About Us

The Fall River Deaconess Home is a private, non-profit, community-based agency offering residential education, group home services, and pre-independent living programs to young women ages 11-22, with an emphasis on family engagement and reunification. Deaconess extends full time into the community by providing comprehensive, step-down, mentoring and transitional age youth support & stabilization services to adolescent young women, their siblings, and identified family. These program aides in the process of reunification as well as acts as a diversionary program, maintaining youth within their home.

As a Caring Together provider, services at the Fall River Deaconess Home are youth-driven, strength-based, and family-centered. We meet clients where they are at the time of referral in order to offer choices of levels of care provided by the agency.

Youth served through the Fall River Deaconess Home are racially, ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse. Young women in our care may be diagnosed with or face some of the following issues: conduct disorders; disrupted adoption; sexual and physical trauma; special medical needs; mild-moderate cognitive disabilities; problematic sexual behaviors, abuse reactive behaviors; substance abuse and learning disabilities. Most come from hardship and difficult socioeconomic circumstances, and, along with their families, struggle with financial insecurity and adversity.

Our goal at the Fall River Deaconess Home is to develop in each young woman the social and academic skills necessary to engage fully and freely in the traditional life systems of family, community, school, and work.

Laurette A. Shabshelowitz,  President
Kathleen Driscoll, 1^st Vice President
Karin E. Wood, 2^nd Vice President
Jack C. Carey, Treasurer
Aileen Mack, Assistant Treasurer