Jericho Road Lynn

Jericho Road Lynn (JR Lynn) is a new, joint social venture launched in partnership with General Electric's Boston Volunteer Council and in collaboration the Lynn Nonprofit Business Alliance and the Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce. By providing free, targeted and excellent capacity building services, JR Lynn will help Lynn nonprofits save money and build their organizational capacity to both better serve their missions and to collectively improve the quality of life in Lynn.

Once a vibrant manufacturing center, Lynn experienced a significant decline when its factories, like many in New England, closed or moved abroad in the middle part of the 20th century. Lynn has great natural assets, including a beautiful shoreline and municipal woods as well as a vibrant business, academic and nonprofit community that are working together to maintain and improve Lynn's quality of life.

Our research and conversations over the past year with more than twenty Lynn nonprofit community leaders and funders revealed great interest in and need for our model. Working closely with Mark Kennard, the coordinator of Lynn's Nonprofit Business Association (as well as the CEO of Lynn's Project COPE and a JR Lynn Steering Committee member) we conducted a "needs and interest" survey with 17 Lynn nonprofit directors. The average level of interest in the services of JR Lynn was 4.3 on a 5 point scale (where 4 is "very interested" and 5 is "most interested").

Having established a need for Jericho's services in Lynn, the Jericho Road Project (JRP) signed a Letter of Intent in October, 2008 to co-launch JR Lynn together with the GE Boston Volunteer Council. The Volunteer Council is tasked with executing GE's global volunteer mission to "facilitate and support volunteering activities that improve life in GE communities". The Volunteer Council represents GE's Greater Boston workforce (including the GE Lynn plant, Lynn's largest employer) and has access to over 2000 "white collar" employees.

Since the signing of the LOI, three senior members of the Volunteer Council joined the JR Lynn Steering Committee (Bill Hayes, Cathi Lyons and Dave Hyde) and executed an internal survey regarding GE Lynn employee skills and interest in the Jericho model. 134 potential GE volunteers responded to the survey, with skills ranging from strategic planning to accounting. These potential volunteers will be approached to help meet Lynn nonprofit needs.

The JR Lynn Steering Committee currently includes Leslie Gould, the director of the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce, another large potential source of volunteer expertise. We foresee many more volunteers coming from faith and other communities both in Lynn and from nearby towns such as Swampscott and Marblehead. We are also looking for candidates to join the JR Lynn Steering Committee, and helping to grow JR Lynn into the vibrant and effective organization we know it can be. Interested? See details here.

Read a recent article from the Lynn Rotary Club newsletter in which Executive Director Dan Holin explains Jericho Road's ambitions to open a site in Lynn.