Raising awareness for an entire industry.

January 2011 marks NAPO’s seventh annual industry-wide Get Organized Month event. “GO Month” is aimed at raising awareness about the benefits of being organized at home and in the workplace.

NAPO-New England has selected Northeast ARC as the 2011 recipient of their professional organizing services. Northeast ARC is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing lifelong support to people living with disabilities. Three key areas of ARC will benefit from NAPO-NE’s services: the Northeast ARC’s Cape Ann Early Intervention Center in Beverly, the ArcWorks Gallery on Foster Street in Peabody, and one of ARC’s administrative offices in need of scanning and purging of numerous files.

We'd like to thank our generous donors:

• Friend of Anne Lucas
• Friend of NAPO-NE GO Month
• The Container Store
• Closet and Storage Concepts
• Ikea
• Home Depot
• KDSA
• Sceris
• Smead

In 2010, more than a dozen professional organizers who are members of the National Association of Professionals - New England Chapter (NAPO-NE) donated organizing services to Family Ties of Massachusetts as part of the chapter’s GO Month initiative.

Family Ties offers parent-to-parent support for Massachusetts families with children who have special health care needs. The organizing program consisted of three elements:

• In November 2009, a professional organizer facilitated a roundtable discussion at the “Joining Voices” Conference to Support Families Raising Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs. The conference teaches advocacy and leadership skills to parents, and provides a chance to network with other parents and professionals. The roundtable discussion covered organizing tips to help parents manage busy schedules and gain some control over their lives.
• In January 2010, about a dozen professional organizers worked one-on-one with Family Ties staff in their offices in Northampton, Canton, Boston, West Boylston and Tewksbury to help maximize workspace and create new systems for organization.
• A professional organizer led a virtual training session to teach staff how to use Excel to organize database information to allow sharing of resources between offices. In addition, The Container Store and Smead donated supplies to assist with the office organizing effort.

According to Mary Summers, Director of Family Ties, the staff was pleased with the overall transformations in their office space. “For those of us who include inspiration to others on the value of being organized, we learned a number of good suggestions to share with future workshop attendees. Truly, best of all was the in-office organizational tips and assistance for many of the staff.”

NAPO-NE is currently planning its volunteer activities for GO Month in January 2011.