Q&A with Laura Kurman Who is Retiring from Wayside Multi Service Center After More Than 30 Years

For more than three decades, Laura Kurman has been working to help those in need in Watertown. She retired as Executive Director of the Wayside Multi Service Center at the end of June, and looked back on her time.

Kurman spoke with Watertown News Editor Charlie Breitrose in her office at the house on North Beacon Street that serves as the offices for the Wayside Multi Service Center in early June. She began working in that building before it was even Wayside, back when it was part of the City of Watertown.

See a portion of the interview with Kurman below. Paid subscribers of Watertown News’ Patreon can listen to the entire interview. Click here for more information.

Watertown News: Thank you for sitting down with me, Laura. We’re talking because you’ve come to the end of quite a long career with the Wayside Multi Service Center in Watertown. And since a lot of people know you or may not know you, but probably know Wayside’s contributions to Watertown, I was thinking it’d be a great way to sit down with you and hear about your career and what’s going to be coming up for Wayside. It’s probably hard to sum up, but what, when you look back, what do you do you have what do you feel proudest about when you look at your Wayside time?

Laura Kurman: That is a good question. I just hit 35 years last week. Yeah, May 29. And so there’s a lot to think back on, but also a lot to finish up. And maybe never feel like I finished up, but passing on as much as I possibly can. I have a lot of things that I’m proud of, so I’ll just list a few, but sure I certainly have to speak first, of being proud of my staff and past and present for all these years, incredible people that have come through here worked so hard and diligently and dedicatedly to the people of the community and in so many different ways, and also a lot of interns. I mean, just so many people have come through, more than I can count for sure. So I’m always I’m really proud when I sit and listen to them and see them in meetings, or hear about what they’ve done and know that they’ve built these strong relationships in the community that I had a part of helping to begin, and then they went off and built their own.

WN: Is this what you set out to do when you were in college? How did you come about to this field?

LK: I have, I pretty much my whole career, has been working with youth and families in nonprofit human services. I didn’t start out that way. I wanted to be an anthropologist in college, but that changed quickly because of, interestingly, a statistics course that was really difficult, and I just sort of went, “Well, maybe this is not what I want to do,” and I switched to social work. And so it’s been a long time. I don’t know that I knew that I would want to work with youth and families. So I have done that. It’s just a different ways that things have gone through the years.

WN: What brought you to Watertown and Wayside specifically?

LK: I was in Philadelphia, and we I lived in California, and then my husband and I moved here to be closer to family, and I interviewed here, and I got the job. And at the time, we were the Human Services Department for the Town. So I was hired as a Town — now City, it’s called — employee. And after a few years, things changed. In the early ’90s, the Human Services Department was no longer and we became part of a private nonprofit, which then became, very soon after, with Wayside, and that’s where I stayed.

WN: Were you always in this house?

LK: I literally am in the same office. It looks a little nicer. It was painted.

WN: For many years, it sounds like you were separate from the City. And then, I can’t remember what year, but several years ago, the City, it contracted with Wayside to become the social services resource …

LK: For one of our programs, SSRS, I know a mouthful, Social Service Resource Program. We call it now, it took some time. There were some very dedicated people in the community who worked to get some private funding for us to pilot it and be able to offer helping people navigate to human social services that were so difficult to navigate. Interestingly enough, we used to do that in the early days. That was the role of ours when we were the Human Services Department. So what I wanted to point out is that how cyclical we kind of took a while came around, and now we are offering that with the support, definitely doing it for the City, and very generous about supporting the work. And it’s also come around, because now there’s a Human Services Director being hired, so it’s, it’s a really good feeling. I’m actually proud of that, because it feels like in some small way, I had a part of that happening, and we did here.

WN: Did it help you guys expand when you kind of were working with the City and having a steady flow of funding?

LK: It was. Wayside’s mission is working with youth and families or young adults up to 22. When we were the Human Services Department, it was any age, maybe up till 60, where the Council on Aging would would work with people. So it was a little bit outside Wayside’s mission, but it was a need. We were being asked, and we were totally capable of doing it. So it made sense for us to take that on for SSRS.

WN: With you talking about cyclical and how things kind of trends changed, are the needs of the community the same, or do they kind of ebb and flow? What have you seen?

LK: I guess you could say ebb and flow. But I think things have changed of late. It’s mostly because things are so expensive to try to grow up and then afford to live here. It’s gotten very hard to do. We all know that housing is one of the biggest stressors for people right now, and that’s not unique to Watertown. I think the community’s always been very diverse and mostly welcoming for people who speak many different languages and dialects, and that’s something that’s been wonderful to be part of. And I think there’s always been needs. I don’t think the needs change. We’re humans, and needs change in terms of people wanting their basic needs met, to be happy, healthy, successful, in whatever way that is for them, raise their children, feel comfortable and safe. And it’s just maybe the resources have changed over time funding takes that’s totally cyclical because it’s based on policy and best practices. And what does the latest research say.

WN: For people who aren’t may not know exactly what you guys do, what can you talk a bit about some of the services you provide, how you help people and when they need something?

LK: So we have a range of services here. I think certain people in the community know about what we call our prevention and health, health and wellbeing, promotion kinds of services. We have peer leadership — so youth who work on the Watertown Youth Coalition that we run — doing events that help really a lot of youth development work that includes also our after school program. We’ve always partnered with Watertown Housing (Authority) to do spring summer enrichment activities, to residents, to kids there who maybe wouldn’t be able to otherwise. They have that available in the Learning Center, and we’re there now. It’s become twice a week at each Learning Center, and then we have the Social Service Resource Program, which is for predominantly people 18 to 59 who really need help in a variety of things, whether it’s around food insecurity, housing issues, just being needing to be connected to whatever resources there might be out there for them, connect to help them. And then we have some other. We have a childhood trauma grant from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and that’s more short-term support, counseling, and helping connect kids and families that have experienced trauma to more ongoing services or programs.

WN: Are there things that are unfinished business? Are there things that you would have liked to see added to what the services that Wayside, this Wayside Watertown can offer?

LK: That’s a good question. I don’t feel like I have unfinished business. For me, I feel like we collectively have been very responsive. I don’t I think we’re at a point there might be with some changes in a good way, with having Human Services Director. It’s like full circle, you know. So I really am encouraged by that, and I will look forward to hearing about what growth there is and what other collaborations can happen, because only a lot of good can come from that.

WN: As you go off, like, do you have, you have plans you gonna, I mean, is this full retirement or, like, Did you gonna be kicking back with a book?

LK: I think a little bit of both. I’m not sure yet. I think I just need to stop and and I. See what the universe brings me. There’s, you know, I have some ideas. I can do consulting work. I can do something not in the field. I’d probably do a little above.

WN: Over the years, you must have so many memories. But do you have one or a few that kind of stick out in your mind, or were your favorites?

LK: I don’t know about memories that stick out because my memory isn’t that’s good, but I think something I didn’t mention, that I always feel good about, is I just know that we’ve helped a lot of people, and that you don’t usually hear about that later. I’ve often had talked to staff about, “We plant the seeds and they will remember you and remember us later. They may not remember your name, but it was somebody that was really helpful.” But I love hearing and it still happens where even a prior staff will say to me, “Guess what? I got a call from such and such or so and so reached out to me,” an old client, or a kid that we worked with after school or something, who says, “I remember the multi it was such a big part of my life,” and it was so positive for me. So that’s very heartwarming and rewarding to hear that. You know, we don’t always get to hear that later on. And now some of these people are 40, 50, years old, probably, so that’s nice to hear.

We used to also have — even my staff who’s here now don’t know because it was before them — an outdoor adventure program. We called it Multi Outdoor Adventure. I had staff in the summer who would take groups of kids on canoe trips, hiking trips up in the White Mountains or in Maine. And, you know, eventually, probably liability issues or things we had to disband that or we weren’t funded for it anymore. It’s been a while, but I do remember some kids who really were scared didn’t want to do it. It was a complete challenge for them, and would come back and say, “I feel like I could do anything now, because I successfully made it through that.” You accomplished that trip, so things like that. There’s probably mFor more than three decades, Laura Kurman has been working to help those in need in Watertown. She retired as Executive Director of the Wayside Multi Service Center at the end of June, and looked back on her time.

Kurman spoke with Watertown News Editor Charlie Breitrose in her office at the house on North Beacon Street that serves as the offices for the Wayside Multi Service Center in early June. She began working in that building before it was even Wayside, back when it was part of the City of Watertown.

See a portion of the interview with Kurman below. Paid subscribers of Watertown News’ Patreon can listen to the entire interview. Click here for more information.

Watertown News: Thank you for sitting down with me, Laura. We’re talking because you’ve come to the end of quite a long career with the Wayside Multi Service Center in Watertown. And since a lot of people know you or may not know you, but probably know Wayside’s contributions to Watertown, I was thinking it’d be a great way to sit down with you and hear about your career and what’s going to be coming up for Wayside. It’s probably hard to sum up, but when you look back, what do you feel proudest about when you look at your Wayside time?

Laura Kurman: That is a good question. I just hit 35 years last week. Yeah, May 29. And so there’s a lot to think back on, but also a lot to finish up. And maybe never feel like I finished up, but passing on as much as I possibly can. I have a lot of things that I’m proud of, so I’ll just list a few, but sure I certainly have to speak first, of being proud of my staff and past and present for all these years, incredible people that have come through here worked so hard and diligently and dedicatedly to the people of the community and in so many different ways, and also a lot of interns. I mean, just so many people have come through, more than I can count for sure. So I’m always really proud when I sit and listen to them and see them in meetings, or hear about what they’ve done and know that they’ve built these strong relationships in the community that I had a part of helping to begin, and then they went off and built their own.

WN: Is this what you set out to do when you were in college? How did you come about to this field?

LK: Pretty much my whole career, has been working with youth and families in nonprofit human services. I didn’t start out that way. I wanted to be an anthropologist in college, but that changed quickly because of, interestingly, a statistics course that was really difficult, and I just sort of went, “Well, maybe this is not what I want to do,” and I switched to social work. And so it’s been a long time. I don’t know that I knew that I would want to work with youth and families. So I have done that. It’s just a different ways that things have gone through the years.

WN: What brought you to Watertown and Wayside specifically?

LK: I was in Philadelphia, and I lived in California, and then my husband and I moved here to be closer to family, and I interviewed here, and I got the job. And at the time, we were the Human Services Department for the Town. So I was hired as a Town — now City, it’s called — employee. And after a few years, things changed. In the early ’90s, the Human Services Department was no longer and we became part of a private nonprofit, which then became, very soon after, with Wayside, and that’s where I stayed.

WN: Were you always in this house?

LK: I literally am in the same office. It looks a little nicer. It was painted.

WN: For many years, it sounds like you were separate from the City. And then, I can’t remember what year, but several years ago, the City, it contracted with Wayside to become the social services resource …

LK: For one of our programs, SSRS, I know a mouthful, Social Service Resource Program. We call it now, it took some time. There were some very dedicated people in the community who worked to get some private funding for us to pilot it and be able to offer helping people navigate to human social services that were so difficult to navigate. Interestingly enough, we used to do that in the early days. That was the role of ours when we were the Human Services Department. So what I wanted to point out is that how cyclical we kind of took a while came around, and now we are offering that with the support, definitely doing it for the City, and very generous about supporting the work. And it’s also come around, because now there’s a Human Services Director being hired, so it’s a really good feeling. I’m actually proud of that, because it feels like in some small way, I had a part of that happening, and we did here.

WN: Did it help you guys expand when you kind of were working with the City and having a steady flow of funding?

LK: It was. Wayside’s mission is working with youth and families or young adults up to 22. When we were the Human Services Department, it was any age, maybe up till 60, where the Council on Aging would work with people. So it was a little bit outside Wayside’s mission, but it was a need. We were being asked, and we were totally capable of doing it. So it made sense for us to take that on for SSRS.

WN: With you talking about cyclical and how things kind of trends changed, are the needs of the community the same, or do they kind of ebb and flow? What have you seen?

LK: I guess you could say ebb and flow. But I think things have changed of late. It’s mostly because things are so expensive to try to grow up and then afford to live here. It’s gotten very hard to do. We all know that housing is one of the biggest stressors for people right now, and that’s not unique to Watertown. I think the community’s always been very diverse and mostly welcoming for people who speak many different languages and dialects, and that’s something that’s been wonderful to be part of. And I think there’s always been needs. I don’t think the needs change. We’re humans, and needs change in terms of people wanting their basic needs met, to be happy, healthy, successful, in whatever way that is for them, raise their children, feel comfortable and safe. And it’s just maybe the resources have changed over time funding takes that’s totally cyclical because it’s based on policy and best practices. And what does the latest research say.

WN: For people who aren’t may not know exactly what you guys do, what can you talk a bit about some of the services you provide, how you help people and when they need something?

LK: So we have a range of services here. I think certain people the community know about what we call our prevention and health, health and well being, promotion kinds of services. We have peer leadership — so youth who work on the Watertown Youth Coalition that we run — doing events that help really a lot of youth development work that includes also our after school program. We’ve always partnered with Watertown Housing (Authority) to do spring summer enrichment activities, to residents, to kids there who would maybe wouldn’t be able to otherwise. They have that available in the Learning Center, and we’re there now. It’s become twice a week at each Learning Center, and then we have the Social Service Resource Program, which is for predominantly people 18 to 59 who really need help in a variety of things, whether it’s around food insecurity, housing issues, just being needing to be connected to whatever resources there might be out there for them, connect to help them. And then we have some other. We have a childhood trauma grant from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and that’s more short-term support, counseling, and helping connect kids and families that have experienced trauma to more ongoing services or programs.

WN: Are there things that are unfinished business? Are there things that you would have liked to see added to what the services that Wayside, this Wayside Watertown can offer?

LK: That’s a good question. I don’t feel like I have unfinished business. For me, I feel like we collectively have been very responsive. I think we’re at a point where there might be with some changes in a good way, with having a Human Services Director. It’s like full circle, you know. So I really am encouraged by that, and I will look forward to hearing about what growth there is and what other collaborations can happen, because only a lot of good can come from that.

WN: As you go off, like, do you have, you have plans you gonna, I mean, is this full retirement or, like, Did you gonna be kicking back with a book?

LK: I think a little bit of both. I’m not sure yet. I think I just need to stop and and I. See what the universe brings me. There’s, you know, I have some ideas. I can do consulting work. I can do something not in the field. I’d probably do a little above.

WN: Over the years, you must have so many memories. But do you have one or a few that kind of stick out in your mind, or were your favorites?

LK: I don’t know about memories that stick out because my memory isn’t that’s good, but I think something I didn’t mention, that I always, I always feel good about, is I just know that we’ve helped a lot of people, and that you don’t usually hear about that later. I’ve often had talked to staff about, “We plant the seeds and they they will remember you and remember us later. They may not remember your name, but it was somebody that was really helpful.” But I love hearing and it still happens where even a prior staff will say to me, “Guess what? I got a call from such and such or so and so reached out to me,” an old client, or a kid that we worked with after school or something, who says, “I remember the multi it was such a big part of my life,” and it was so positive for me. So that’s very heartwarming and rewarding to hear that. You know, we don’t always get to hear that later on. And now some of these people are 40, 50, years old, probably, so that’s nice to hear.

We used to also have — even my staff who’s here now don’t know because it was before them — an outdoor adventure program. We called it Multi Outdoor Adventure. I had staff in the summer who would take groups of kids on canoe trips, hiking trips up in the White Mountains or in Maine. And, you know, eventually, probably liability issues or things we had to disband that or we weren’t funded for it anymore. It’s been a while, but I do remember some kids who really were scared didn’t want to do it. It was a complete challenge for them, and would come back and say, “I feel like I could do anything now, because I successfully made it through that.” You accomplished that trip, so things like that. There’s probably many of those I’d have to try to recall. But I definitely feel like the people or who I’ll miss the most, all of you, you included. It’s like the community of people here is so incredible. So besides my staff and my and past staff, present staff and past staff is just the people, the residents, the government people, you know, public housing folks, just everybody’s so kind to each other and collaborative. And I don’t know that you find that in every community.

WN: Well, thanks so much, Laura. Appreciate you sitting down with me. good luck in your post-Wayside life.any of those I’d have to try to recall. But I definitely feel like the people or who I’ll miss the most, all of you, you included. It’s like the community of people here is so incredible. So besides my staff and my and past staff, present staff and past staff is just the people, the residents, the government people, you know, public housing folks, just everybody’s so kind to each other and collaborative. And I don’t know that you find that in every community.

WN: Well, thanks so much, Laura. Appreciate you sitting down with me. good luck in your post-Wayside life.