juvenile court-appointed professionals, including attorneys, social workers and child advocates who want to help their neediest clients succeed and make the juvenile court and child welfare systems more supportive and equitable for all.

Our approval criteria can be found here.  

IMPORTANT NEWS:

We wanted to let you know that we just installed a new operating system to help manage OCH’s amazing growth.

You will notice the application process is a little different. However, our mission – to help you ensure that your most vulnerable have the resources necessary to overcome poverty barriers preventing progress, remains the same. We appreciate your patience as we make the transition and iron out the inevitable glitches.

Please click here to apply  Please do not apply for multiple types of “needs” in one application. (Click here to see the needs categories. All requests must fall into one type of need category per application.)

Thank you for standing with OCH to help level the playing field!

The Basics

  • We are happy to help your client when assistance is not reasonably available elsewhere. One Can Help provides urgent needs, not “presents.”
  • We work as a team. We will need to work with you on the logistics, if we agree to pay.
  • The court or your client must be located in Massachusetts.
  • Before applying, be sure to get a good estimate of the cost of the item or service needed.
  • We cannot reimburse any expense incurred prior to your application’s approval, nor any expense greater than the approved amount.

Application Process

  • We only accept online submissions.
  • You should get an automated response immediately acknowledging your application,
  • Response time is usually 1-2 days, so please keep an eye out for your response.
  • If you do not hear back, check your spam. If not there, call 617-930-3468 for help.
  • We can provide assistance up to the value of $1000 if the intervention is likely to make a big difference.
  • All applications get a unique number when you apply. Please respond on the same email thread as your approval letter, with the application number in the subject line, so that we can track all email correspondence regarding your application.
  • You will have 60 days from date of approval to submit receipts for reimbursement. We will send reimbursements as soon as we have received verified proof of expenditures. Emailed photos of receipts are acceptable as long as you keep the original.

Feedback and Follow-up

  • We collect outcomes measurement data to assess our effectiveness. Your participation is essential to our accountability review, and your feedback will help us to attract more donors, foundations and other sources of financial support, so that we can reach more clients at risk.
  • We really appreciate hearing from you. Progress notes and thank-you cards or emails from you and your clients are extremely helpful for our fundraising appeals and foundation grant applications.