Bridge Club of Lowell outlines growth, secures five‑year grant for veterans transitional housing

Bob Cox, founder and director of the Bridge Club of Lowell, told the Lowell City Council Nonprofit Organization Subcommittee that the nonprofit has grown from a 2018 startup into a daily recovery and reentry operation serving about 50–200 people per day, running 31 meetings each week and employing 17 people on payroll. Cox said the organization has secured a five‑year grant to provide transitional housing for homeless veterans and is in the process of buying 147 East Merrimack Street for that purpose.

Cox described the Bridge Club’s origins and model: he said he incorporated the nonprofit in 2018 after seeing a recovery “clubhouse” model in Delray Beach, Florida, and opened leased space at 33 East Merrimack Street on Jan. 1, 2020. He told the panel the Bridge Club never closed during the COVID‑19 pandemic and continued to host meetings and services. “We never closed, not 1 day during Covid,” Cox said, adding that the site ran nightly meetings and had no known COVID outbreak tied to the location.

The Bridge Club’s model centers on peer recovery coaches, Cox said: staff and volunteers who are themselves in recovery provide intake, transport to work, job‑readiness support and ongoing coaching. Cox said the group cross‑trains employees as recovery coaches and uses grant funding to staff transportation shifts that drive participants to interviews and jobs. He told the subcommittee the club has 14 frontline staff plus three administrative employees (17 on payroll in total), and that drivers are generally hired employees with valid driver’s licenses under the program rules tied to specific grant funding.

Cox recounted early grant support and partnerships that helped the organization scale. He said representatives from MassHire announced a roughly $2.7 million opioid grant at a 2019 meeting; the Bridge Club later placed nine people on payroll under that funding stream and used MassHire to administer payroll. Cox also described a grant‑funded vocational pathway that paid for three veterans to attend tractor‑trailer (CDL) training programs, at an approximate cost he cited of $12,700 per person. Cox said the Bridge Club has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Middlesex Sheriff’s Department and with the Department of Correction, and that it works with MassHire for intake and workforce services.

The Bridge Club has pursued employer partnerships to place participants. Cox said the group became an Amazon community hiring partner after outreach to many employers; an Amazon HR manager visited the Bridge Club and gave the nonprofit a trial at a new Amazon facility, leading to an ongoing referral relationship. Cox said the Bridge Club currently supplies workers in the region and can place employees with employers in nearby communities and in parts of New Hampshire.

At the meeting Cox announced a new, separate veterans housing development: he said the Bridge Club secured a five‑year grant, working with the VA in Bedford, to provide transitional housing for homeless veterans and is buying 147 East Merrimack Street (the former Mason pharmacy site) as the initial facility. Cox told the subcommittee the program will provide beds, three meals a day and round‑the‑clock counseling for veterans who are currently homeless; participants will be vetted through the VA or a VA partner. He also said the group is negotiating to use a former convent at Saint Michael’s parish for additional transitional housing pending final archdiocesan approval and potential financing from Enterprise Bank.

Councilors and other subcommittee members asked questions and praised the program’s outcomes. Councilor Noon asked whether people come to the Bridge Club through court‑mandated conditions and reentry referrals; Cox said many participants are referred from probation and reentry programs and that the Bridge Club conducts intakes and signs people up for required meetings. Councilor Belanger and others offered public commendations; Belanger said, “You gave people a purpose,” and other councilors thanked Cox for the work and offered continued city support for funding and resources.

Cox provided contact information at the hearing: the Bridge Club’s website is www.bridgecluboflowell.org and the phone number he gave is (978) 454‑6191. He said the Bridge Club is open seven days a week, runs 31 weekly meetings and provides recovery coaches on site every day.

The subcommittee took no formal action on the Bridge Club presentation beyond discussion and expressions of support; the meeting concluded with a routine motion to adjourn.